McLaughlin takes pole position at the start of IndyCar 2026

Scott McLaughlin claimed the pole position in qualifying for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, the first race of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season. His Penske Chevrolet was the fastest in all three rounds with a time of 1:00.5426, giving him his third pole in the last five visits to this street circuit and the 12th of his career in the category.

"Raúl Prados, my new engineer, gave me a great car," said McLaughlin. "Everyone knows what we went through last year, so starting like this is fantastic."

Penske placed two cars in the Fast Six because Malukas, who took the seat vacated by Will Power in the offseason, qualified fifth in his first session with the team. Newgarden did not advance past the first round and will start from the back of the grid following a difficult weekend that began on Friday with a crash into the barriers during practice.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Dale Coyne with two cars in the Fast Six

Dale Coyne Racing, which operates on a much smaller budget than Penske or Ganassi, put both its cars in the final qualifying round for the first time since 2022. Dennis Hauger, the 2025 Indy NXT champion, qualified third in what was his first qualifying session in the category. He is the first driver to reach the Fast Six in their debut since Christian Lundgaard in 2021. Romain Grosjean, who returned to IndyCar after a year away and did so with the same team where he first raced in the series, qualified sixth.

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Ericsson on the front row, Palou starts fourth

Marcus Ericsson will join McLaughlin on the front row. The 2022 Indianapolis 500 winner was less than two-hundredths of a second off the pole time and needed a strong result after two lackluster seasons with Andretti Global, well below the performance he delivered with Ganassi between 2021 and 2023. Alex Palou, four-time series champion and winner of this race in 2025, will start fourth. On that occasion, he also started from that position.

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Dixon and Newgarden will have to come from behind on Sunday

Scott Dixon, six-time champion, was eliminated in the first round and will start from mid-pack. A sweep at the corner entry ruined his final fast lap, something that hadn't happened to him in St. Petersburg since 2013. His weekend had already started poorly on Friday when a heavy hit against the barriers in Turn 9 damaged the front of his Honda and forced the team to rebuild it.

Pato O'Ward, 2025 runner-up, will start eighth after being eliminated in the second round.

The race takes place this Sunday over 100 laps, with broadcast on FOX starting at noon (Eastern Time).

Pos	Nº	Piloto	Motor	Tiempo	Ronda
1	#3	Scott McLaughlin	Chevrolet	1:00.5426	Fast Six
2	#28	Marcus Ericsson	Honda	1:00.5621	Fast Six
3	#19	Dennis Hauger (D)	Honda	1:00.5743	Fast Six
4	#10	Alex Palou	Honda	1:00.6842	Fast Six
5	#12	David Malukas	Chevrolet	1:00.7638	Fast Six
6	#18	Romain Grosjean	Honda	1:01.3462	Fast Six
7	#66	Marcus Armstrong	Honda	1:00.7820	Ronda 2
8	#5	Pato O'Ward	Chevrolet	1:00.8863	Ronda 2
9	#45	Louis Foster	Honda	1:00.9472	Ronda 2
10	#8	Kyffin Simpson	Honda	1:00.9811	Ronda 2
11	#60	Felix Rosenqvist	Honda	1:00.9840	Ronda 2
12	#7	Christian Lundgaard	Chevrolet	1:00.9842	Ronda 2
13	#26	Will Power	Honda	1:01.1936	Ronda 1
14	#21	Christian Rasmussen	Chevrolet	1:01.1835	Ronda 1
15	#27	Kyle Kirkwood	Honda	1:01.2308	Ronda 1
16	#9	Scott Dixon	Honda	1:01.2109	Ronda 1
17	#14	Santino Ferrucci	Chevrolet	1:01.2630	Ronda 1
18	#15	Graham Rahal	Honda	1:01.2257	Ronda 1
19	#76	Rinus VeeKay	Chevrolet	1:01.3719	Ronda 1
20	#77	Sting Ray Robb	Chevrolet	1:01.3666	Ronda 1
21	#47	Mick Schumacher (D)	Honda	1:01.3983	Ronda 1
22	#6	Nolan Siegel	Chevrolet	1:01.4498	Ronda 1
23	#2	Josef Newgarden	Chevrolet	1:01.4174	Ronda 1
24	#4	Caio Collet (D)	Chevrolet	1:01.5719	Ronda 1
25	#20	Alexander Rossi	Chevrolet	1:01.6031	Ronda 1