Malukas on pole for IndyCar's Good Ranchers 250 in Phoenix

David Malukas was fastest in qualifying for the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway with a two-lap average of 175.383 mph, securing the first NTT P1 Award of his IndyCar Series career. With three cars in the top five, Team Penske headed a session on an oval where the series had not competed since 2018.

A long-awaited goal achieved at the perfect time

The pole was a goal that had remained unfulfilled. In 2025 with AJ Foyt Racing, Malukas finished second in qualifying three times on ovals, including Milwaukee and Nashville, and each time he was displaced when the last cars on track took the position away. "The oval story last season was that: we had the time, we waited for the last guys, and boom, P2," he said.

This time conditions played in his favor. He ran 13th out of 24 cars and the track lost grip as the session progressed, which protected his time. He had already been fastest in the morning practice session and ended the pre-season test fifth in the combined two-day results. Performance at Phoenix has been consistent since he joined Penske.

Josef Newgarden, winner of the last IndyCar race at this oval in 2018, qualified second at 174.548 mph, and Scott McLaughlin was fifth at 173.448 mph. Penske having three cars in the top 5 confirms the team remains the benchmark on short ovals with a renewed lineup. Further back, Alex Palou, winner at St. Petersburg a week ago by a 12-second margin, qualified tenth and was the best of the three Chip Ganassi Racing cars. Alexander Rossi, who had led the pre-season test with the outright fastest time, ended up sixth.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Schumacher fourth in his first oval

Mick Schumacher qualified fourth at 173.667 mph in what was his first oval qualifying session. In the pre-season test last week he had lapped at 21.04 seconds, and today he ran 20.71 on his first lap, an improvement of more than three-tenths which is not insignificant for someone who a month ago had exactly two oval sessions in his life.

"In the race it's going to be a completely different situation with traffic, so it's going to be tricky," Schumacher said. His teammate Graham Rahal qualified third at 173.993 mph, giving Rahal Letterman Lanigan two cars in the top four, something not seen from a team that has struggled on short ovals in recent years.

Power hit the wall and will start from the back

Will Power lost the rear of his No. 26 Andretti Global Honda in turn 3 during his second lap and hit the wall backwards. He got out on his own with knee pain but no fractures. "The car was much looser than in the morning, very strange, it had been comfortable all day," he said.

The incident extends a complicated start with his new team. In St. Petersburg he retired on lap 55 with suspension damage and finished 22nd, and now he will start 25th at a circuit where he had accumulated 259 laps of testing, more than anyone else. The balance changing between practice and qualifying without a clear explanation is a problem Andretti needs to solve before the race.

Felix Rosenqvist also failed to qualify because Meyer Shank Racing could not repair his car in time following a crash in the morning session, so he will start last. Neither driver was injured.

The Good Ranchers 250 race will take place tomorrow, Saturday, at 3 p.m. ET.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Good Ranchers 250 - Clasificación

Pos	#	Piloto	Equipo	Tiempo
1	12	David Malukas	Team Penske	0:41.053
2	2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	0:41.249
3	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	0:41.381
4	47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	0:41.459
5	3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	0:41.511
6	20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	0:41.525
7	5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	0:41.536
8	76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	0:41.559
9	6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	0:41.620
10	10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	0:41.623
11	27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	0:41.648
12	77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	0:41.730
13	66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	0:41.755
14	28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	0:41.772
15	9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	0:41.843
16	45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	0:41.903
17	7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	0:41.966
18	21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	0:41.973
19	8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	0:41.997
20	18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	0:42.151
21	14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	0:42.210
22	19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	0:42.398
23	4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	0:42.947
24	60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	-
25	26	Will Power	Andretti Global	0:20.673