Alex Palou secured his third consecutive pole of the 2026 IndyCar season in Detroit, something he had never achieved in his career, and he did it on three completely different types of tracks: the permanent road course at Indianapolis, the oval of the 500 Miles, and now the street circuit of Detroit. In the Honda No. 10 of Chip Ganassi Racing, he set a lap of 1:01.9017 on a 1.645‑mile, nine‑turn street circuit where no one could challenge him for the top spot.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Will Power was 0.223 seconds behind in the Andretti Global Honda and will start from second place, his best qualifying result in a year where he has only 112 points and is languishing in 17th place in the championship. Scott McLaughlin put the Penske Chevrolet in the third slot, 0.331 seconds off Palou, and will share the second row with Scott Dixon, fourth in the other Ganassi car, on a grid where Honda placed three cars in the top four.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Christian Lundgaard salvaged fifth place for Arrow McLaren after an engine failure left him stranded in morning practice. The team changed the power unit against the clock, and the Dane responded with a lap of 1:02.7870. Kyle Kirkwood closed out the Fast Six in sixth place, far from the pace he had shown in the morning session, affected by a tyre lock‑up and two major slides during his final lap.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

David Malukas crashed at Turn 7 during the first qualifying round and will start last on Sunday. The impact against the wall in the Penske Chevrolet No. 12 left the car with enough damage to prevent him from continuing the session, so he will line up 25th out of 25 cars, 1.814 seconds off the cut‑off time in his group. He walked away unhurt. The scene adds to a week that already brought the hardest blow of his career, because just a few days ago Felix Rosenqvist snatched the Indianapolis 500 from him by 0.0233 seconds, the smallest margin in 110 editions of the race, with a pass on the very straight that Malukas was already beginning to celebrate.

Sunday's race starts at 12:30 p.m. with 100 laps scheduled. Palou has the top spot, and also the memory that in IndyCar nothing is settled on Saturday.

Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix - Qualification

Pos.	No.	driver	team	time
1	#10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:01.902
2	#26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+0.223s
3	#3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+0.331s
4	#9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.153s
5	#7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+0.178s
6	#27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.243s
7	#5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	+0.048s
8	#66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.101s
9	#21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	+0.015s
10	#28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+0.065s
11	#45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.057s
12	#15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.149s
13	#6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	+0.037s
14	#20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+0.260s
15	#19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+0.059s
16	#60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.025s
17	#8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.515s
18	#76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+0.094s
19	#4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+0.004s
20	#18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	+0.039s
21	#2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	+0.059s
22	#14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+0.092s
23	#47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+4.046s
24	#77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+0.386s
25	#12	David Malukas	Team Penske	+1.814s