Alex Palou claimed his fifth consecutive pole of the 2026 NTT IndyCar Series season on Saturday at Road America by setting a time of 1:43.6615 in qualifying for the XPEL Grand Prix. The Spaniard from Chip Ganassi Racing topped the session ahead of David Malukas of Team Penske, who finished nearly three tenths behind, and Marcus Armstrong, who, despite running a fever and having had only two hours of sleep, matched the best qualifying result of his career by putting the Meyer Shank Racing Honda in third place.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

Palou arrived at the 10th round with a 49‑point advantage over Kyle Kirkwood and four consecutive poles from the previous four races. In the first qualifying round he led his group, but in the second he dropped to fourth place, just 39 thousandths behind Malukas's best time. Chip Ganassi Racing responded in the final round, and Palou found the 1:43.6615 on his penultimate lap; his final attempt would also have been good enough for pole.

Photo By Penske Entertainment

The five consecutive poles match the streak that Alex Zanardi built with the same team between the end of 1996 and the start of 1997. Palou also has six poles in ten races in 2026 and now has 18 in his IndyCar career. "It's incredible, five in a row this year. This team is giving me the best car, all the power we need," he said. About Sunday's race, Palou admitted that nobody is sure which of the two Firestone compounds will be better: "It seems like yesterday everyone was unhappy with the alternates, and today suddenly they are much faster. It's going to be interesting in terms of strategy."

Friday's practice, where Armstrong led with a 1:44.2714 despite his fever, produced strong times on both primary and alternative tyres. Armstrong acknowledged that the car worked on both compounds without the team having changed anything. The warm‑up session before the race could be the moment when teams finally decide which compound to commit to.

Kirkwood will start 18th on a weekend where his best position in any session was 15th on Friday. Meyer Shank placed both its cars inside the top four, with Felix Rosenqvist fourth, while Team Penske put Malukas second and Scott McLaughlin sixth. Marcus Ericsson starts fifth with Andretti Global. Santino Ferrucci was the best A.J. Foyt Enterprises driver in seventh, ahead of Nolan Siegel, Caio Collet and Pato O'Ward. Scott Dixon, Palou's teammate, will start 12th, the same position he occupied at Gateway before a failed fuel strategy left him without points. Josef Newgarden, the winner of that race, will start 15th.

The 55‑lap race starts on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET at Road America, the longest circuit on the IndyCar calendar. Palou is aiming for his fourth victory at this venue and his fifth of the season.

XPEL Grand Prix at Road America - Combined Qualifying

Pos.	No.	driver	team	best
1	#10	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:43.661
2	#12	David Malukas	Team Penske	+0.293s
3	#66	Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.068s
4	#60	Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.028s
5	#28	Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global	+0.123s
6	#3	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	+0.650s
7	#14	Santino Ferrucci	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+0.024s
8	#6	Nolan Siegel	Arrow McLaren	+0.076s
9	#4	Caio Collet	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	+0.169s
10	#5	Pato O'Ward	Arrow McLaren	+0.029s
11	#26	Will Power	Andretti Global	+0.091s
12	#9	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.009s
13	#7	Christian Lundgaard	Arrow McLaren	+0.104s
14	#18	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	+0.006s
15	#2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	+0.109s
16	#21	Christian Rasmussen	ECR	+0.003s
17	#19	Dennis Hauger	Dale Coyne Racing	+0.061s
18	#27	Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian	+0.015s
19	#8	Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing	+0.041s
20	#15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.160s
21	#20	Alexander Rossi	ECR	+0.042s
22	#76	Rinus VeeKay	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+0.079s
23	#47	Mick Schumacher	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.001s
24	#45	Louis Foster	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	+0.231s
25	#77	Sting Ray Robb	Juncos Hollinger Racing	+0.759s