Alex Palou extended his pole streak to five straight by winning his sixth pole in 10 races at Road America, setting up Sunday’s 55-lap XPEL Grand Prix from P1. The pole also deepens the story around tire uncertainty and a crowded Fast Six behind him.
The pole streak lives for Alex Palou.
On Saturday at Road America Presented by AMR. he earned his fifth consecutive NTT P1 Award of the season and captured the top starting spot for the XPEL Grand Prix with a best lap of 1 minute. 43.6615 seconds. Palou did it in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, stacking another extraordinary qualifying result in a year that keeps refusing to slow down.
The pole was Palou’s sixth in 10 races this season and the 18th of his illustrious career. For a driver who already leads the series, the victory at the front of the grid was less about a single lap and more about momentum—something he can now carry directly into Sunday’s race.
Palou entered the event with four victories in nine starts this season and a 49-point lead over second-place Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Global in the standings. Kirkwood qualified 18th in the No. 27 Sam’s Club Honda after a weekend full of struggles. Road America is a 14-turn. 4.014-mile road course. and 15th is the best position he has managed at the end of any of the three sessions so far.
For Palou, the work was anything but smooth all the way through qualifying. He led his qualifying group in the first round but slipped to fourth—.3901 of a second behind leader Malukas—in the Fast 12 round. Then Chip Ganassi Racing regrouped for the Firestone Fast Six. where Palou and the team laid down their quickest time on their penultimate lap. They produced a time that was good enough for pole on their final circuit as well.
“It’s incredible, five in a row this year,” Palou said. “This team, man. This team and everyone on it is giving me the best car, all the power we needed. We suffered quite a lot there in Q2. Couldn’t really get the lap we wanted, but the car was super rapid.”
His feat doesn’t just stand out statistically—it lands in racing history, too. Alex Zanardi. another Chip Ganassi Racing legend and a two-time INDYCAR SERIES champion. was the last driver to win five straight poles. Zanardi captured the last four poles of the 1996 season and opened the 1997 season with two more consecutive poles.
Behind Palou, the grid sets up a tense chase.
David Malukas continued his strong first season at Team Penske by qualifying second at 1:43.9542 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. Marcus Armstrong will start third—tying a career best—after fighting the flu all weekend. His best lap was 1:44.0225 in the No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian Honda. Armstrong’s teammate. Felix Rosenqvist. will be on the second row in fourth position after his lap of 1:44.0502 in the team’s No. 60 Honda.
Marcus Ericsson qualified fifth in the No. 28 Delaware Life Honda, continuing a solid rebound season after his first two subpar years with Andretti Global. Scott McLaughlin rounded out the third row at 1:44.8242 in the No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet, with MSR and Penske each putting two cars in the Firestone Fast Six.
What Palou does from here matters because he’s not only starting front—he’s starting front at one of his best tracks. He is aiming for a series-record fourth career win at the longest circuit on the INDYCAR SERIES schedule and is the reigning winner of this event.
The sequence of qualifying results tells its own story: after a shaky stretch earlier, Palou and his team found the fastest rhythm late, then defended it on the final circuit—setting a lead that can’t be ignored when the race opens behind him.
Still, the bigger question for Sunday may not be who can go fast in qualifying. It may be how teams handle what happens after the green flag—especially with tire strategy.
Live coverage of the 55-lap race starts at 2 p.m. ET (FOX, FOX Deportes), with a 30-minute warmup session preceding at 11 a.m. (FS1). FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls also will cover both sessions live.
Palou said he expects uncertainty to drive strategy. “Tomorrow is going to be tough,” he said. “It’s going to be a long, long race for everyone. I don’t really know what tire is best. It seems like everyone was unhappy with the alternates yesterday, and then suddenly today, they are so much faster. I think it’s going be very interesting in terms of strategy and stuff. “Obviously, we’re starting from the best spot and hope we can keep it there.”.
For all the dominance in Saturday’s qualifying. the race still belongs to whoever makes the right choices under pressure—and with no day-to-day consensus on whether the Firestone Firehawk primary or alternate tire is preferred. the path from pole to victory may hinge on details that can swing quickly.
Alex Palou Road America XPEL Grand Prix NTT P1 Award pole streak INDYCAR DHL Chip Ganassi Racing David Malukas Marcus Armstrong Felix Rosenqvist Marcus Ericsson Scott McLaughlin tire strategy Firestone Firehawk
So he got pole again like that’s just normal now?? I don’t even follow racing but 5 straight sounds wild.
Tire uncertainty always sounds like an excuse to me. Like if he’s already winning poles, why are the tires suddenly “uncertain” lol. Also 1:43.6615 is that even right, feels too precise.
Wait Kyle Kirkwood qualified 18th?? That’s gonna be embarrassing for him unless he somehow starts moving up immediately. Fast Six behind him means like 6 cars right? Confusing naming though.
Road America is basically a tire test, so of course Palou’s momentum thing works. But I swear these qualifying reports never say what tires they’re actually on, just “uncertainty.” And if Alex is leading by 49 points then Sunday is gonna be boring, unless someone crashes the DHL Honda or whatever.