Pato O’Ward will start from the pole for Sunday’s The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix alongside his Arrow McLaren teammate Christian Lundgaard.
O’Ward turned in his best lap with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining in Saturday’s final segment of qualifying, completing a lap on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile natural terrain road course in 1 minute, 39.9567 seconds in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
“I knew if we could get the car to my liking, I would get it done,” O’Ward said. “I’ve got to thank the guys. We turned it around. We dialed it in after Q1 (first qualifying segment) because I was somewhat happy with it but not perfect. Just made a little bit of an adjustment and as soon as we went out in Q2, I said, `I’ve got this.”
The pole win marked a turnaround for the Mexican driver who started 23rd in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg March 2. It was the sixth pole win of O’Ward’s IndyCar career and first since the 2022 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.
Lundgaard’s best lap in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet during the Firestone Fast Six portion of qualifying was 1:40.1245 to earned his best starting position since last May when he also qualified second for the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course when he raced for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Two-time reigning series champion Alex Palou will start third after posting a best time of 1:40.3092 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in the final segment of qualifying.
Palou had the quickest lap of the weekend, 1:39.5933, during the first segment of qualifying and followed with a top lap of 1:39.6518 to lead the Fast 12 segment. Palou was the last driver on track during the Firestone Fast Six, but team officials told him to back off on his final lap to save his alternate tires for the race Sunday after it was obvious he wasn’t going to surpass O’Ward.
This is the first time the Thermal race is being run for points toward the season-long championship. A $1 million exhibition race was run on the course last March with Palou the winner.
The 65-lap race is set to start at noon and will be televised by Fox.