IndyCar Freedom 250 starting lineup: Alex Palou claims pole in Washington D.C.

IndyCar Freedom 250 starting lineup: Alex Palou secures pole position in Washington D.C.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou secured pole position for Sunday’s Freedom 250 Grand Prix. The reigning four-time IndyCar Series champion qualified second in the Fast Six, delivering a strong flying lap of 56.899s at the 1.7-mile, 7-turn temporary street circuit to claim pole. This marks Palou’s seventh pole of the season and his first since Road America in June.

Kyle Kirkwood, who started the pole battle in the #27 Andretti Global Honda, qualified second, 0.5668 seconds behind Palou. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin followed in third, 0.7207 seconds back.

Upon exiting his car, the defending champion reflected on the significance of the result. “Incredible, man,” Palou said. “Such a privilege to be racing here. It’s a spectacular place, with spectacular fans. It’s been packed all day today. So incredible to put the Open AI car on pole. Qualifying was tough, man. There was a lot of traffic. It was challenging to nail the lap, but I was relieved the Fast Six had no traffic.

“My car was on rails. Super fun lap, super fun car to drive. Another pole—couldn’t be happier. But looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow’s going to be a long day—250 miles here. It’s going to be rough.”

Fast Six

Kyle Kirkwood, No. 27 Andretti Global

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

As the fastest driver in the Round of 12, Kirkwood earned first choice of running order and opted to go first.

The Florida native went out on a set of used softer alternate tires and had a brief lockup during the run, but still found a quick lap of 57.4661s to set the initial time.

Palou was the second driver to go out, also on a used set of alternates. He ran close to the walls throughout the lap and went quickest with a 56.899s.

The third driver to go out was McLaughlin, continuing the theme of used alternates and wheeling to a lap of 57.620s to slot third.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong ran fourth but struggled during his attempt, recording a 58.8145s lap.

Fifth out was Team Penske’s David Malukas, who had a significant lockup into Turn 1 and bailed out of the run en route to coasting to a lap of 1m10.6709s.

Christian Rasmussen was the final driver to run and started his warm-up of the tires by weaving back and forth before the push lap. The Dane was able to put together a solid performance to end up fourth with a lap of 57.889s in ECR’s #21 Chevrolet.

Round of 12

Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

It was a furious push for the transfer spot, with the final minute seeing several sub-57s laps from the challengers. In the end, it was Kirkwood pushing to a flyer of 56.6291s to take the top spot moments after the checkered, besting McLaughlin by 0.0414s.

Palou ended up third at 0.1055s, with Armstrong fourth and Malukas in fifth. Rasmussen claimed the final transfer spot, edging O’Ward by 0.1151s.

Dale Coyne Racing rookie Dennis Hauger was the first driver eliminated in eighth. Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard took ninth, ahead of Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist in 10th.

AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet finished 11th, with Nolan Siegel taking 12th in the #6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.

Groups

Kirkwood led the first group with a 56.773s, with Armstrong slotting behind in second by a narrow 0.06624s. Palou was third, with the Arrow McLaren duo of Lundgaard and O’Ward in fourth and fifth, respectively.

Rosenqvist claimed the last transfer spot in sixth, finishing 0.0632s ahead of Andretti Global’s Will Power in seventh after tapping the wall. Andretti suffered another setback with Marcus Ericsson also missing the cut, tapping the wall and bending a toe link en route to eighth. Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, who also hit the wall, was ninth, with Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean taking 10th. ECR’s Alexander Rossi was 11th, ahead of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in 12th.

The second group saw Malukas the fastest with a 57.2293s flyer. Collet was second by 0.0324s, with Rasmussen in third. McLaughlin came across fourth, ahead of Siegel in fifth.

There was drama around the transfer spot at the end, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson holding the spot in the final seconds while teammate Scott Dixon was on a lap tracking to advance.

However, Simpson hit the wall at Turn 6 and triggered a red flag, ending Dixon’s final attempt. Simpson then lost his two fastest laps as the penalty for causing the stoppage, dropping him down the order. That promoted Hauger into the final transfer position, while Dixon missed out by just 0.0093s based on his earlier lap.

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden was eighth, ahead of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s duo of Louis Foster and rookie Mick Schumacher in ninth and 10th, respectively. AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci wrapped up in 11th, with Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb behind in 12th. Simpson was relegated to 13th.

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