Palou Captures Second Career Indianapolis 500 Pole Position
Alex Palou and crew celebrate the pole for the 110th Indy 500 Sunday. (Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment photo)
By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor
INDIANAPOLIS (May 17, 2026) – With a flawless, near-superhuman four-lap run in the late-afternoon shadows Sunday evening, Alex Palou proved his point as the best the NTT IndyCar Series has to offer yet again with his second career Indianapolis 500 pole position.
Though Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist paced the first two rounds of Sunday’s qualifications around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, it was Palou who was picture perfect when all the chips were pushed to the center of the table during the Firestone Fast Six.
As the penultimate driver to hit the track during the pole shootout, Palou’s first flying lap of 232.848 mph in the No. 10 DHL was a harbinger of the demolition to come.
He followed that eye-popping speed up with successive clips of 232.347, 231.845, and 231.955 for a four-lap average of 232.248 mph – more than a quarter of a mile per hour better than his nearest challenger.
It all added up to the 15th NTT P1 Award of Palou’s decorated Indy car career, his third of the year, and second in a row, after opening the Month of May with a pole position on the IMS road course layout.
Sunday marked the ninth Indy 500 pole for Chip Ganassi Racing as an organization, second all-time behind Team Penske’s record of 19, and its first since 2023.
The last two Indy 500 poles for CGR have been delivered by Palou, who hopes to become the latest driver to win back-to-back 500s next Sunday during the 110th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
“Just look at these guys,” said Palou amid a sea of his CGR crew members on pit lane. “The incredible work they did today … I have no words. Today, honestly, we did not expect to have that much speed. We started struggling; everybody saw, we were 11th [in round one] and were not holding anything back. But I think being 31st [in the initial qualifying draw] allowed us to work on those [cooling] conditions.
“Wow. That was incredible. Cannot thank everyone at CGR enough.”
Rain that washed out the entirety of Saturday’s qualifying program led to an altered format for PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying Sunday, with each of the 33 entries getting just one four-lap run to try and advance to the top-12 round at 4:30 p.m. ET.
From there, the fastest dozen went out in reverse order, with the best six of those making up the Firestone Fast Six for the Indy 500 pole shootout.
Palou was 11th of 33 on his first run of the day, barely sneaking into the top 12 that moved on, but he simply continued to improve every time he got back onto the racetrack.
His round-of-12 qualifying attempt put him second behind Rosenqvist, which set up his pole-winning run in the dwindling heat of the late afternoon Indiana sun.
“Look how we’re celebrating; [qualifying] is our race this weekend,” noted Palou when asked how much Indy 500 qualifying means to him. “It’s not easy to do everything [right] the way this team is executing.
“Did not expect this. The celebration was really high because when we woke up, we didn’t believe this was possible, not the pole. We did not have the speed when we started today or even [in practice] on Friday. The conditions made it tough on us for our first try. But we got the car dialed in for trim when it mattered.
“The car balance was insane.”
Joining Palou on the front row for next Sunday’s 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge are Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi and Team Penske’s David Malukas, nearly making it an all-American front row for the first time in a quarter century.
Rossi made a huge jump in the final round, going from the last man into the Fast Six to a middle-of-the-front-row starting spot, posting the second-fastest four-lap average of the pole shootout.
His No. 20 Java House Chevrolet averaged 231.990 mph over 10 miles to give Rossi his best-ever Indy 500 grid position and first front-row appearance since 2017, when he was with what is now known as Andretti Global (then Andretti Herta Autosport).
Malukas capped his first Indy 500 qualification day with Roger Penske’s organization by becoming the team’s milestone 50th front-row starter for the 500, at a four-lap average speed of 231.877 mph.
The Chicago native will roll off third next Sunday in pursuit of Penske’s record-extending 21st Indy 500 win.
After leading the full-field session and the Top 12 Round, including the best four-lap average of the day (232.xxx mph), Rosenqvist could only muster a 231.375-mph average on his pole attempt in a shocking turn of fortune.
He’ll start fourth in the No. 60 Honda. Rosenqvist was hoping to become the first Swedish driver to ever win the pole for the Indianapolis 500, and was understandably dejected.
“I don’t know [what changed], to be honest,” lamented Rosenqvist. “It was quite a big gap from run two to run three, like one-point-three miles per hour. It felt good; it just didn’t seem like there was that much [speed] in it and didn’t go as fast. It’s kind of déjà vu for me, now, when I’ve gone into the last round and want to finish it off and end up cursed.
“It is what it is. Super proud of the team, but we’ll focus on the race now.”
Row two also features AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci (middle) and Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (outside), who line up fifth and sixth, respectively.
Eliminated in the Top 12 Round were Kyffin Simpson, Conor Daly, Scott McLaughlin, rookie Caio Collet, Scott Dixon, and Rinus Veekay. They’ll start seventh through 12th in the 110th 500.
Notables eliminated after round one and starting outside the first four rows of the starting grid include two-time 500 winner Takuma Sato (13th), four-time winner Helio Castroneves (15th), 2022 winner Marcus Ericsson (18th), 2018 winner Will Power (20th), 2013 winner Ryan Hunter Reay (23rd), and two-time winner Josef Newgarden (24th), who won back-to-back in 2023 and 2024.
Katherine Legge qualified 27th in the third AJ Foyt Racing entry and hopes to complete Double Duty next Sunday by competing in both the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.
Kyle Larson attempted the feat each of the past two years, but was unable to complete both races either time.
Broadcast coverage of the 110th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge airs Sunday, May 24 beginning at 10 a.m. ET, live on FOX, the IndyCar Radio Network, and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation, channel 218.
