Palou grabs second straight pole in qualifying street fight in Detroit

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou backed up his first oval pole in the Indy 500 with his first street course pole around the new 1.645-mile course in downtown Detroit.

Firestone Fast Six

Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean caused a local yellow by skating into the same runoff zone at the same time and were given drive-through penalties. This allowed the Penske-Chevrolets of Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden their moments in the sun, but Alex Palou set a 1m01.8592s on his first flying lap to claim the third pole of his IndyCar career, his second in succession and his first on a street course.

McLaughlin’s final effort trimmed his deficit to 0.3s with his final flyer to beat Grosjean who slapped the wall on the exit of Turn 2 but still claimed third.

Scott Dixon ran Firestone primaries but was 0.56s off his polesitting teammate, but that was still quicker than Newgarden who told his team that was all he had after his final effor

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