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Will Power wins sixth IMS RC pole with GMR Grand Prix qualifying run
Will Power winning the pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course is like grass being green. While much of the hype for Friday’s NTT IndyCar Series qualifying for the GMR Grand Prix revolved around Conor Daly and Callum Ilott‘s impressive runs, Power walked away with his sixth pole on the road course.
Power’s time of 1:09.76 topped Álex Palou‘s 1:09.80. He previously won the IMS Road Course pole in 2015, 2017, 2018, and two of the three races in 2020, while he has five total IndyCar victories on the layout including the August date in 2021.
Palou was the lone non-Chevrolet driver in the Fast Six, a group that surprisingly contained Indiana native Daly. Daly qualified fourth behind the two mentioned and Josef Newgarden for his best run of the season and tied 2020 at Mid-Ohio for his strongest career road course qualifying effort. It is also Ed Carpenter Racing‘s second-best qualifying performance at the IMS GP after Rinus VeeKay‘s pole in the 2020 Harvest Grand Prix #1; VeeKay, the defending GMR GP winner, qualified fifteenth.
Pato O’Ward, who led Practice #2 earlier in the day, was fifth ahead of Felix Rosenqvist.
Ilott fell short of making the Fast Six, but he continued his strong weekend by qualifying seventh after being second in Thursday practice behind Palou. Trailing him by one spot was fellow rookie Christian Lundgaard.
“It was a shame to miss out by less than two hundredths, but that’s how it goes,” said Ilott. “It was just amazing to be able to put good laps in. I did a good job myself, so I was happy coming out of that.”
The GMR Grand Prix is scheduled for Saturday.
Qualifying results
| Position | Number | Driver | Team | Best Time | Best Speed (mph) |
| 1 | 12 | Will Power | Team Penske | 1:09.7664 | 125.854 |
| 2 | 10 | Álex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:09.8090 | 125.777 |
| 3 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 1:09.8343 | 125.732 |
| 4 | 20 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:09.9063 | 125.602 |
| 5 | 5 | Pato O’Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 1:10.0546 | 125.337 |
| 6 | 7 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 1:10.0605 | 125.326 |
| 7 | 77 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 1:09.6530 | 126.059 |
| 8 | 30 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:09.6594 | 126.048 |
| 9 | 45 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:09.6899 | 125.992 |
| 10 | 28 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | 1:09.7100 | 125.956 |
| 11 | 3 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 1:09.7847 | 125.821 |
| 12 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1:10.2950 | 124.908 |
| 13 | 51 | Takuma Sato | Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing | 1:09.8239 | 125.751 |
| 14 | 26 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 1:09.8527 | 125.699 |
| 15 | 21 | Rinus VeeKay | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1:09.9550 | 125.515 |
| 16 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 1:09.9178 | 125.582 |
| 17 | 29 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | 1:10.1306 | 125.201 |
| 18 | 8 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:09.9294 | 125.561 |
| 19 | 06 | Hélio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 1:10.1417 | 125.181 |
| 20 | 60 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | 1:09.9717 | 125.485 |
| 21 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:10.1694 | 125.131 |
| 22 | 14 | Kyle Kirkwood | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 1:10.1954 | 125.085 |
| 23 | 6 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Arrow McLaren SP | 1:10.7610 | 124.085 |
| 24 | 18 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports | 1:10.4755 | 124.588 |
| 25 | 11 | Tatiana Calderón | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 1:11.0020 | 123.664 |
| 26 | 4 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 1:10.7187 | 124.160 |
| 27 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1:11.4599 | 122.872 |
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