Rosenqvist on Texas IndyCar pole

Felix Rosenqvist has qualified on pole position for the Texas IndyCar race in a session in which both of his McLaren team-mates also made the top five.

The #6 Chevrolet of Rosenqvist, the #7 Chevrolet of Alexander Rossi, and the #5 Chevrolet of Pato O’Ward respectively will start on a very orange-looking inside of the first three rows.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon qualified second in the #9 Honda, with Josef Newgarden fourth in the #2 Team Penske Chevrolet and Takuma Sato sixth in his first start of 2023 in another Ganassi Honda.

Stan Sport is the only way to watch every round of the INDYCAR SERIES. Click here for all the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand.

The rest of the top 10 on the grid is Alex Palou (#10 Ganassi Honda), Will Power (#12 Penske Chevrolet), David Malukas (#18 Dale Coyne Racing w/ HMD Motorsport Honda), and Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda).

Scott McLaughlin (#3 Penske Chevrolet) will line up on the inside of Row 8 and series leader Marcus Ericsson (#8 Ganassi Honda) on the outside.

Stan Sport is the only way to watch every round of the IndyCar Series. Click here for all the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand.

Drivers were sent out in reverse entrant points order, with two warm-up laps before a two-lap run proper, of which the average speed determined qualifying results.

In his first event of the season, Ed Carpenter (#33 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) kicked things off with a 218.375mph (351.441km/h) run, before rookie Benjamin Pedersen (#55 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet) set a 219.100mph (352.607km/h) average.

Devlin DeFrancesco (#29 Andretti Steinbrenner Honda) then went top with a 219.146mph (352.681km/h) run, which stood up to the efforts of the next four drivers before the Canadian was finally knocked off by team-mate Herta’s 219.184mph (352.743km/h).

Rosenqvist raised the bar with laps of 220.480mph (354.828km/h) and 220.048mph (354.133km/h) for an average of 220.264mph (354.481km/h), a figure which could not be beaten by the likes of 2022 Texas winner Newgarden nor St Petersburg pole-sitter Romain Grosjean (#28 Andretti Honda).

Newgarden was still second on a 219.801mph (353.735km/h) run when his Penske team-mate and practice fast man McLaughlin went out, but could only set an average of 218.765mph (352.068km/h) which was good enough for ninth at the time.

That left Sato third on a 219.508mph (353.264km/h) run and 12 more drivers to come.

Palou provisionally made it an all-Ganassi second row when he went 219.480mph (353.219km/h) before Power threatened to knock off Rosenqvist or at least join him on the front row.

The 2022 champion achieved a 220.076mph (354.178km/h) first lap but the #12 Penske Chevrolet hit the rev limiter twice on his second lap and his average dropped to 219.355mph (353.018km/h), which left him fifth.

Rossi made it a McLaren one-two when he clocked a 220.174mph (354.336km/h) and a 219.747mph (353.649km/h) for an average of 219.960mph (353.991km/h), with three cars to go.

The one-two lasted only a moment, with Dixon then wheeling the #9 Honda to a 220.255mph (354.466km/h) and 219.691mph (353.558km/h) run, averaging 219.972mph (354.011km/h).

O’Ward set an average of 216.619mph (348.615km/h) to go fifth and St Petersburg winner Ericsson finished off the session with a 218.698mph (351.960km/h).

Top Line Practice starts this morning at 03:45 AEST, and the Race itself tomorrow morning at 02:10 AEST, with both sessions streamed live, ad-free, and on-demand on Stan Sport.

Results: Qualifying

Pos	Num	Driver	C/E/T	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total time	Avg speed (mph)
1	6	Felix Rosenqvist	D/C/F	23.5123	23.5585	0:47.0708	220.264
2	9	Scott Dixon	D/H/F	23.5364	23.5968	0:47.1332	219.972
3	7	Alexander Rossi	D/C/F	23.5450	23.5908	0:47.1358	219.96
4	2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/F	23.5617	23.6083	0:47.1700	219.801
5	5	Pato O’Ward	D/C/F	23.5778	23.6312	0:47.2090	219.619
6	11	Takuma Sato	D/H/F	23.6004	23.6324	0:47.2328	219.508
7	10	Alex Palou	D/H/F	23.5950	23.6439	0:47.2389	219.48
8	12	Will Power	D/C/F	23.5341	23.7318	0:47.2659	219.355
9	18	David Malukas	D/H/F	23.6111	23.6761	0:47.2872	219.256
10	26	Colton Herta	D/H/F	23.6196	23.6831	0:47.3027	219.184
11	28	Romain Grosjean	D/H/F	23.6208	23.6861	0:47.3069	219.165
12	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	D/H/F	23.6322	23.6787	0:47.3109	219.146
13	55	Benjamin Pedersen	D/C/F	23.6182	23.7027	0:47.3209	219.1
14	14	Santino Ferrucci	D/C/F	23.6500	23.7158	0:47.3658	218.892
15	3	Scott McLaughlin	D/C/F	23.6761	23.7172	0:47.3933	218.765
16	8	Marcus Ericsson	D/H/F	23.6718	23.7361	0:47.4079	218.698
17	77	Callum Ilott	D/C/F	23.7364	23.7303	0:47.4667	218.427
18	33	Ed Carpenter	D/C/F	23.6818	23.7962	0:47.4780	218.375
19	78	Agustin Canapino	D/C/F	23.7378	23.7419	0:47.4797	218.367
20	27	Kyle Kirkwood	D/H/F	23.7173	23.7929	0:47.5102	218.227
21	06	Helio Castroneves	D/H/F	23.7827	23.7342	0:47.5169	218.196
22	60	Simon Pagenaud	D/H/F	23.7495	23.7876	0:47.5371	218.103
23	51	Sting Ray Robb	D/H/F	23.8019	23.8286	0:47.6305	217.676
24	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/F	23.8244	23.8202	0:47.6446	217.611
25	20	Conor Daly	D/C/F	23.7971	23.8813	0:47.6784	217.457
26	21	Rinus VeeKay	D/C/F	23.8705	23.9347	0:47.8052	216.88
27	45	Christian Lundgaard	D/H/F	23.9945	23.9589	0:47.9534	216.21
28	30	Jack Harvey	D/H/F	23.8894	24.0877	0:47.9771	216.103