PORTLAND, Ore. — Scott McLaughlin needs a lot to happen to win the NTT IndyCar Series championship, but he proved that he is going to fight to the finish over the final two races of the season.
The second-year driver from New Zealand led a 1-2-3 Team Penske sweep by winning the pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Portland in Saturday’s qualifications.
McLaughlin won the third pole of his career with a best time of 58.2349 for a speed of 121.412 miles per hour around the 12-turn, 1.964-mile road course in the No. 3 Freightliner Chevrolet. He entered the race weekend 54 points out of the lead in sixth place.
By winning the pole, he earns an extra point toward the championship.
“Until I’m mathematically out of it, I’m going to keep going and fighting for race wins and poles,” McLaughlin said. “I’m a different man than last year. I was a little confused where I wanted to be last year, but I’m really proud and can’t wait for Sunday.”
Teammate and two-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden as second at 58.3129 (121.249 mph) in the No. 2 Chevrolet. Because of his six grid-spot penalty for changing to his sixth engine, he will actually start eighth on Sunday.
That moves Will Power up to second after he was third in qualifications at 58.4254 (121.016 mph) in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.
Rookie Christian Lundgaard paced the first half of the Fast Six with a lap at 58.4482 (120.969 mph) in the No. 30 Honda as Power and McLaughlin both sat in pit lane, biding their time before making their flying laps.
As each of the other five drivers in the Fast Six took laps, Lundgaard was able to maintain his top position until there were 41 seconds left. That is when Power, then Newgarden and then McLaughlin took over the top spot, bouncing Lundgaard down to fourth.
Lundgaard finished fourth at 58.4482 (120.969 mph) in the No. 30 Honda followed by Alex Palou’s 58.5075 (120.846 mph) in the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda. Pato O’Ward rounded out the Fast Six at 58.6090 (120.637 mph) in the No. 5 Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren SP.
Power has a three-point lead over Newgarden with two races remaining in the battle for the championship.
It was a dramatic final minute in the first group of Segment 1 as four of the six drivers were able to advance their way into Segment 2 in the final minute. Newgarden was the fastest at 58.0433 (121.813 mph) in the No. 2 Chevrolet. O’Ward was second at 58.1408 (121.234 mph) in the No. 5 Chevrolet followed by VeeKay’s 58.2292 (121.424 mph) in the No. 21 Chevrolet.
Rossi’s No. 27 Honda was good for fourth at 58.2318 (121.418 mph) followed by Herta’s No. 26 Honda at 58.3020 (121.272 mph) and Rahal’s No. 15 Honda at 58.4106 (121.047 mph). Kyle Kirkwood was the fastest driver to advance out of his group after running a best time of 58.4865 (120.889 mph).
Others who missed were Romain Grosjean, Jack Harvey, Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves, and Jimmie Johnson.
The second group was stacked with championship contenders including Power, McLaughlin, Dixon, Palou and Ericsson. That made this the most difficult of the two groups.
By the time the session was over, Dixon and Ericsson just barely missed advancing into the six drivers that advanced into Segment 2. Dixon’s No. 9 PNC Bank Honda was eighth at 58.2628 (121.354 mph). Ericsson was ninth in the No. 8 PNC Bank Honda at 58.3064 (12.263 mph).
“The balance was a little different than we had this morning, we didn’t make big changes,” Dixon said. “We just didn’t get the grip on the reds like we needed. All of us went down different roads. It’s frustrating and here, we just didn’t convert.”
Lundgaard was the fastest at 57.9218 (122.068 mph) in the No. 30 Honda. He was followed by points leader Power at 57.9266 (122.058 mph) in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was third was 58.0029 (121.897 mph) in the No. 3 Chevrolet followed by rookie David Malukas’ No. 18 Honda at 58.0506 (121.797 mph).
Rosenqvist was fifth at 58.1465 (121.596 mph) in the No. 7 Chevrolet followed by Palou’s No. 10 Honda at 58.1497 (121.590 mph).
The drivers who did not advance were led by Callum Ilott, Dixon, Ericsson, Conor Daly, Takuma Sato, Devlin DeFrancesco and Dalton Kellett. That set up the round of 12 drivers that would determine the Fast Six.
It was a chance to Team Penske to continue its late-season surge toward the championship.
With 1:33 minutes left, Palou was the fastest driver of the session, but in the closing 90 seconds is when the action heated up as McLaughlin, Malukas, Power, O’Ward, Rossi and Herta all surpassed Palou’s speed.
At the end of the mayhem, Newgarden jumped to No. 1 at 57.9651 (121.977 mph). Lundgaard split the Team Penske drivers with a second-place time of 58.0753 (121.745 mph) in the No. 30 Honda. Power was third at 58.0868 (121.721 mph) followed by a third Team Penske driver, McLaughlin, at 58.2504 (121.379 mph).
Pato O’Ward was fifth at 58.2593 (121.361 mph) and Palou at 58.3381 (121.197 mph).
Rosenqvist missed advancing into the Fast Six by nine-thousandths of a second. He was at 58.3475 (121.177 mph).
“I messed up,” Rosenqvist said. “It was my mistake that cost us.”
Other drivers who missed were Herta, six-hundredths of a second behind. He was followed by Rossi, Malukas, Rahal and VeeKay.
That set up the “Fast Six” round that determined the pole and the first three positions on the grid.