Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon in the No.9 PNC Bank Honda, who starts Sunday’s opening oval race of the season, the PPG375 at Texas Motor Speedway from second place on the grid ended the final practice session fastest with a speed of 222.378MPH.
Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden in the No.2 PPG Chevrolet was second fastest.with a speed of 221.792MPH ending the session just ahead of Takuma Sato in the No.11 Niterra Honda who set a fastest speed of 220.992MPH ending the session just ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Colton Herta who commented following qualifying saying:
“We need to find a little bit more speed. We’ll focus on searching for it during the second practice session. The Gainbridge Honda felt good during our qualifying run and that’s a good thing to feel before going into race-running practice. I’m happy starting inside the top 10. We need to find a little bit, but we’ll be there for the race.”
Will Power was sixth fastest in the No.12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet. Callum Ilott in the No.77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet was seventh just ahead of polesitter Felix Rosenqvist in the No.6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
Alex Palou in the No.10 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was ninth just ahead of championship leader Marcus Ericsson in the No.8 Huski Chocolate Honda who rounded out the top ten.
Alexander Rossi in the No.7 Velo Chevrolet was 11th just ahead of Romain Grosjean in the No.28 DHL Honda who commented following qualifying saying:
“We are lining up 10, 11, 12 with three of the team cars. We made some progress since last year, but we are still missing a little bit of speed. One more practice today and hopefully have a good race car in the DHL Honda tomorrow.”
Pato O’Ward in the No.5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was 13th just ahead of David Malukas and Agustin Canapino while Kyle Kirkwood was 16th in the No.27 AutoNation Honda for Andretti Autosport and speaking following qualifying he commented saying:
“We lost a little bit of speed from practice to qualifying. However, we know that we have a good car and know that we’re going to be in a good race position. It’s a long race tomorrow, so we’re going to be able to take the AutoNation car and go forward pretty easily.”
Sting Ray Robb was P17 for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR while Simon Pagenaud was 18th just ahead of Christian Lundgaard and Conor Daly while Ed Carpenter was 21st just ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco in the No.29 Capstone Honda and speaking following the qualifying session on Saturday the Canadian Italian said:
“I don’t think we can be too upset with starting 12th. We are right in line, nip and tuck, with our teammates and I think the four Andretti cars will be strong in the race. The Capstone Honda is very good in traffic and that’s really the name of the game for tomorrow. We have 250 laps and a few pit stops to make our way forward.”
Graham Rahal Was 23rd just ahead of AJ Foyt Racing’s Benjamin Pedersen in the No.55 Sexton Properties Chevrolet who spoke following qualifying saying:
“Really good qualifying here at Texas Motor Speedway, “My first ever INDYCAR qualifying and we qualified 13th. The car was pretty darn good. You look at the names of some of the guys we outqualified and I think that’s a pretty cool feeling. We just have to stay focused…Honestly, I’m a big fan of the ovals. Every oval I’ve been to I’ve enjoyed the lot. I love this place. I’m excited for the race.”
Pedersen will start the 250-lap race from 13th place and ended the final practice session just ahead of Santino Ferrucii who starts the race from P14 speaking following the qualifying session, the driver of the No.14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet who starts the race from P14 commented saying:
“Qualifying went pretty good for us. “I mean, being one of the first few cars out and to end up P14 and our teammate P13, you can tell it’s pretty even between the two cars. You know it’s going to be a lot better starting from mid-pack than it was starting from dead-last last year so not as much work to do on Sunday. But you know what? We’re going to make the most of it, and we’ll have some fun.”
Santino Ferrucci was 25th just behind his teammate while Rinus VeeKay was 26th just ahead of Jack Harvey Helio Castroneves rounded out the order in 28th.