Will Power Claims the Pole to Conclude a Dominant Day by Team Penske; Penske’s 700th pole
- Jeffrey Hrunka
- Jun 14
- 3 min read
Jeffrey Hrunka - INDYCAR Contributor
Number 700.
Will Power pulled the fastest lap around World Wide Technology Raceway, for the 700th pole for “the Captain,” team owner, Roger Penske, ahead of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin joined him on the front row.
“I sent it a lot,” Power said. “I knew you would have to. You’d have to drive it flat in 3 and 4. I wasn’t quite flat, but I was very, very close.
McLaughlin backed his pace from the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 first practice, as he finished second in both sessions with a 24.946-second lap time in single-car qualifying and a 25.259-second lap time in practice.
Similar to the Kiwi, Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward and David Malukas ended both sessions inside the top five.
The former Arrow-McLaren teammates will start side-by-side in third (25.059s) and fourth (25.142s) in search of their first wins at WWT Raceway. Both drivers combine for six podiums but have struggled to move onto the top step.
The five-time Bommarito Automotive Group 500 winner, Newgarden, qualified in fifth (25.102s), still in pursuit of his first victory of 2025.
"I always think a nighttime race is more competitive from a racing standpoint,” Newgarden said. “So I think, if anything, you're just going to have an improved show. Hopefully, two lanes like last year, which is going to be most important."
Outside of the dominant Team Penske trio, Meyer Shank Racing was the only other team to qualify all of its cars inside the Top 10. Marcus Armstrong led his team, along with Honda Racing, in sixth with a 25.211 lap time. Felix Rosenqvist timed five hundredths behind his teammate for seventh (25.265).
“I think we had a strong car here last year, so we tried to take the good bits from that, and the good bits of what we learned,” Rosenqvist said. “We're not super stoked, but it's a pretty good day… [seventh] is a solid position, but we always want more.”
Colton Herta continued to lead the way for Andretti Global, slotting himself into eighth while teammates Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson lined up tenth (25.317s) and 13th (25.388s). Kirkwood will start right beside championship foe Alex Palou, who qualified ahead of the 26-year-old American in the final qualification run on Saturday evening. He trails the Spaniard by 102 points in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES standings.
"Where we’re starting is not a bad place,” Kirkwood said. "If last year’s [race] race was any indication of this year’s [race], it’s going to be a racey event.”
The rookies continued to struggle around the 1.250-mile oval in East St. Louis.
Louis Foster led the trio in 21st with a 25.796-second lap time ahead of Robert Shwartzman in 24th (25.848s) and Jacob Abel in 27th (26.358s).
“It's just kind of learning an entirely new car, setup, different balance characteristics and all of that,” Abel said. “We didn't get to test here, so we didn't really have a great idea of where we wanted to roll off the track. Both cars struggled a little bit, and being a rookie makes it even harder to kind of get up to speed.”
NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying Results (Top 12):
Will Power #12 -24.920s (LEADER)
Scott McLaughlin #3 -0.152s
Pato O’Ward #5 -0.317s
David Malukas #4 -0.348s
Josef Newgarden #2 -0.396s
Marcus Armstrong #66 -0.440s
Felix Rosenqvist #60 -0.456s
Colton Herta #26 -0.508s
Alex Palou #10 -0.545s
Kyle Kirkwood #27 -0.588s
Scott Dixon #9 -0.649s
Alexander Rossi #20 -0.654s
For full qualifying results, go to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES website.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES action continues on Sunday, June 15, for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at World Wide Technology Raceway on FOX.
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