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David Malsher-Lopez

Texas IndyCar: Rosenqvist claims second straight pole at TMS

Team owner/driver Ed Carpenter, in his first outing of the 2023 season, set the bar with an average of 218.375mph over two laps, with a 1mph difference between Laps 1 and 2. This was immediately beaten by rookie Benjamin Pedersen in the AJ Foyt Racing car with a solid 219.100 average.

Pedersen’s tenure at the top didn’t last long, as Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport claimed P1 as the fourth runner.

Jack Harvey’s average of 216.103 suggested that the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s struggles in first practice had not been misleading, and Harvey saw his Lap 1 to Lap 2 drop-off was 1.8mph.

As the ninth runner, Colton Herta shaded his teammate DeFrancesco to take top spot, and reported back to his team that his throttle was flat all the way around for both laps.

Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist, last year’s Texas pole-winner, then delivered a 220.264mph average, over 1mph clear of Herta, which survived an assault from last year’s winner, Josef Newgarden.

Romain Grosjean split his teammates Herta and DeFrancesco, whereas Kyle Kirkwood in AA’s #27 car was 0.9mph off, down with his semi teammates Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud of Meyer Shank Racing. This trio were outpaced by rookie Agustin Canapino of Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Takuma Sato, the 17th runner, in his first qualifying session for Chip Ganassi Racing, claimed provisional third and top Honda, whereas Scott McLaughlin was a disappointment. The Kiwi ace led practice, but in qualifying was over 1mph off teammate Newgarden.

David Malukas claimed provisional fourth in the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD car, but there were still nine cars left to run. One of these was 2021 champion Alex Palou, who slid in just ahead of him and just 0.028mph behind Sato.

Champion Will Power reported that his team was undergeared and twice on his second lap the #12 hit the rev limiter, costing him 1.8mph from Lap 1 to Lap 2.

Alexander Rossi was a strong contender for pole, but his 0.3mph deficit to Rosenqvist left enough room for five-time Texas winner Scott Dixon to put his car between them and put himself onto the provisional front row. That survived an assault from the third Arrow McLaren of Pato O’Ward, and final runner Marcus Ericsson had nothing for his compatriot Rosenqvist who scored his fourth career IndyCar pole, and his second straight at Texas Motor Speedway.

P Name Q Average QLap1Speed QLap2Speed Engine Team
1 Felix Rosenqvist 220.264 220.480 220.048 Chevy Arrow McLaren
2 Scott Dixon 219.972 220.255 219.691 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
3 Alexander Rossi 219.960 220.174 219.747 Chevy Arrow McLaren
4 Josef Newgarden 219.801 220.018 219.584 Chevy Team Penske
5 Pato O'Ward 219.619 219.868 219.371 Chevy Arrow McLaren
6 Takuma Sato 219.508 219.657 219.360 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
7 Alex Palou 219.480 219.708 219.253 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
8 Will Power 219.355 220.276 218.441 Chevy Team Penske
9 David Malukas 219.256 219.558 218.955 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
10 Colton Herta 219.184 219.479 218.890 Honda Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
11 Romain Grosjean 219.165 219.468 218.863 Honda Andretti Autosport
12 Devlin DeFrancesco 219.146 219.362 218.931 Honda Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
13 Benjamin Pedersen 219.100 219.492 218.709 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
14 Santino Ferrucci 218.892 219.197 218.588 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
15 Scott McLaughlin 218.765 218.955 218.576 Chevy Team Penske
16 Marcus Ericsson 218.698 218.995 218.402 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
17 Callum Ilott 218.427 218.399 218.455 Chevy Juncos Hollinger Racing
18 Ed Carpenter 218.375 218.902 217.850 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
19 Agustin Canapino 218.367 218.386 218.348 Chevy Juncos Holling Racing
20 Kyle Kirkwood 218.227 218.575 217.880 Honda Andretti Autosport
21 Helio Castroneves 218.196 217.974 218.419 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
22 Simon Pagenaud 218.103 218.278 217.929 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
23 Sting Ray Robb 217.676 217.798 217.554 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
24 Graham Rahal 217.611 217.592 217.630 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
25 Conor Daly 217.457 217.842 217.074 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
26 Rinus VeeKay 216.880 217.172 216.589 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
27 Christian Lundgaard 216.210 216.050 216.371 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
28 Jack Harvey 216.103 217.000 215.214 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
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