Palou, Lundgaard Make Up All-Honda Front Row At the Sonsio Grand Prix of Indianapolis

— SPEEDWAY, IN
  • Alex Palou takes the pole in qualifying for Saturday's NTT INDYCAR SERIES race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course
  • Christian Lundgaard completes an all-Honda front row
  • Scott Dixon rounds out the top-six in qualifying for tomorrow's 85-lap race

Defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou took his first pole for 2024 today on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, heading fellow Honda racer Christian Lundgaard by just nine-hundredths of a second to make up a front row sweep for Honda in qualifying for Saturday's Sonsio Grand Prix.

The pole run by Palou is the fourth consecutive Honda pole on the 2.439-mile IMS road course. Graham Rahal was the fast qualifier here last August for the Gallagher Grand Prix, while Lundgaard won the pole in the May race on the road course. In 2022, it was Andretti Global driver Alex Rossi on the pole at the Gallagher Grand Prix.

Six-time series champion Scott Dixon was the third Honda driver to advance to the final round in INDYCAR knockout qualifying today, and will start sixth. Marcus Armstrong will start eighth, Graham Rahal ninth and Felix Rosenqvist 10th as Honda drivers claimed six of the top-10 starting positions for Saturday's 85-lap race.

Sonsio Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results

  •  1st Alex Palou                            Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  •  2nd Christian Lundgaard           Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  •  6th Scott Dixon                          Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  •  8th Marcus Armstrong               Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  •  9th Graham Rahal                      Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
  • 10th Felix Rosenqvist                 Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 11th Pietro Fittipaldi                   Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  • 14th Kyle Kirkwood                   Andretti Global Honda
  • 17th Jack Harvey                        Dale Coyne Racing Honda
  • 19th Linus Lundqvist-R             Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 21st Marcus Ericsson                 Andretti Global Honda
  • 22nd Luca Ghiotto-R                 Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
  • 24th Colton Herta                       Andretti Global Honda
  • 25th Kyffin Simpson-R             Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 26th Tom Blomqvist-R              Meyer Shank Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) pole qualifier, his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole of 2024 and fourth career pole: "Yeah, amazing. Poles in the series are very hard to get nowadays in INDYCAR. Honestly, it was tough day today, with almost no breaks with two practices and qualifying; and we struggled a little bit in the first session. But Honda gave us a great engine today and the team did a great job, giving me what I needed for qualifying."

Christian Lundgaard (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda) will start second: "The car was good enough, but I didn't quite put the lap together that I needed, which is a bummer now. But last year we had the pole here for the #45 Hy-Vee Honda team, so being on the front row here two times in a row is not too bad."

Fast Facts

  • The "Month of May" begins this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Sonsio Grand Prix. Held on the IMS infield road course, Saturday's 85-lap race will kick off three weeks of on-track activities leading up to the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26.
  • In addition to four consecutive poles, Honda drivers and teams have won the last four NTT INDYCAR SERIES races run on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
  • Last August, Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal for Rahal Letterman Lanigan headed a 1-2 result for Honda. It completed a sweep of 2023 IMS road course victories for the manufacturer, as Alex Palou finished first in the May event.
  • In 2022, Andretti Global's Colton Herta was victorious in a thrilling, wet/dry/wet race in May; with Simon Pagenaud finishing second in his Meyer Shank Racing Honda; with Andretti's Alexander Rossi taking honors in the second road course event that year, with impressive rookie Christian Lundgaard running second for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
  • The 15 Indianapolis 500 wins by Honda at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway lead all other major automobile manufacturers. Honda drivers and teams have won four of the last five 500s.

Where to Watch

Television coverage of Saturday's Sonsio Grand Prix starts at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.  Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

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