2026 IndyCar Lengthy Seaside beginning lineup: Rosenqvist beats O’Ward to pole

Felix Rosenqvist will lead the sphere to the inexperienced flag after profitable pole for Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Lengthy seashore.

The Swede, driving the #60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda, put collectively a robust flying lap of 1m07.4635s across the 1.968-mile, 11-turn non permanent avenue circuit to say the highest spot. It’s the seventh pole of his IndyCar Sequence profession.

Pato O’Ward’s #5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet the final to exit on the adjusted single-car, single-lap qualifying for avenue circuits, practically pulled off a dramatic run to take the spot, however was left settling for second by 0.0441s.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou ended up third, forward of Andretti International’s Kyle Kirkwood and Group Penske’s David Malukas. Scott Dixon, within the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, will line up sixth.

Quick Six

Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian

Picture by: Penske Leisure

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With the adjusted single-car, single-lap qualifying format for avenue occasions permitting for these concerned to decide on once they wish to exit based mostly on how they ended up in Section 2, the order ended up being Malukas, Palou, Felix, Kirkwood, Dixon, and O’Ward. The one key adjustment was O’Ward, who opted to exit final regardless of being fifth within the second spherical.

Malukas had a number of sideways moments throughout his run, with the rear sliding and kicking out as he delivered a 1m07.6508s lap to set the baseline time.

Reigning and four-time IndyCar champion Palou was the following out, and easily hustled round till having an enormous lockup into the ultimate hairpin nook, however the error wasn’t sufficient to discourage setting the fast lap of 1m07.5289s to dethrone Malukas.

The third driver to exit was Rosenqvist, who managed to vault to the highest with an inch-perfect flyer and used up each a part of the observe to nail a 1m07.4635s lap.

Defending race winner Kirkwood went out fourth and was monitoring for the entrance row however a quick slide in Flip 4 and one other in Flip 10 resulted in a lap of 1m07.6199s to fit third and push Malukas all the way down to fourth.

Six-time sequence champion Dixon, who has by no means sat on pole at Lengthy Seaside, went out fifth and was unable to vault any of his rivals after a lap of 1m07.8566s.

O’Ward went out final among the many group, however tracked even with Rosenqvist all through the lap however narrowly missed out on bumping him for pole, with a lap of 1m07.5076s to fit second.

Spherical of 12
Will Power, Andretti Global

Will Energy, Andretti International

Picture by: Penske Leisure

Malukas delivered a 1m07.244s fast lap to tempo the second spherical, forward of Palou by 0.0117s. Rosenqvist ended up third, with Kirkwood and O’Ward behind. The final driver to switch into the Firestone Quick Six was Dixon, who surged to the spot within the ultimate second by making up a tenth of second within the ultimate hairpin nook.

Andretti International’s Will Powerwas bumped by Dixon, lacking the switch spot by 0.0272s. Group Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was eighth, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyffin Simpson in ninth and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal in tenth. Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard was eleventh, adopted by Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay.

Teams
Josef Newgarden, Team Penske

Josef Newgarden, Group Penske

Picture by: Penske Leisure

In Group 1, Rosenqvist dished out a 1m07.4691s flying lap to go to the highest of the time sheets. O’Ward ended up second at 0.1674s behind. Malukas was third, forward of Lundgaard, McLaughlin and VeeKay.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong was the primary to overlook the switch spot. Others to overlook out included Andretti International’s Marcus Ericsson, Dale Coyne Racing’s duo of Romain Grosjean and rookie Dennis Hauger, together with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s duo Louis Foster and rookie Mick Schumacher.

Group 2 was led by Dixon, adopted by Palou, Energy, Kirkwood, Simpson and Rahal. Group Penske’s Josef Newgarden was the primary out, lacking the reduce by 0.0169s. He was adopted by Ed Carpenter Racing’s pair of Alexander Rossi and Christian Rasmussen. Others out early included AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet and teammate Santino Ferrucci, together with Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb and Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel.

Qualifying – 2026 IndyCar Lengthy Seaside
All Stats

60
1

105.017

5
1

0.0441
104.948

10
1

0.0213
104.915

27
1

0.0910
104.774

12
1

0.0309
104.726

9
1

0.2058
104.408

Images from Lengthy Seaside – Saturday

Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global