Daly and Carlin score first Indycar pole, Newgarden pole for Saturday

In a new qualifying format for the NTT Indycar Series, Conor Daly took his first ever pole in the series having not qualified in the top ten on an oval prior to this weekend.

He set a lap speed of 175.188mph which was enough to beat Team Penske duo Josef Newgarden and Will Power to the top spot.

It is also Carlin’s first pole position since they entered the series in 2018 and is proof of the team’s fantastic upward trajectory and a fitting reward for their hard work.

Daly’s second lap wasn’t as fast as his first so both Newgarden and Power will start ahead of him for Saturday’s second race but that won’t dampen Daly’s spirits ahead of tonight’s first race.

It could have been all three Penske cars at the front if Simon Pagenaud had shown his teammate’s pace but he failed to get on track as low fuel pressure stopped the car from starting and he was forced to wheel the car back to the garage and miss qualifying. He starts both races from the very back.

Championship leader Scott Dixon had a poor qualifying himself, not getting the purchase he wanted in his Chip Ganassi car. He qualified seventeenth and eighteenth for the two races with lots of work to do.

Zach Veach had troubles on his lap and was slowest of all on both laps but his Andretti Autosport teammates fared a little better. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Colton Herta start fourth and fifth for race two and Alexander Rossi also had a good first lap to put him fifth for race one. His second lap however could only beat Veach.