Conor Daly scored his and Carlin-Chevrolet’s first ever NTT IndyCar Series pole position for tonight’s Iowa 250 race and was only pushed down to third for the second by the Team Penske-Chevrolets of Josef Newgarden and Will Power.
Daly set a brilliant first lap of 175.188mph that was unmatchable even by Newgarden and Power, ensuring he kept top spot for Race 1, while the second lap – which decides Race 2 – was a 174.9, which eclipsed all but those two Penske drivers.
Daly, who had never started inside the Top 10 on an oval before, thus delivers Carlin its first IndyCar pole in the squad’s third year in this series.
Colton Herta’s Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport machine bottomed out at Turn 4 on his qualifying run but he held on to claim fourth, ahead of Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi whose first lap was brave and wild.
Takuma Sato, a former Iowa polesitter, was sixth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan ahead of the fastest Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda of Felix Rosenqvist who, as in last week’s second race at Road America, just eclipsed the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy of Patricio O’Ward.
The 2016 and ’19 Iowa polesitter Simon Pagenaud in the third Penske had the worst day of anyone, unable to take his qualifying run reportedly because of no fuel pressure, and he is thereby consigned to the final row for both races.
Champion Scott Dixon also struggled after using the whole track, and will line up 17th.
For tomorrow evening’s race Newgarden and Power have locked out the front row while Daly will start alongside Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and Herta.
Like Hunter-Reay, Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey felt out his first lap and then laid it on the line in Lap 2 to grab sixth on his first ever qualifying run at Iowa.
Rookie Alex Palou was also impressive for Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, taking seventh, just ahead of the most experienced man in the field, 45-year-old Tony Kanaan in the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.
Marcus Ericsson and Rosenqvist rounded out the Top 10 for Ganassi, while teammate Dixon’s poor first lap led to only 18th on the second.
The same was true of Zach Veach, whose Andretti car had a huge moment in Turn 4 at the end of his first lap, killing the speeds for both laps.
RACE 1 – Friday
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Conor Daly |  Carlin | 18.371 | 175.188 | |
| 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 18.379 | 0.008 | 175.107 |
| 3 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 18.411 | 0.040 | 174.807 |
| 4 | Colton Herta | Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport | 18.412 | 0.040 | 174.799 |
| 5 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 18.683 | 0.312 | 172.263 |
| 6 |  Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 18.697 | 0.326 | 172.130 |
| 7 |  Felix Rosenqvist | Chip Ganassi Racing | 18.704 | 0.333 | 172.063 |
| 8 |  Patricio O’Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 18.753 | 0.382 | 171.617 |
| 9 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 18.754 | 0.382 | 171.611 |
| 10 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 18.766 | 0.395 | 171.496 |
| 11 | Santino Ferrucci | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 18.783 | 0.412 | 171.340 |
| 12 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 18.790 | 0.419 | 171.278 |
| 13 |  Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 18.820 | 0.449 | 171.005 |
| 14 | Oliver Askew | Arrow McLaren SP | 18.834 | 0.463 | 170.879 |
| 15 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 18.841 | 0.470 | 170.817 |
| 16 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 18.858 | 0.487 | 170.661 |
| 17 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 18.863 | 0.492 | 170.619 |
| 18 |  Alex Palou | Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh | 18.876 | 0.505 | 170.495 |
| 19 |  Tony Kanaan | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 18.878 | 0.507 | 170.482 |
| 20 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani | 18.995 | 0.624 | 169.433 |
| 21 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19.110 | 0.739 | 168.407 |
| 22 | Zach Veach | Andretti Autosport | 19.452 | 1.080 | 165.453 |
| 23 |  Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | |||
View full results
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RACE 2 – SATURDAY
| Cla | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 18.355 | 175.333 | |
| 2 | Will Power | Team Penske | 18.388 | 0.032 | 175.024 |
| 3 | Conor Daly | Carlin | 18.395 | 0.039 | 174.960 |
| 4 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 18.470 | 0.114 | 174.245 |
| 5 | Colton Herta | Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport | 18.556 | 0.200 | 173.437 |
| 6 | Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 18.654 | 0.299 | 172.523 |
| 7 | Alex Palou | Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh | 18.670 | 0.314 | 172.382 |
| 8 | Tony Kanaan | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 18.729 | 0.373 | 171.834 |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 18.749 | 0.393 | 171.653 |
| 10 | Felix Rosenqvist | Chip Ganassi Racing | 18.784 | 0.428 | 171.336 |
| 11 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 18.788 | 0.432 | 171.294 |
| 12 | Patricio O’Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 18.810 | 0.454 | 171.099 |
| 13 | Oliver Askew | Arrow McLaren SP | 18.824 | 0.468 | 170.970 |
| 14 | Ed Carpenter | Ed Carpenter Racing | 18.843 | 0.487 | 170.797 |
| 15 | Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 18.868 | 0.512 | 170.574 |
| 16 | Santino Ferrucci | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 18.881 | 0.525 | 170.450 |
| 17 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani | 18.897 | 0.541 | 170.313 |
| 18 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 18.984 | 0.628 | 169.531 |
| 19 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19.013 | 0.657 | 169.268 |
| 20 | Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19.024 | 0.668 | 169.174 |
| 21 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 19.084 | 0.728 | 168.639 |
| 22 | Zach Veach | Andretti Autosport | 19.948 | 1.592 | 161.334 |
| 23 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | |||
| View full results | |||||
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