IndyCar St. Pete starting lineup: Team Penske led a supersonic qualifying session for the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season opener, capturing the front row for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (noon ET, NBC).
Scott McLaughlin will start from the pole position ahead of Will Power, who qualified second but still set a track record of 59.3466 seconds (in Round 2) around the 14-turn, 1.8-mile street course that shattered the 4-year-old mark of Jordan King (1 minute, 0.0476 seconds).
A dozen drivers clocked laps at under a minute, which stunned Power.
“That shows how far these cars and engines have come,” he said. “They’re pretty fast.”
TIRE DESIGNATIONS: Click here for the starting lineup with tire choices
ST. PETE PRIMER: Details for following the 2022 season opener
McLaughlin will be setting the pace at the green flag for the first time in 18 starts during his NTT IndyCar Series career. His previous best start was fifth in the May 15 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course (his only top-10 starting position on road and street courses as a rookie last season).
Defending race winner Colton Herta will start third with the fastest Dallara-Honda.
There will be a 30-minute warmup Sunday at 8:45 a.m. ET on Peacock before the 2022 season begins with the green flag at 12:30 p.m. on NBC.
Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg at the 14-turn, 1.8-mile temporary street circuit (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine, time and speed in parentheses):
ROW 1
1. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 59.4821 (108.940 mph)
2. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 59.6058 (108.714)
ROW 2
3. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 59.7104 (108.524)
4. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 59.8102 (108.343)
ROW 3
5. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 59.8116 (108.340)
6. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 1:00.2041 (107.634)
ROW 4
7. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 59.7579 (108.438)
8. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 59.8241 (108.318)
ROW 5
9. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 59.8862 (108.205)
10. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 59.9584 (108.075)
ROW 6
11. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 59.9870 (108.023)
12. (14) Kyle Kirkwood, Chevrolet, 1:00.2616 (107.531)
ROW 7
13. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 59.9931 (108.012)
14. (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 59.9521 (108.086)
ROW 8
15. (30) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 1:00.0276 (107.950)
16. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 1:00.0021 (107.996)
ROW 9
17. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 1:00.1426 (107.744)
18. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 1:00.0850 (107.847)
ROW 10
19. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1:00.2121 (107.620)
20. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 1:00.1921 (107.655)
ROW 11
21. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 1:00.3918 (107.299)
22. (51) Takuma Sato, Honda, 1:00.2930 (107.475)
ROW 12
23. (45) Jack Harvey, Honda, 1:00.5333 (107.049)
24. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 1:00.4601 (107.178)
ROW 13
25. (11) Tatiana Calderon, Chevrolet, 1:00.9391 (106.336)
26. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 1:01.0273 (106.182)