Alex Palou scored pole position during qualifying for the 110th running of the Indy 500, setting impressive laps during the Fast Six. Palou previously took pole position at the Indy 500 in 2023, where he managed to finish P4 in the race. Last year, he finally scored his first win at the Brickyard — the cherry on top of his incredibly dominant season.
Palou’s dominance appears to be continuing into the 2026 IndyCar season. The No. 10 driver currently leads the IndyCar championship ahead of Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood, who will start the race from P25.
Palou “surprised” by Indy 500 pole position
Post-qualifying, Alex Palou expressed his thoughts on the team’s qualifying performance. While Palou starts on pole position, all three CGR cars made it through to the Fast 12. Teammates Kyffin Simpson and Scott Dixon will start P7 and P10, respectively.
Palou exclaimed that there remains room for improvement following his qualifying session.
“There’s always more. Yeah, in racing there’s always more. We put everything that we thought we had. Once you prove it, then you can try to go for more. I don’t know if we would have gone faster, if there was another Fast 6, but we went very, very aggressive to try and get the pole.”
When asked if he was surprised by the pole position result, Palou responded, “Yeah, very surprised.”
He continued, stating that he felt the No. 10 Honda didn’t have the pace to compete with the other teams.
“We did not have the speed. Even on Fast Fridays we tried and tried and tried to get more speed. It was okay. I think we were top 5, top 6. But then there was cars like Felix [Rosenqvist] that just had a huge advantage on everyone.
“This morning, even more. We barely made it into the Fast 12. But I think that helped us. Just struggling a little bit on those conditions made us work a lot and made us put our car for those conditions instead of this morning, which I believe they were better, and the car on Fast 6 was incredible.“
Managing speed and balance during qualifying
Alex Palou explained that the team had some troubles managing the speed and balance of the car during qualifying. He found things finally clicked during the Fast 6, where he managed to score pole position.
“It’s basically just speed and balance. Normally when you go out and you have speed and you are slow, you try and trim and you try make it faster, but then the balance goes away.
“So you need those two lines to merge in order to have a really good car capable of fighting for pole. So we were not able to merge those lines throughout Thursday and Friday. Not even in Fast 12.
“I was happy, but not — I was not, like, overly happy. Yeah, in Fast 6, that car was a rocket ship.“
Palou on Indy 500 qualifying order: “It made it tougher”
Despite starting near the end of the qualifying order, Alex Palou managed to sneak into the Fast 12. From there, CGR appeared to get a better grip of the car, with Palou improving on his laps each subsequent qualifying sector.
When asked if the qualifying order ended up benefitting his Indy 500 pole chances, Palou responded, “I think my wife helped me. She drew the number. She was very worried when she had that number.
“But, yes, I think that kind of allowed us to work on those conditions. Like, it made it tougher. Getting into the Fast 12, we didn’t have any margin, and we did everything. Like, that was our ultimate pace at that moment. But obviously I think the track conditions were 15 degrees warmer than when all these guys had gone, because I think everybody was on, like, the top 12.
“So it made us work on those conditions, and they were a lot more similar in Fast 6. For us, qualifying just got better and faster, and for everybody else just got slower and greasier. Like, we saw a lot more mistakes or just people not being able to be flat-out, yeah.”
Expectations for race day
It is not often we see the Indy 500 pole sitter go on to take the race win. Only 18 drivers have won this historic race from pole, the latest being Simon Pagenaud for Team Penske in 2019.
Even Palou, who started on pole in 2023, failed to win the race that year. Getting into a pit lane incident with Rinus VeeKay, the No. 10 driver recovered from the back of the field to P4 by the end of the race.
Palou discussed his expectations for race day, highlighting that his starting position will not make race day any easier.
“I think pole is huge. The emotion, the momentum and everything that comes with it, it’s incredible, but it’s totally different to the race. Like, that doesn’t guarantee us to having an easier race. It guarantees us to have the best view heading into the first corner, but that’s about it.
“We need to work hard to try and keep ourselves up there and be at the front when it matters. But, yeah, I think the race is going to be a totally different scenario to what we saw today.”
When asked about his feelings on scoring his second pole position at the Indy 500, Palou explained that it felt similar to winning a race.
“It’s tough to explain, because it’s not a race. It’s only a pole, but it just feels like a race. Like, we’ve been working on the qualifying lap — on the qualifying car. I mean, I spent all Thursday working on it until I got the checkered, and I think that paid off.
“But, yeah, the intensity and everybody’s attention is on qualifying only, so we treat it and celebrate it as a race win. Again, that doesn’t guarantee us to be up front throughout the race next week, but still, it’s the best starting spot.”
