Qualifying for the opening round of the 2026 IndyCar season from St. Pete is in the books, view the full results below.
Heading into qualifying, Scott McLaughlin was hoping to make it to pole like he did in 2025. The winner from St. Pete last year Alex Palou was looking to get his title defence off to a perfect start.
Later on, on Friday, McLaughlin was fastest in practice 1. Saturday morning saw Christian Lundgaard at the top.
It was a very interesting session, with both Dale Coyne drivers Grosjean and Hauger in the Fast 6. Additionally, big names which had performed well in practice ended up far behind such as Newgarden, Veekay, and Rossi.
In the end, McLaughlin took his eleventh career pole ahead of Ericsson and rookie Hauger, entering as INDYNXT champion.
Find here below results for all Qualifying segments!
Round 1, Group 1 qualifying results
- Ericsson 1:00.825
- O’Ward 1:00.940
- Grosjean 1:01.032
- Foster 1:01.052
- McLaughlin 1:01.057
- Rosenqvist 1:01.124
- Power 1:01.193
- Kirkwood 1:01.230
- Ferrucci 1:01.263
- VeeKay 1:01.398
- Schumacher 1:01.398
- Newgarden 1:01.417
Round 1, Group 2 qualifying results
- Malukas 1:00.579
- Palou 1:00.614
- Armstrong 1:00.755
- Hauger 1:00.881
- Lundgaard 1:01.071
- Simpson 1:01.170
- Rasmussen 1:01.183
- Dixon 1:01.210
- Rahal 1:01.225
- Robb 1:01.366
- Siegel 1:01.449
- Collet 1:01.571
- Rossi 1:01.603
Fast 12 qualifying results
- McLaughlin 1:00.543
- Palou 1:00.580
- Ericsson 1:00.623
- Hauger 1:00.640
- Malukas 1:00.648
- Grosjean 1:00.745
- Armstrong 1:00.782
- O’Ward 1:00.886
- Foster 1:00.947
- Simpson 1:00.981
- Rosenqvist 1:00.984
- Lundgaard 1:00.984
2026 IndyCar St. Pete Fast 6 Qualifying results
- McLaughlin 1:00.542
- Ericsson 1:00.562
- Hauger 1:00.574
- Palou 1:00.684
- Malukas 1:00.763
- Grosjean 1:01.346
