Rosenqvist claims second straight pole at TMS

Rosenqvist headed Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon with McLaren’s Alexander Rossi, third fastest in the session.    

Team owner/driver Ed Carpenter, in his first outing of the 2023 season, set the bar with an average of 218.375 mph over two laps, with a 1mph difference between Laps 1 and 2. This was immediately beaten by rookie Benjamin Pedersen in the AJ Foyt Racing car with a solid 219.100 mph average.

Pedersen’s tenure at the top didn’t last long, as Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport claimed provisional  P1 as the fourth runner.

Jack Harvey’s average of 216.103 suggested that the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team’s struggles in first practice had not been misleading, with Harvey’s Lap 1 to Lap 2 drop-off, 1.8mph.

As the ninth runner, Colton Herta shaded his team-mate DeFrancesco to take top spot, and reported back to his team that his throttle was flat all the way around for both laps.

Rosenqvist, last year’s Texas pole-winner, then delivered a 220.264mph average, over 1mph clear of Herta, which survived an assault from last year’s winner, Josef Newgarden.

Romain Grosjean split his Andretti Autosport team-mates Herta and DeFrancesco, whereas Kyle Kirkwood in AA’s #27 car was 0.9mph off, down with his semi team-mates Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud of Meyer Shank Racing. This trio were outpaced by rookie Agustin Canapino of Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Takuma Sato, the 17^th runner, in his first qualifying session for Chip Ganassi Racing, claimed provisional third and top Honda, whereas Scott McLaughlin was a disappointment. The Kiwi ace led practice, but in qualifying was over 1mph off team-mate Newgarden.

David Malukas claimed provisional fourth in the Dale Coyne Racing with HMD car, but there were still nine cars left to run. One of these was 2021 champion Alex Palou, who slid in just ahead of him and just 0.028mph behind Sato.

Champion Will Power reported that his team was undergeared and twice on his second lap the #12 hit the rev limiter, costing him 1.8mph from Lap 1 to Lap 2.

Alexander Rossi was a strong contender for pole, but his 0.3mph deficit to Rosenqvist left enough room for five-time Texas winner Scott Dixon to put his car between them and put himself onto the provisional front row.

That survived an assault from the third Arrow McLaren of Pato O’Ward, and final runner Marcus Ericsson had nothing for his compatriot Rosenqvist, who scored his fourth career IndyCar pole, and his second straight at Texas Motor Speedway.