Santino Ferrucci is on pole position for A.J. Foyt Racing. That’s not a misprint.
A decade removed from the team’s last pole taken in 2014 by Takuma Sato, the 26-year-old from Connecticut was a rocket in the No. 14 Chevy as he threw down a lap that was faster than the entire field to go P1, and with time for one more lap, Ferrucci put down another lap that even faster, settling the matter with a 58.2046s tour of Portland International Raceway.
Team Penske’s Will Power tried to topple his semi-teammate — the Penske team supplies the Foyts with dampers and chassis setup data — but he came up short in the No. 12 Chevy (58.3120s). Championship leader Alex Palou, fastest in an earlier stage of qualifying, also had no answer for Ferrucci with the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda (58.4316s).
“It’s no secret how hard we’ve been working this year,” Ferrucci said. “My first career pole in IndyCar, and I’m not known for being the best qualifier. It feels great to put it together. I can’t thank this team enough. We brought it.”
After Palou it was Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard in fourth with the No. 45 Honda (58.5809s), Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood in the No. 27 Honda (58.5960s), and RLL’s Graham Rahal (58.6332s) in sixth as he delivered a strong performance for the team.
The surprises weren’t reserved for Foyt and Ferrucci on Saturday afternoon. The other big news was found with the laundry list of those who were expected to shine but fell well short of expectation like Andretti’s Colton Herta (P10), Ganassi’s Scott Dixon (P11), and Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (P14), who hold second, third, and fifth in the championship. The Arrow McLaren team as a whole collapsed in qualifying as Alexander Rossi was best among its trio (P18) ahead of Pato O’Ward (P23), and Nolan Siegel (P24).
All will have 110 laps on Sunday to try and rectify their problems.
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Opening the Firestone Fast 12 eliminations, 14 drivers fought to make the top six transfer spots, and once the 10-minute run was over, the happy half dozen were headed by Lundgaard, Kirkwood, Ferrucci, Herta, Rahal, and Dixon.
Drivers who were locked into place were led by Pietro Fittipaldi (starting P13), Rinus VeeKay (P15), Christian Rasmussen (P17), a surprised David Malukas (P19), Toby Sowery (P21), O’Ward (P23), Sting Ray Robb (P25), and Conor Daly (P27),
The second phase of the Fast 12 knockout qualifying session promoted a top six of Palou, Power, Marcus Armstrong, Marcus Ericsson, Romain Grosjean, and Josef Newgarden.
A shocker to miss the cut was Scott McLaughlin (P14), who was fastest in the first two practice sessions, followed by an impressive Juri Vips (P16), Rossi (P18), Felix Rosenqvist (P20), Linus Lundqvist (P22), Siegel (P24), Kyffin Simpson (P26), and Jack Harvey (P28).
Three minutes into the proper Fast 12 saw Palou nose into the tires at the final corner, but he was able to quickly reverse and continue without causing a yellow.
Seventh through 12th were settled with Newgarden, Grosjean, Armstrong, Herta, Dixon, and Ericsson.
NEXT UP: Final practice at 8:15 p.m. ET.