Qualifying report

IndyCar Phoenix Raceway

David Malukas earns Phoenix IndyCar pole as Will Power crashes hard in qualifying

Mick Schumacher also impressed, qualifying on the second row for his oval debut

Joey Barnes

Edited: Mar 7, 2026, 4:28 AM

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David Malukas, No. 12 Team Penske

Photo by: Gavin Baker / Lumen via Getty Images

David Malukas delivered a smooth run to capture pole for the Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway on Saturday.

The 24-year-old Chicago native, who is Team Penske’s newest driver in the #12 Chevrolet, ripped around the 1-mile tri-oval with a flat-out two-lap run with an average of 175.383mph to go to the top of the scoring pylon. It’s the first career pole for Malukas.

“Oh, man, finally, I’m just so happy,” Malukas said. “We had so many P2s. The story of all of last season is we wait until the last few guys and then, boom, we get P2. But finally, we got it! I think the track got in our favor a little bit, it looked like it was getting a bit worse, but we got it. Feels so good.”

Nicknamed ‘the oval king’ by the FOX Sports broadcast team, his Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, a two-time Indianapolis 500 champion, was unable to overthrow Malukas in qualifying, managing a respectable run of 174.548mph two-lap average to start second.

RLL and Schumacher shine

Graham Rahal’s #15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) Honda got loose at the end of his run, but not before temporarily going to the top after two flying laps with an average of 173.993mph. He’ll start third.

RLL rookie Mick Schumacher was the first driver to go out, running a pair of clean laps for an average of 173.667mph to slot fourth for his oval debut.

“Yeah, pretty quick, pretty short, but not great,” Schumacher said. “Great to have the experience. I think we managed to get a good couple of laps together, so hopefully we'll be right in there in the mix and we can manage to have a good start.”

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin ended up fifth after a two-lap run of 173.448mph.

ECR’s Alexander Rossi was able to log a 173.389mph outing, ending up sixth. Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward’s promising run was shot with a handful of a second lap, nailing a combined run of 173.344mph to snag seventh.

Reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou, last week’s winner, could only get up to 10th in his qualifying run, hitting an average of 172.980mph in the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Six-time series champion Scott Dixon struggled during his qualifying run, hitting a 172.074mph two-lap average for 15th in the #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

The #21 ECR Chevrolet of Christian Rasmussen, who won the most recent short oval race at the Milwaukee Mile last year, struggled to get going, only mustering a run at 171.540mph. He’ll roll off 17th in tomorrow’s race.

Another rookie, Dennis Hauger, had a less-than-stellar outing after plowing to a 169.818mph two-lap run in the #19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. He’ll start 22nd.

Power slams the wall

The trouble continued for Will Power, who was the fourth to go out and was on his second of two laps when the backend of his #26 Andretti Global Honda snapped around and backed into the Turn 3 wall. He’ll have to come from 24th on the grid.

“I'm good,” Power said. “My knee hit the dash when it came up, so just pretty sore but nothing broken or anything.”

When asked if he’d be cleared to drive by FOX Sports reporter Kevin Lee, Power said, “I don't know man. I just don’t know what happened, the car is so much looser than we were this morning. It’s very strange. That was tough. The car had been very comfortable there all day. Man, rough start to the year, for sure. These sort of things happening are not good.”

Felix Rosenqvist, who crashed in opening practice, did not qualify after Meyer Shank Racing was unable to repair his #60 Honda in time and will start 25th (last).

Photos from Phoenix - Friday

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Will Power, Andretti Global

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Santino Ferrucci, A.J. Foyt Enterprises

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Marcus Ericsson, Andretti Global

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Kyffin Simpson, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Felix Rosenqvist, Meyer Shank w/ Curb-Agajanian

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

David Malukas, Team Penske

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Will Power, Andretti Global

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Graham Rahal

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Louis Foster, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Ryan Hunter-Reay, Pato O'Ward, Arrow McLaren

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Good Ranchers 250 at Phoenix Raceway

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Will Power, Andretti Global

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

David Malukas, Team Penske

Phoenix, Friday - in photos

IndyCar

Full starting lineup

cla # driver team time mph 1 12 David Malukas Team Penske 20.4928 175.671 2 2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 20.6046 174.718 3 3 Scott McLaughlin Team Penske 20.6868 174.024 4 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20.6391 174.426 5 47 Mick Schumacher Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20.7163 173.776 6 20 Alexander Rossi ECR 20.7483 173.508 7 5 Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 20.6000 174.757 8 76 Rinus VeeKay Juncos Hollinger Racing 20.7626 173.389 9 6 Nolan Siegel Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian 20.7583 173.425 10 27 Kyle Kirkwood Andretti Global 20.7941 173.126 11 10 Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing 20.8517 172.648 12 77 Ray Robb Sting Juncos Hollinger Racing 20.8594 172.584 13 66 Marcus Armstrong Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian 20.8530 172.637 14 28 Marcus Ericsson Andretti Global 20.8614 172.568 15 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 20.8776 172.434 16 45 Louis Foster Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20.9078 172.185 17 7 Christian Lundgaard Arrow McLaren 20.9625 171.735 18 21 Christian Rasmussen ECR 20.8591 172.587 19 8 Kyffin Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing 20.9343 171.967 20 18 Romain Grosjean Dale Coyne Racing 21.0706 170.854 21 14 Santino Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20.9242 172.050 22 19 Dennis Hauger Dale Coyne Racing 21.1375 170.313 23 4 Caio Collet A.J. Foyt Enterprises 21.4158 168.100 24 26 Will Power Andretti Global -- -- 25 60 Felix Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian -- --

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