O’Ward snags Mid-Ohio pole as title contenders struggle

LEXINGTON, Ohio — The IndyCar championship race faces a major shakeup at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where the top title contenders struggled and Pato O’Ward won the pole to match a series mark set in 1961.

O’Ward became the ninth different pole winner through nine races this season — the first time that’s happened in 61 years — and the Arrow McLaren SP driver now has a shot at the IndyCar points lead.

The modern-day record for different drivers winning the pole to start a season is 10 in 1952.

“This is huge, man, it’s a track position race,” O’Ward said of the difficulty to pass on Mid-Ohio’s 13- turn, 2.258-mile course. “It’s a long race. A lot can happen but we have a great starting position.”

The championship leaders will start Sunday’s race mired in deep traffic.

Marcus Ericsson, Will Power and Josef Newgarden all failed to advance out of the first group of Saturday qualifying, then reigning series champion Alex Palou was knocked out of the second round.

“IndyCar, man,” shrugged Palou. It created a huge opportunity for O’Ward and Scott Dixon to make up serious ground in the championship race. O’Ward and Dixon were the only two drivers ranked in the top six of the championship standings to advance to the final round of Saturday qualifying; O’Ward is ranked fourth in the standings, 45 points behind Ericsson, while Dixon trails his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Ericsson by 69 points.

O’Ward was followed in qualifying by Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske as Chevrolet drivers swept the front row. Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport was third for Honda and O’Ward teammate Felix Rosenqvist was fourth.

Dixon and Simon Pagenaud of Meyer Shank Racing rounded out the third row in Hondas.

A pair of early mistakes in qualifying hampered the two championship leaders.

Indianapolis 500 winner Ericsson said dirt was being kicked back onto the track during his attempt. The current IndyCar points leader will start 13th. Power was penalized for interfering with Helio Castroneves’ laps.

Newgarden said he was stymied by traffic.

“It’s just IndyCar qualifying, sometimes it is totally fine and you have no issues,” Newgarden said. “It’s a tight track and we’re going out first and I catch the slowpokes all the time.”

Power, who trails Ericsson by 27 points in the standings, had his two fastest laps disqualified and will start 21st. He said it was a Team Penske error that likely cost him any chance of winning Sunday.

“In this series, anything can happen, but you’re not going to get that many cars to fall back. You’re not going to win, put it that way,” Power said. “And weekends when you’ve got a car that can win, you cannot be doing this. This is on us, we weren’t on top of that one, and that’s the rules.”