Newgarden wins Long Beach pole

LONG BEACH » The IndyCar championship race tightened ahead of the Grand Prix of Long Beach after a messy qualifying session put contenders Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward in the middle of the pack.

“Maybe rules don’t apply the last race of the season? When everything’s at stake? It just sucks,” O’Ward fumed after he failed to advance to the final round of qualifying.

O’Ward believed he should have been in the Fast Six after other drivers failed to slow during a local yellow and should have been disqualified. O’Ward argued he should have been moved from eighth to at least sixth, and Arrow McLaren SP even said teammate Felix Rosenqvist should have been penalized for speeding.

Despite a lengthy delay for IndyCar to review the results, the Fast Six remained unchanged and O’Ward was slotted in eighth for the start of Sunday’s title-deciding race. He’s second in the standings, 35 points behind leader Palou, and was furious with IndyCar’s inaction.

“We have literal data that shows at least two other cars didn’t get penalized and kept going quickly in the yellow flag,” the 22-year-old Mexican said. He’d initially angrily left pit road, had calmed down by the time he reached the news conference, but grew heated again when the subject was raised.

“We’re still waiting on the explanation, just like you and everybody else,” O’Ward said. “But I doubt I’ll get an explanation.”

Palou was caught by the same local yellow in the qualifying session and will start 10th.

Josef Newgarden, meanwhile, won the pole.

The American is a distant third in the standings but still mathematically in the mix for the title, which would be his third. With Palou and O’Ward watching, Newgarden seized the opportunity and won the pole for Sunday’s seasonending race.

He credited a fan who has been roaming the temporary street course hyping Newgarden and Team Penske all weekend. But he doesn’t think the fan enthusiasm will be enough to win the title.

“We’ve fought hard all year, but it’s very improbable for us to win the championship,” Newgarden said. “Our goal is to win the race.”