Alex Palou just keeps finding ways to make history, and this time he did it during qualifying.
Sunday was all about the speed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and with the fastest qualifying performance, Palou won the pole for the 2026 Indianapolis 500 and will lead the 33-car field to green next Sunday (12:30 p.m. ET on FOX).
Palou is now the first defending Indy 500 champion to win the pole for the following year’s race since Hélio Castroneves did it in 2010. This is Palou’s second Indy 500 pole after also winning it in 2023.
On the iconic 2.5-mile track, Palou put up a four-lap average speed of 232.248 miles per hour to win the pole, edging out Alexander Rossi and David Malukas, who will join him on the front row at the start of the Indy 500.
But there was a ton of on-track action Sunday — especially after bad weather forced the Saturday session of qualifying for the Indy 500 to be postponed a day — to determine the Indy 500 starting order for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
There were three qualifying sessions, the first of which determined the starting order for positions 13-33. Then there was the Fast 12 Shootout, followed by the Fast Six for the pole.
Here’s a look at the results from Indy 500 qualifying and the race’s starting lineup with each driver’s four-lap average speed.
1. Alex Palou (232.248 mph)
2. Alexander Rossi (231.990 mph)
3. David Malukas (231.877 mph)
4. Felix Rosenqvist (231.375 mph)
5. Santino Ferrucci (230.846 mph)
6. Pato O’Ward (230.442 mph)
7. Kyffin Simpson (230.883 mph)
8. Conor Daly (230.712 mph)
9. Scott McLaughlin (230.577 mph)
10. Caio Collet (230.539 mph)
11. Scott Dixon (230.347 mph)
12. Rinus Veekay (229.585 mph)
13. Takuma Sato (230.995 mph)
14. Ed Carpenter (230.829 mph)
15. Hélio Castroneves (230.811 mph)
16. Christian Rasmussen (230.705 mph)
17. Marcus Armstrong (230.701 mph)
18. Marcus Ericsson (230.667 mph)
19. Christian Lundgaard (230.661 mph)
20. Will Power (230.279 mph)
21. Nolan Siegel (230.213 mph)
22. Louis Foster (230.212 mph)
23. Ryan Hunter-Reay (230.202 mph)
24. Josef Newgarden (230.165 mph)
25. Romain Grosjean (229.791 mph)
26. Kyle Kirkwood (229.607 mph)
27. Katherine Legge (229.456 mph)
28. Mick Schumacher (229.450 mph)
29. Jack Harvey (229.207 mph)
30. Graham Rahal (229.017 mph)
31. Dennis Hauger (228.982 mph)
32. Jacob Abel (228.169 mph)
33. Sting Ray Robb (226.572 mph)
