Alex Palou completed a victory lap from David to Goliath in the space of an afternoon on Sunday, the three-time IndyCar champion adding the pole position for the 110th Indianapolis 500 to his haul of trophies after admitting before the Firestone Fast Six that he had not expected to feature anywhere near the front.
The Spaniard's run, set in compressed conditions after Saturday's washout, was good enough for the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda's second Indy 500 pole and a continuation of the dominant 2026 season that has already produced wins at St Petersburg, Long Beach and Indianapolis Road Course.
"You've won 11 of the last 23 IndyCar races including this one," the broadcast asked Palou as he climbed from the cockpit. "Does winning the pole for this race, is that as big as any race win?"
"Yeah, it is. I mean, look how we're celebrating. It's our race week. It's our race this weekend," the defending Indy 500 winner replied. "It's not easy to do everything like this team is executing. We're able to do it because of DHL and everybody that is supporting us throughout the year. But yeah, did not expect it. You could see that the celebration was really high because this morning when we woke up we did not expect this speed."
Palou's run was one of those Indianapolis moments where the leaderboard itself tells only half the story. The Ganassi crew had been quietly working through their qualifying programme since Thursday, but as the team principal acknowledged, the pace they uncovered in the Fast Six surprised even those running the car.
David Malukas slotted into second to secure Team Penske's 50th front row start at the Brickyard, the Verizon Chevrolet driver crediting a final-run learning curve for the missed pole.
"The last one was definitely the best one. We really pushed the limits. I think that was as much as it could give," Malukas said. "The first lap was a little bit of a learning curve getting the gearing right with this wind differential between the two straights. So, it was missing those two tenths. I think absolute maximum we could have been P2 there. I had nothing for Palou. I mean, congrats to him. That was mega, mega four laps."
Felix Rosenqvist, who had topped the earlier Fast 12 shootout, slipped to fourth in the final run despite a similar pace to his earlier benchmark. The Swede had no problem with the Honda's overall pace but admitted the missing speed had been a fraction of a mile per hour out of the Chevrolet's reach.
"It was quite a big gap from run two to run three, like 1.3 mph. It felt good, it just didn't seem like it was that much in it. They just didn't go as fast as they say," Rosenqvist said. "It's kind of deja vu for me. I had this three times now when we kind of got into the last round and want to finish it off and then, yeah, it just kind of like a curse, but it is what it is. I'm super proud of the team anyways. Congrats to Alex and Honda on the pole."
Santino Ferrucci anchored the second row for AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet in fifth, the American crediting a stable car and a long week of engineering work for keeping him in the Fast Six.
"We've been working on this thing since Thursday. That's how long we've been in Q trim. I think we've definitely found quite a bit of pace," Ferrucci said. "Obviously I don't think we had enough to fight for pole, but I think all of us when we woke up this morning didn't think we'd be in the Fast Six. So, this is a very pleasant surprise."
For Palou, the pole positions him exactly where he wants to be heading into next Sunday's race: at the front of a Ganassi-Honda effort that has already won 11 of the last 23 IndyCar starts, and at the wheel of a car that arrived at the Brickyard quietly and is leaving it looking like the one to beat.
---
*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/palou-indy-500-pole-fast-six-2026-front-row). Visit for full coverage.*