Penske makes a clean sweep of qualifying at Milwaukee

Team Penske qualified for this weekend’s Hy-Vee Milwaukee doubleheader, with Scott McLaughlin taking the pole for tonight’s first race and Josef Newgarden securing the pole for Sunday afternoon’s second race.

McLaughlin drove the No. 1 Chevy. 3 at the top with a lap of 162.341 mph and will start second for race two.

Behind the Penske duo for the first race, which took place at 6:00 PM ET on Saturday, the rest of the top six was completed by David Malukas, Alexander Rossi, Linus Lundqvist and Will Power.

“It was hard to drive properly; I think Josef would agree that the UV of the track was up, it was quite loose and a strange level of grip,” said McLaughlin. “It’s nice to just do a wheel and manage a pole here.”

Mirroring his teammate, Newgarden will start second for Saturday’s race and takes the pole for Sunday with a lap of 160.983 mph in the No. 1 Chevy. 2.

In race two, the Penske front row has Marcus Armstrong, Power, Lundqvist and Rossi in tow.

“Heavy tours around Milwaukee,” Newgarden said. “It makes you work for it. We probably overshot a bit, but we weren’t going to overshoot today.”

Of the surprises, championship leader Alex Palou missed the pace with a run of 13th for race one and 10th for race two. Even worse, the entire Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team missed out on something big as its trio were three of the slowest for Saturday and earned the bottom three spots for Sunday.

RACE LINE 1

GILIA RACE 2