Front-Row Start for Palou, Honda at the GMR Grand Prix

• Championship points leader Alex Palou will start second in Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing places all three entries in the top 12

SPEEDWAY, Ind. (May 13, 2022) – Defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou led the way for Honda today in qualifying for Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix on the road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and will start on the front row, second in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Other Honda drivers to advance out of first round “knockout” qualifying today on the 2.439-mile Indy road course include Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammates Christian Lundegaard and Jack Harvey, who will start eighth and ninth, respectively; and Romain Grosjean, who qualified his Andretti Autosport Honda in 10^th. Graham Rahal also advanced to the second qualifying round, and will start his RLL Honda from 12^th in Saturday’s 85-lap race.

GMR Grand Prix Indianapolis Qualifying Results

• 2^nd Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
• 8^th Christian Lundegaard-R Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
• 9^th Jack Harvey Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
• 10^th Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport Honda
• 12^th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
• 13^th Takuma Sato Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
• 14^th Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Honda
• 16^th Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Honda
• 17^th Devlin DeFrancesco-R Andretti Autosport Honda
• 18^th Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
• 19^th Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda
• 20^th Simon Pageaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda
• 21^st Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
• 22^nd David Malukas-R Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
• 27^th Jimmie Johnson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) will start second: “Yeah, it was a good day for us. The #10 Honda was really fast all day, in both practice sessions. We tried to improve the car

a bit more for qualifying and we did. We found some stuff that I was happy about, and we got through to the Fast Six [final qualifying round] and that’s always our main target – to start up front. So, making the Fast Six and starting on the front row, that’s a good day for us.”

Fast Facts

The “Month of May” begins this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the GMR Grand Prix. Held on the IMS infield road course, Saturday’s 85-lap race will kick off three weeks of on-track activities leading up to the 106^th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 29.

On the strength of three podium finishes in four races this season, defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES Champion Alex Palou comes to the GMR Grand Prix with a three-point lead in the 2022 title chase.

Honda’s most recent win at the GMR Grand Prix came in 2020. Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal scored a 1-2 finish for Honda, with Colton Herta finishing fourth. Honda drivers went on to win the Indianapolis 500 in both 2020 (Takuma Sato, his second ‘500’ victory) and 2021 (Helio Castroneves, for his record-tying fourth win at the Brickyard).

Where to Watch

Television coverage of Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix starts at 3 p.m. EDT on NBC. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

Honda Racing social media content and video links from this weekend’s activities from Indianapolis can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).