PORTLAND (Sept. 3, 2022)–On permanent road courses, Kyle Kirkwood posted his second best qualifying effort of the season in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet at Portland International Raceway this afternoon.

Kirkwood will start 13th, having barely missed advancing out of the first round of qualifying for the Grand Prix of Portland with his time of 58.4865 seconds (120.889mph) around the 1.96-mile course. He was just off less than eight hundredths of a second from advancing.

“So close to getting into the Fast 12!” Kirkwood commented afterwards, adding, “Seven hundredths of a second between me and Graham (Rahal) and Colton (Herta) barely bumped us out there at the end. Overall, we’ve been solid all weekend long. We were fortunate enough to have a test last week and I think some of the pace that we found there has transferred to this weekend and we’re quite happy with the car. I think we’re actually better in warmer conditions but it was cold this morning and through qualifying, which I think actually hurts us. As it gets warmer this afternoon and then warmer tomorrow for the race, I think we’ll actually get quite a bit better than what we were showing this morning.”

Dalton Kellett posted a time of 59.0082 seconds (119.821mph) and will start 25th in the No. 4 K-Line Insulators USA Chevrolet.

“We definitely tightened the gap up from where we were in practice this morning to the field,” said the Canadian. “We found some good time in qualifying but it wasn’t really enough. We’ll have our work cut out for us in the race. We’ve been making steady improvements through the weekend so we’re going to carry that into the warmup this afternoon and into the race tomorrow.”

Scott McLaughlin won the NTT P1 award with his time of 58.2349 seconds (121.412mph); it was his third career INDYCAR pole. Josef Newgarden qualified second but he was dropped six positions for an unscheduled engine change (after the last race). He will start eighth which will move his teammate and current NTT INDYCAR Series point leader Will Power to the front row alongside his other teammate. Rounding out the Firestone Fast Six were rookie Christian Lundgaard, Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward.

NBC will broadcast the 110-lap Grand Prix of Portland tomorrow starting at 3 p.m. ET and the race will also be streamed live on Peacock Premium. INDYCAR Radio Network will also cover the race live.