Scott Dixon will start in second for the final race of the IndyCar season in Long Beach after a chaotic qualifying.
Josef Newgarden will start from pole, to keep his championship hopes alive, while his championship rivals were caught in drama in the fast 12 session.
Scott McLaughlin will start 13th after just missing out on advancing to the fast 12.
With two minutes remaining in the group one session, McLaughlin put in a strong lap to go to the top of the leaderboard before others started their fast laps.
Dixon put in his fastest time as the session ended, going to first before Newgarden beat his time as an incident brought out the red flag.
Jack Harvey ran wide hitting a tyre bundle, when Will Power came around the corner on a fast lap clipping Harvey, leaving his car with rear suspension and wing damage.
Power’s team had very limited time to fix the damage before the fast 12 session began.
In a separate incident, championship contender Pato O’Ward also hit the wall reporting to his team that he could feel damage to his car as the session ended.
In the group two session, Colton Herta’s high-risk strategy to save a set of tyres didn’t play out, leaving the car out of the next session, with damage and having used the tyres they attempted to save.
Herta’s team had hope they may still make the fast 12 with race control investigating Romain Grosjean who ended the session in fourth, and Oliver Askew for an impeding incident, before announcing no further action would be taken.
All three championship contenders made it through to the fast 12 sessions, with Power also making it out for the session after his team was able to fix the damage to his car.
Despite making it out for the session Power again had problems, bringing out a yellow flag in turn nine, causing more drama, as race control had to determine if anyone went faster while the local yellow was out.
First and second in the championship, Alex Palou and O’Ward were caught in the drama both sitting just outside the top six when the session ended.
The final race of the season will start at 8 am tomorrow morning.
Main image: Joe Skibinski
