Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou claim poles as penalties shake up Milwaukee grid

What a wild Saturday morning at the Milwaukee Mile. Scott McLaughlin and Alex Palou absolutely nailed their flying laps to secure the NTT P1 Awards for the double-header weekend, only for the grid to get completely flipped on its head before the lights even go out.

Let us start with McLaughlin. The man put the No. 3 Clarience Technologies Team Penske Chevrolet on pole for the first race with a blistering top lap of 165.536 mph. It is his second pole of the season and the 13th of his career, and a properly brilliant piece of driving on the historic 1.015-mile oval. "I’m happy, and I felt that was a solid lap, for sure," McLaughlin said. Unfortunately for him, that beauty of a machine is taking a nine-spot grid penalty for an unapproved engine change following last weekend’s race at Washington. That drops him all the way down to 10th on the grid for the Snap-on Makers and Fixers 250, though he remains defiant: "We’ll just ship it and see where we end up."

Palou is right there with him in more ways than one. The reigning and four-time series champion, chasing a record-tying fourth consecutive title, bagged his eighth pole of the season and the 20th of his career for Sunday's Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 by clocking a 164.658 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda on his second lap. But for today's race, Palou actually qualified second at 164.147, only to collect the exact same nine-spot engine penalty as McLaughlin, dropping his Honda to the 11th starting spot. "I would prefer not to have that penalty, but this is probably the only place if you have a fast car and you feel good with the car, you have plenty of laps to make our way forward," Palou noted.

David Malukas suffered the exact same fate in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. After qualifying third at 164.058, he tumbles back nine spots on the starting grid due to the identical unapproved engine change penalty coming out of the nation’s capital.

All of this chaos opens the door wide open for none other than Pato O'Ward. Benefiting directly from those three penalties, O'Ward will inherit the top starting spot for today's race in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet after originally qualifying fourth at 164.019. "I’m pleased with that," O'Ward said. "I’m really happy with my car, and I really think we can make this weekend a good one. I think it would be a closeout to this oval championship, which has been a little bit tougher for us this year." Two-time series champion Josef Newgarden, who topped Friday's practice, slotted his No. 2 Snap-on Team Penske Chevrolet fifth for today's race at 163.771.