THERMAL, Calif. (March 22, 2025) -- For the second race in a row, David Malukas and Santino Ferrucci will be starting nose to tail after qualifying 12th and 14th respectively for The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix this afternoon.
Starting in Group One of Round 1, Malukas and team decided to use two sets of the softer but faster alternate tires around the picturesque 3.067-mile road course. The 23-year-old benefited from putting down a lap early in the second part of his round because a car dropped a wheel off and scattered sand on the racing surface causing an issue for some of his competitors. Fifth quickest, he advanced to Round 2.
Faced with running used reds in the second round, he didn't fare as well and Malukas's fast lap of 1 minute, 41.2997 seconds will see him start on the outside of row 6.
"It was good run for us," Malukas said. "I mean, we were struggling in the practice sessions to kind of find the setup where we wanted to be but we did a really good job estimating on what it needed for the alternates. Obviously, we committed to just go alternates and use both of them in that first round because the pace didn't really seem there. It all worked out because the second set, somebody dropped a wheel and ruined everybody's lap, so we still got that first lap in. So let's just say it's a good day from what has been a tough weekend for us trying to find the setup. The race is going to be a primary tire race, so we need to make sure that we can get the No. 4 Chevrolet where it needs to be for the primaries."
Starting outside on row 7 is his teammate Santino Ferrucci in the No. 14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet. Ferrucci's crew opted to save a set of the alternates for the second round. Unfortunately, he had a small error on his alternate tire run and he missed advancing into the Round 2 by just two-thousandths of a second after posting a lap time of 1 minute, 40.6658 seconds.
"It was a solid run," Ferrucci said. "I think we did a really good job as a team. I just had a couple mistakes in the lap, which add up to a little bit. We should have advanced but it was a good learning curve. Feel good about the Sexton Properties Chevrolet going into tomorrow. Good to pass some people and come home with a top-five."
Pato O'Ward won the pole position with his lap of 1 minute, 39.9567 seconds netting his sixth career NTT P1 award. Rounding out the Firestone Fast Six were his teammate Christian Lundgaard, Alex Palou, Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson and Alexander Rossi.
Following a 30-minute warmup for the 27-car grid, FOX will broadcast the race live starting at 3 p.m. ET tomorrow afternoon.
