Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh driver Alex Palou was hoping for a better result for his maiden NTT IndyCar Series road course qualifying session on Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the rookie had to settle for 21st on the starting grid for Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix.

Despite the end result, Palou impressed on his initial three-lap qualifying outing by placing third quickest with a lap time of 1:11.57 set on the primary Firestone ‘black’ tire. However, he was unable to get his alternate Firestone tires up to temperature for his final run in the 10-minute session. His fastest lap time of 1:11.1815 placed him 11th in his qualifying group.

“I’m disappointed with my qualifying result today,” expressed Palou. “When we first went out on the primary Firestone tire we were really good and were sitting P3 before going back out on the reds for our final lap. I had traffic on the out lap, like everybody, but I was not able to get the tires up to where they needed to be, so I didn’t have enough grip on my final lap and that’s why our result wasn’t so good. It’s all part of the learning experience, I guess. However, I’m happy with the first run we did, and I’m also encouraged for tomorrow because I believe we have a strong car for the race and that’s when it counts the most.”

Palou and his fellow NTT IndyCar Series drivers will get a final 30-minute warm up session tomorrow morning at 9:00am. The GMR Grand Prix will be broadcast live on NBC starting at Noon ET on Saturday, July 4.