Rinus VeeKay takes IndyCar pole at Barber; Alexander Rossi rebounds from crash

LEEDS, Alabama — Rinus VeeKay earned his second career NTT IndyCar Series pole position Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park, and Alexander Rossi rebounded from a practice crash to qualify fifth.

VeeKay turned a lap of 1 minute, 6.2507 seconds in his No. 21 Dallara-Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, topping qualifying for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.

It was the first pole for VeeKay since Oct. 1 ,2020 when he qualified first for the Harvest GP at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

SATURDAY SPEEDS: Click here for qualifying results l Click here for Practice 2 l Click here for P3 l Combined

HOW TO WATCH BARBER: All the details for Sunday’s race at NBC

“I thought we had potential,” VeeKay said. “It was a chaotic session. We knew we were in a good position, but to actually put it on pole was an accomplishment. I think the whole team maximized everything. We made the right decisions with tires, setup, everything.

“Confidence is high. I think from here we can have a great race and fight for the win, definitely.”

Sunday’s race broadcast will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday on NBC.

VeeKay became the fourth pole-sitter in four IndyCar races this season. Pato O’Ward (who won the 2021 pole at Barber) qualified a season-best second, followed by defending series champion Alex Palou, Scott McLaughlin, Rossi and Felix Rosenqvist.

Rossi made the Fast Six despite making only six laps after slamming the wall in a morning practice session. All four Andretti Autosport teams scrambled to replace the back half of his No. 27 Dallara-Honda in just under three hours.

“An unfortunate mistake on my part,” Rossi said as Andretti team members thrashed to make an engine change, too.

“There’s a huge amount of guys, a lot of different color