LOVES PARK, Ill. — Dale Nottestad won the 88-lap Big 8 Series Spring Classic late model stock car race at Rockford Speedway Saturday afternoon.

Nottestad wheeled his Glass Works/Badger Realty Team/Seitz Towing/Club LaMark-sponsored Chevrolet to the victory after setting fast time at the high-banked, quarter-mile, paved oval earlier in the day.

Hailing from Cambridge, Wis., Nottestad had a .768-second lead at the checkered flag over Nick Egan. Two-time Rockford late model champion Jon Reynolds Jr., Tom Berens, early race leader Mike Lloyd and Jerry Mueller rounded out the top six finishers.

Six caution periods, including a mandatory stop after 45 laps were complete, slowed the action. Nottestad used an inside move on leader Will Rece after a restart at the 27-lap mark to take the lead after starting 12th in the field.

“I had a good car all day. It just took a few laps to get going (after the restarts),” said Nottestad. “It worked out. I didn’t want another caution though.  I was taking my time and trying to stay out of trouble. Definitely, it (trouble) can happen quick here.”

The win was Nottestad’s second Spring Classic victory at the Rockford oval – his first coming in 2011. The last three Spring Classic races had been cancelled – last year’s because of the COVID 19 pandemic and the 2018 and 2019 events because of weather.

Nottestad’s initial plans were to bypass the Rockford race.

“I was planning on going to the Dells (Dells Motor Speedway in Wisconsin) to practice all day,” Nottestad said. “I got to thinking why wouldn’t I go to Rockford? I love racing here.  It’s probably one of my best tracks. It (the win) made it worth coming down here.”

Coming back from a broken driveshaft in the heat race, Ron Vandermeir Jr. was the winner of the Mid-Am Racing Series 40-lap stock car feature. Vandermeir, from Sheridan, Ill., raced side-by-side with Josh Nelms and finally grabbed the top spot as the race wound down.

Vandermeir, a three-time Mid-Am champion, including last year’s title, had a 1.250-second lead over Nelms at the finish.

Cody Clubb, Andrew Meyerhofer and Steve Blair rounded out the top five.

“Josh (Nelms) is a class act and I knew if there was anyone we could run door-to-door with it was him,” said Vandermeir. “There was a little bit of rubbing, but that racing at Rockford.  We ran a heck of a race between the two of us and we prevailed.”

The finish:

Dale Nottestad, Nick Egan, Jon Reynolds Jr., Tom Berens, Mike Lloyd, Jerry Mueller, Jacob Vanoskey, Randy Sargent, Grant Brown, Jeff Wakeman, Josh Thiering, Tyler Hromadka, Hunter Drefahl, Jeff Holtz, Mitch Haver, Will Rece, Mark Simonsen, Willie Nelson, Zach Braun, Austin Nason. 

LEEDS, Ala. – Saturday’s opening two rounds of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship at Barber Motorsports Park saw honors shared by Yuven Sundaramoorthy and Prescott Campbell.

Both claimed their maiden victories with the series.

However, a second-place finish in the opening leg of the Cooper Tires Grand Prix of Alabama enabled 20-year-old Campbell – a mechanical engineering student at Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom – to take the early championship lead.

After starting on pole position for race two, Campbell’s teammate Nolan Siegel had to be content with second, while Josh Pierson also enjoyed a tremendous day, earning a pair of third-place finishes for Pabst Racing.

Sundaramoorthy made a dream start to his third full season of USF2000 in qualifying Friday by claiming his first Cooper Tires Pole Award.

The lap of 1:21.1201 (102.071 mph) comfortably eclipsed the old track record set by Englishman Michael Epps way back in 2014.

The 18-year-old college freshman took advantage of his pace and his experience to maintain his advantage at the start. He remained under intense pressure from Campbell for a few laps following an early full-course caution but refused to become distracted.

Instead he turned a series of 10 ultra-consistent laps, all within a couple of tenths of a second, to eke out a little breathing space and ensure a finely judged maiden victory by 2.3321 seconds.

“This feels so great, it’s been so long coming, so long in the works. To finally do this, and to do it from pole, feels great,” said Sundaramoorthy.  “I didn’t get fast lap, so I didn’t get the grand slam of points, but I’ll take it! I knew Prescott would burn his tires up in the aero wash, so I just waited for him to fall back and focused on putting my laps together with no mistakes. It was a lot of pressure so mistakes were my biggest worry, but everything worked out. And having my teammate on the podium, with plenty of points for the team, makes it that much better.

“The Pabst team put everything together and the Cooper tires held up perfectly.”

Campbell also secured his best-ever USF2000 result after joining DEForce Racing for his sophomore campaign, although rather than being able to sustain his challenge for the win, instead he had to focus on the challenge from behind as Pierson remained seemingly glued to his gearbox.

Michael d’Orlando finished three seconds farther back in fourth after fending off a race-long challenge from Christian Brooks and impressive teammate Billy Frazer, who was the top rookie finisher and also earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award after working his way up from 12th on the grid.

Fellow rookies Spike Kohlbecker and Jace Denmark also finished close behind, although Denmark had run as high as fifth before making a couple of small errors.

Siegel, who finished a disappointing 10th in the opening race – but showed his speed by claiming the fastest lap of the race, worth an extra championship point – had another opportunity to shine in race two for which he had earned the Cooper Tires Pole Award during a second qualifying session on Friday.

The start was delayed until after NTT IndyCar Series qualifying by a power outage, and began with the DEForce trio of Siegel, Campbell and Brazilian Kiko Porto holding the top three positions.

Significantly cooler conditions and a couple of brief early caution periods brought some shuffling of the order as Pierson jumped from sixth to fourth and then, more significantly, Campbell managed to take the lead when Siegel slid a little wide at turn one following the second restart on lap seven.

From there, Campbell never looked back as he maintained a narrow edge over a pack of four pursuers for the remainder of the race. He finally took the checkered flag just over a half-second clear of Siegel, with Pierson, Porto and Brooks virtually in his tire tracks.

“It’s hard to put this into words, I’m just ecstatic to finally get this done,” noted Campbell. “I qualified P2 for race one, P2 in race two, finished P2 in Race One, so I was really hungry to go one better and I finally got it done. I ran a clean race, no mistakes, and that was the difference. With the aero wash, it’s hard to pass here, so it takes a mistake to change position when you’re that close, but I’m gutted for Nolan.

“Huge thanks to the team, they gave us the best car this weekend as evidenced by my teammates’ performance as well – and thanks to my parents, they’re the ones who have gotten me here, and my sponsors as well.”

Myles Rowe also impressed on the debut both for himself and the Force Indy team, part of IndyCar’s Race for Equality & Change. Rowe, who started fourth, slipped as low as ninth before making some fine passes in the closing stages to finish hot on the heels of Brooks.

Rookie Jackson Lee took home the Tilton Hard Charger Award by virtue of climbing from 23rd on the grid, following a problem in qualifying, to 14th.

LAS VEGAS – Brittany Force made her last Top Fuel qualifying run count in a major way on Saturday, powering to the No. 1 spot at the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Robert Hight (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also qualified No. 1 in their respective categories at the second race of the 2021 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Force, who sat out the bulk of the 2020 NHRA season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, jumped to the top spot with a run of 3.732-seconds at 320.66 mph in her 11,000-horsepower Flav-R-Pac dragster.

It came during the final qualifying session and gives the former world champion her first No. 1 qualifier of the year and the 21st in her career.

She’ll face off with Antron Brown and Justin Ashley to open eliminations.

Steve Torrence was bumped to the second position after his run of 3.741 at 328.94 from Friday and Doug Kalitta moved up to third in the final session with his pass of 3.743 at 314.83.

“It just shows this team has picked up right where we left off,” said Force, who won the fall race at Vegas in 2019. “We had a long time being away from the races, and coming back to Gainesville, we found our routine pretty quickly. Coming here and taking this No. 1 qualifier (spot), we’re excited and pumped. Thank you to David Grubnic, Mac Savage, and all of these Flav-R-Pac guys. We want to go out and win this thing. That’s our focus tomorrow, winning this thing and bringing home our first win of the season.”

Hight helped make it a clean sweep in nitro qualifying for John Force Racing, blasting to the No. 1 position in Funny Car by going 3.882 at 331.85 in his 11,000-horsepower Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS in the final qualifying quad on Saturday.

Alexis DeJoria had bumped Hight out of the top spot, but the veteran standout moved back to No. 1 with his stellar run moments later, earning his 69th career No. 1 qualifier.

He’ll be joined by Cruz Pedregon, J.R. Todd and Jonnie Lindberg in the opening round of eliminations.

John Force jumped DeJoria as well, finishing No. 2 with his run of 3.898 at 330.72, while DeJoria’s 3.912 at 321.04 puts her in the third spot.

“(Crew chief) Jimmy Prock has called every single run we’ve made this weekend,” said Hight, a five-time Vegas winner. “They have this Auto Club Chevrolet working great. We’ve got to go three rounds tomorrow and I think we’re in a good position to do that.”

Anderson continued his dominant start to the 2021 Pro Stock season, taking the No. 1 spot for the second straight race thanks to his run of 6.638 at 205.85 in his DENSO Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro. It also gives the four-time world champ his 108th career No. 1 qualifier.

Anderson will try for his second straight victory as well on Sunday and will be part of an opening-round quad that includes Fernando Cuadra, Val Smeland and Aaron Stanfield.

Matt Hartford qualified second with his 6.650 at 205.01 and Kyle Koretsky jumped to the third spot on his final pass with a 6.651 at 205.38, but Anderson remained a step ahead of everyone.

“We’re on a roll and the car is making beautiful runs,” said Anderson, who has eight career wins in Las Vegas. “We had a great weekend in Gainesville and so far this weekend, the car has made three flawless runs, and in front of (team owner) Ken Black. That’s what is important to me. We’re on his home turf and I love racing out here. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.

“So far, so good and this Denso Chevy has been on point, so let’s see if we can close the deal.”

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, provisional No. 1 qualifier M. Smith simply got better on Saturday, claiming the No. 1 spot with his impressive pass of 6.890 at 196.59 on his Denso Auto Parts/Stockseth/Matt Smith Racing EBR.

That gives Smith, the defending world champion, his 44th career No. 1 qualifier and in an ideal position to win his second straight race to open 2021.

His first-round opponents are Ryan Oehler and Karen Stoffer.

Matt’s wife, Angie, remained in the second spot with her 6.909 at 195.51 and she will look to win in Vegas for the second straight race. Steve Johnson qualified third with a 6.935 at 191.57.

“All in all, we just wanted to show how good we are, this DENSO motorcycle at this DENSO race. That’s what it’s all about,” Matt Smith said. “Everybody who helps us, we really appreciate it.”

A miscommunication between LAFC forward Carlos Vela and head coach Bob Bradley led to the former MLS MVP getting subbed off in the 22nd minute of Saturday's season-opening 2-0 win against Austin FC.

Vela went down in the box while trying to get on the end of a pass played a bit too far in front of him, was slow to get up and motioned to the sideline for assistance.

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"When he went off the field, he had a look and gave me little indication and then he came over and it was almost like he wanted to try," Bradley said after the match. "We still need to get to the bottom of it. There might be a little knot in there. Exactly what it means from here, hard to say.

"I can take responsibility if I make a move too fast. There is no problem for me saying that I jumped the gun too quickly, but it happens."

After sitting out of the MLS is Back tournament in 2020, Vela suffered a knee injury in his first game back that sidelined him for two months.

Vela's exit left LAFC without their two best scoring threats as forward Diego Rossi was not in the game day squad due to slight concern over a hamstring injury he picked up in training. Bradley indicated the injury is not expected to keep Rossi, last year's Golden Boot winner in MLS, out for a prolonged period of time.

Corey Baird, an offseason acquisition from Real Salt Lake, and Kwadwo Opoku, who entered for Vela, scored the goals to spoil Austin FC's MLS debut.

Queensland 389 (Labuschagne 192) beat New South Wales 143 (Neser 5-27, Wildermuth 4-21) and 213 (Doggett 3-37, Bartlett 3-42, Swepson 3-68) by an innings and 33 runs

Queensland won the Sheffield Shield for the ninth time as they secured an innings-and-33-run victory over New South Wales in a final they dominated from start to finish.

It was only a matter of time when play resumed on the fourth day - at the very early time of 8.54am - with New South Wales five down in their second innings still more than 100 runs behind and the winning moment came when Josh Hazlewood edged Brendan Doggett.

Mitchell Swepson claimed three of the remaining wickets needed during a probing spell of legspin having previously seen Queensland's quicks take all the rewards.

Michael Neser, who set up Queensland's stranglehold on the opening day with a five-wicket haul, made the first breakthrough when Sean Abbott edged to second slip with just two runs added to the overnight total.

Baxter Holt, one of youngsters brought into the New South Wales side for the latter part of the season, and Mitchell Starc resisted for 19 overs to raise the prospect of Queensland needing to bat again before Swepson made his incisions.

Holt missed a sweep and was struck on the back leg in front of middle stump and then Trent Copeland nicked a perfect leg-break to the keeper.

Starc continued to resist, taking his innings beyond 100 balls, but lost Nathan Lyon when he edged Swepson to slip where Usman Khawaja plucked out the catch high to his right.

With nine wickets down lunch would have been delayed but that wasn't required when Doggett, who was impressive in the second innings, lured Hazlewood into having a nibble outside off to send Queensland and the crowd - which passed 10,000 across the four days - into wild celebrations to end the longest season on record.

Patrick Marleau tied Gordie Howe's mark of 1,767 NHL games played when the visiting San Jose Sharks faced the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night.

On Monday night, health permitting, Marleau will set a league record at the Vegas Golden Knights.

It will add to a lengthy list of accomplishments, of course, for the 41-year-old Marleau, who had 566 goals headed into Saturday night's game, to go along with 1,196 points, three All-Star appearances and two Olympic gold medals for Canada (in 2010 and 2014).

"Just first and foremost is loving the game, and I just love being out there and playing," Marleau said Thursday as he approached Howe's record. "Obviously, every kid's dream is to hoist that Stanley Cup, so I've been chasing it all this time, and that goal hasn't changed for me, since you know what the Stanley Cup's about."

Indeed, the Stanley Cup has eluded Marleau, who made it to the Final once, in 2016, in a career with many playoff disappointments.

But it is his supreme skating skill and dependability that has allowed him to play 896 consecutive games since last missing a contest, when he was 29, that will be his legacy. He has played through the flu and various other bumps and bruises, and he even chartered a plane to join his teammates in Nashville for a game in 2009 after the birth of one of his sons.

"I want to be looked upon when I'm gone that I gave it my all," he said. "Enjoyed the game, loved the game, loved being around the team, loved winning games. Those are the biggest things."

Marleau made his debut on Oct. 1, 1997, at age 18 years and 16 days, which is the youngest for any player in the NHL since Lee Wharton debuted at 17 years, 81 days in 1945 for the Rangers.

Marleau scored 13 goals as a rookie and then had his first of 15 20-goal seasons the following season as he quickly established himself as a top player.

"He was an effortless skater from day one," said Sharks executive Mike Ricci, who spent seven years as Marleau's teammate. "That might be a thing he was blessed with. Being a natural skater and being in tip-top condition and working hard off ice and on the ice, these are the results you get. There are a lot of effortless players out there who can't play this long.

"I remember we used to joke around and I would tell him he could play until he was 60. Obviously, I was exaggerating a bit, but maybe I wasn't exaggerating as much as I thought."

While Marleau won't play until he is 60, he isn't ready to hang it up after this season, either. It's a similar mindset to that of Howe, who retired at 52 after posting 41 points in his final season for Hartford. Howe also played an additional 419 games in the WHA, which don't count toward his NHL record.

While players such as Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier and Chris Chelios approached Howe's mark, no one has been able to reach a record many thought was unbreakable when Howe retired.

"Records are made to be broken," said Howe's son Mark, a scout for Detroit who played 1,355 games combined in the NHL and WHA. "This one here, I thought would be a really, really tough one to break, but Patrick is finally going to do it."

Mark Howe joked that the oatmeal from Saskatchewan might have been what fueled both his father and Marleau through all those games. But there is something else that Marleau and Gordie Howe have in common.

"You can't do it unless you love what you're doing," Mark Howe said. "If you love going to the rink every day and have fun at it, it's a great job to have. Once it becomes work, then you're done. It's pretty clear he loves what he's doing."

Howe said his father would have been proud of Marleau if he were still alive and that the family would have someone on hand for the record-setting game if not for the pandemic.

Marleau has generated that kind of respect throughout the league, as evidenced by the well-wishes he has received in recent days from stars such as Anze Kopitar, Ryan Miller and Ryan Getzlaf, as well as from former coaches and teammates such as Todd McLellan and Marco Sturm after his final games of the season against their teams.

"For those guys to do all that, it's humbling," Marleau said. "You've played against them a lot of games, a lot of hard-fought battles. There's mutual respect there. For them to take the time to come over and shake my hand and congratulate me on what can possibly happen here in the next few days, I don't take that lightly. That obviously means a lot to me."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Twins' games against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday night and Sunday have been postponed due to Minnesota's COVID-19 problems, including at least four positive tests in the past week.

Kyle Garlick, another unnamed Twins player and a team staff member tested positive in the two days before the postponements, manager Rocco Baldelli said Saturday. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons already hadn't made the trip to Anaheim after testing positive early in the week, and he hadn't been around the team since Tuesday.

"There's not one person in our group who's not frustrated," Baldelli said. "Does everyone have that general frustration just having to deal with this in a grander sense? Absolutely. And then there are probably people who are frustrated about particular aspects of that."

Saturday's game was "postponed to allow for continued testing and contact tracing involving members of the Twins organization," the league said in a statement.

The Twins are undergoing more testing this weekend in Anaheim, and they're uncertain when they'll be allowed to play again. They haven't had any more positive tests from another round Saturday, but Baldelli knows that could be false hope.

"It's a difficult time, and we all know the timelines on these things," Baldelli said. "If someone had been exposed, [the results] are not necessarily immediate. We're going to return to the hotel, and we're going to await further instructions."

Garlick played when Minnesota lost 10-3 to the Angels on Friday night. Minnesota's next scheduled game is in Oakland on Monday night.

Some Twins personnel isolated themselves at the team hotel Friday, according to Baldelli, who said he had a false positive himself Thursday morning.

Some of the infected Twins had "very minor symptoms ... just mild fatigue, headache, scratchy throat, all that," Baldelli said.

"Things are not going to be easy because of it," Baldelli said. "We're going to have a great deal of challenges in addition to everything we've gone through, and we're going to be up for it and we're going to give it our best effort. None of this has gone to plan. This is the unfortunate reality we live in, but we're going to go forward. We're going to attack it and do the best we can."

The Twins made an organization-wide push for vaccination when they returned from spring training in Florida nearly three weeks ago. That push didn't include Simmons, who chose not to be vaccinated.

Baldelli said the team was "close to where we wanted to be, but not close enough" in regard to getting most of its employees vaccinated. He believes that about 80% of the team has received two doses of the vaccine, but many employees aren't outside the two-week window following the second dose to be considered fully vaccinated.

There were 45 regular-season games postponed for virus-related reasons last year, but only two -- between St. Louis and Detroit -- were not made up.

The Twins aren't scheduled to visit Angel Stadium again this season, and the Angels visit Minnesota for four games on July 22-25.

DENVER -- Jacob deGrom struck out nine straight batters against Colorado on Saturday, falling one shy of matching Tom Seaver's major league record.

He fell short of the record and nearly missed a win.

DeGrom finished with 14 strikeouts to lead the New York Mets over the Rockies 4-3 in a doubleheader opener. He threw his last pitch trailing and wound up with a win for just the third time -- the first since 2015.

Seaver set the record against San Diego on April 22, 1970, striking out his final 10 batters in a 19-strikeout performance.

"That would have been nice to reach but fell a little short," deGrom said with a smile.

Coming off a 14-strikeout performance in a 3-0 loss to Miami, deGrom became just the ninth pitcher to strike out as many as nine in a row.

"The fastball was the best weapon for him," Mets manager Luis Rojas said. "It's special. You don't see that often. You talk about Jake getting better every year and he goes out there, and we talked about the challenge of the weather, so it's a little bit of a different start. He makes an adjustment and does something special."

The streak ended in the fifth inning, when the Rockies took a 3-1 lead with three unearned runs, but the Mets rallied to win a series opener delayed a day by snow when pinch-hitter Jonathan Villar hit a score-tying double off Daniel Bard (0-1) in the seventh inning and Dominic Smith had a sacrifice fly.

Pete Alonso had homered in the sixth to pull the Mets within a run.

By winning the opener of a doubleheader of seven-inning games under coronavirus protocols, the Mets extended their winning streak to four for the first time since 2019.

DeGrom (1-0) allowed three unearned runs and three hits in six innings and walked one, lowering his ERA to 0.45.

He started the streak with a called third strike against Josh Fuentes for the first out of the second inning, then got Sam Hilliard and Dom Nunez swinging.

He struck out Chi Chi Gonzalez, Raimel Tapia and Ryan McMahon in the third and Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon and C.J. Cron in the fourth.

Fuentes grounded an 0-1 pitch leading off the fifth and reached on a throwing error by second baseman Jeff McNeil, ending the streak.

"I would have liked to have fielded it, but my glove hit my leg," deGrom said of Fuentes' grounder. "That's where we had him played. McNeil was there and he felt bad about it. I told him, 'Keep your head up,' and we ended up winning the ballgame."

Detroit reliever Tyler Alexander was the previous pitcher to strike out nine in a row, accomplishing the feat Aug. 2, 2020, against Cincinnati.

Colorado took a 3-1 lead against deGrom later in the fifth when Nunez hit an RBI triple, pinch-hitter Yonathan Daza hit a sacrifice fly and Tapia homered. All three runs were unearned because of McNeil's error.

Despite deGrom's 2.03 ERA in 79 starts since the start of the 2018 season coming in, New York was 37-42 with him on the mound.

With nine strikeouts in a row, deGrom matched the New York Giants' Mickey Welch against Cleveland on Aug. 28, 1884; San Diego's Jake Peavy at Arizona on April 25, 2007; the Marlins' Ricky Nolasco at Atlanta on Sept. 30, 2009; the Los Angeles Dodgers' Aaron Harang against San Diego on April 13, 2012; Detroit's Doug Fister against Kansas City on Sept. 27, 2012; Washington's Max Scherzer against the Mets on Oc. 3, 2015; and Alexander.

DeGrom extended his road unbeaten streak to 17 with the 48th double-digit strikeout game for the two-time NL Cy Young Award winner.

Edwin Diaz struck out the side for his first save this season.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

LEEDS, Alabama – Pato O’Ward affirmed the claim that Arrow McLaren SP is ready to challenge the “Big Three” in the NTT IndyCar Series, adding a fourth team to that elite power group Saturday at Barber Motorsports Park.

O’Ward scored his second career NTT IndyCar Series pole in the Firestone Fast Six. The young driver from Mexico laid down a track-record lap of 1:05.8479 around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile natural road course, an average speed of 125.744 mph in the No. 5 Chevrolet.

He starts first in Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, the season-opening race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season.

“That’s what we have been working for all weekend,” O’Ward said. “We want to challenge Team Penske and Ganassi and Andretti and truly show people that we are one of the Big Four in IndyCar. There are a lot of smart people behind the scenes in the UK (at McLaren) and in Indianapolis that are working on making the cars even faster.

“We are better and better and better and I’m very excited about this.”

O’Ward’s pole also marked the 100th Indy car pole for Chevrolet as an engine manufacturer since the Bowtie brand returned to the NTT IndyCar Series in 2012.

With 35 seconds left in the “Fast Six,” O’Ward was on pole and it appeared that Team Penske’s Will Power and Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi were saving speed for a run to end the session.

Rossi’s time was 1:05.9177 (125.661 mph) in the No. 27 NAPA Honda, second fastest. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou was third at 1:06.0538 (124.352 mph) in the No. 10 NTT DATA Honda.

Power was unable to get some last-lap speed to grab the pole and will start fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet for Team Penske after running a lap 1:06.1186 (125.230 mph).

Six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing was fifth at 1:06.3976 (124.703 mph) in the PNC Bank Honda with another CGR driver, Marcus Ericsson, rounding out the Fast Six at 1:06.4102 (124.680 mph) in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Honda.

All six drivers broke the previous track record of 1:06.6001 (124.324 mph) set by Sebastien Bourdais on April 23, 2016, during a day of blistering speeds.

O’Ward actually set the official mark with his second-round lap, a time of 1:05.5019.

The track was repaved in late 2019 and this is the first time the NTT IndyCar Series is running on the new surface, which led to an increase in speed.

O’Ward won his first IndyCar pole last July at Road America for the second race of the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America. He finished second to Felix Rosenqvist, who is now his teammate at Arrow McLaren SP.

“I want to win races, challenge for the championship the whole year, not just for myself but for the whole team,” O’Ward said. “We want to give the veterans like Scott Dixon something to think of and enjoy it. That is the most important thing, to go out and execute.

“We’re just ready. We’re ready to go and battle it out. We need to achieve wins and score as many points as we can every weekend.”

Of the three highly touted rookie drivers that are in the series this year, former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean was the most impressive.

Grosjean barely missed making the “Fast Six” after running a time of 1:05.7643.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin starts 12th and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson never advanced out of his first group and will start 21st in the 24-car starting lineup.

Up front, however, O’Ward is brimming with confidence.

“I think we have a good shot at winning here,” he said. “I won here in Indy Lights and I would like to close it out in IndyCar as well.”