Photo: James Black
Lochie Hughes claimed his first Indy Nxt pole of the season on the Gateway oval after Myles Rowe and Enzo Fittipaldi were excluded from qualifying.
Rowe set the fastest average speed of the session, but was forced to forfeit his laps for not following instructions. Meanwhile, championship leader Fittipaldi failed the technical inspection and was made to sit out the session.
Andretti Global driver Hughes was one of the final drivers to head out in qualifying, completing his two qualifying laps with an average speed of 162.578 mph, 0.215 mph quicker than second place Alessandro de Tullio.
Taylor couldn’t better Hughes’ time and slotted into third, ahead of Josh Pierson and second in the championship Nikita Johnson.
Tymek Kucharczyk qualified eighth quickest, followed by Niels Koolen and Jack Beeton. Yuven Sundaramoorthy, standing in for Nicolas Stati at Cusick Morgan Motorsports as the latter had prior commitments, took ninth fastest. Seb Murray completed the top 10.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Lochie Hughes | Andretti Global | 55.3579s | |
| 2 | Alessandro De Tullio | AJ Foyt Enterprises | 55.4313s | +0.0734 |
| 3 | Max Taylor | Andretti Global | 55.4828s | +0.1249 |
| 4 | Josh Pierson | Andretti Global | 55.6668s | +0.3089 |
| 5 | Nikita Johnson | Cape Motorsports by ECR | 55.6750s | +0.3171 |
| 6 | Tymek Kucharczyk | HMD Motorsports | 55.7297s | +0.3718 |
| 7 | Niels Koolen | Chip Ganassi Racing | 55.8096s | +0.4517 |
| 8 | Jack Beeton | HMD Motorsports | 55.8481s | +0.4902 |
| 9 | Yuven Sundaramoorthy | Cusick Morgan Motorsports | 55.8552s | +0.4973 |
| 10 | Seb Murray | Andretti Global | 55.8759s | +0.5180 |
| 11 | Salvador de Alba | HMD Motorsports | 55.8891s | +0.5312 |
| 12 | Bryce Aron | Chip Ganassi Racing | 55.8938s | +0.5359 |
| 13 | Juan Manuel Correa | Cusick Morgan Motorsports | 55.9692s | +0.6113 |
| 14 | James Roe | Chip Ganassi Racing | 56.0189s | +0.6610 |
| 15 | Jordan Missig | Abel Motorsports | 56.0611s | +0.7032 |
| 16 | Max Garcia | Abel Motorsports | 56.1038s | +0.7459 |
| 17 | Matteo Nannini | Cape Motorsports by ECR | 56.2554s | +0.8975 |
| 18 | Ricardo Escotto | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 56.4533s | +1.0954 |
| 19 | Nicholas Monteiro | AJ Foyt Enterprises | 56.5823s | +1.2244 |
| 20 | Alexander Koreiba | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 56.6560s | +1.2981 |
| 21 | Colin Kaminsky | Abel Motorsports | 56.8568s | +1.4989 |
| 22 | Carson Etter | Chip Ganassi Racing | 57.9319s | +2.5740 |
| Enzo Fittipaldi | HMD Motorsports | |||
| Myles Rowe | Abel Motorsports |