LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Felix Rosenqvist's speedy start to 2024 at his new home continues.

The IndyCar veteran snagged his sixth-career IndyCar pole Saturday, edging the series' all-time pole leader, Will Power, Saturday on the 1.968-mile course on the Long Beach streets by 0.0039 seconds to capture Meyer Shank Racing's first career pole start in its eight-year existence in the sport.

The quest now, after starting on pole in IndyCar five times previously with a best-finish of 8th and three finishes of 19th or worse, is to seal the deal. Doing so would signify both sides' second-career wins in IndyCar, Rosenqvist's coming with Chip Ganassi Racing in 2020 and MSR with Helio Castroneves at the Indy 500 in 2021.

"That's what keeps me up at night," Rosenqvist said after securing his front-row start. "Trying to convert. That's the big question, and for sure we feel like we're in a good spot. We feel like the car behaves really well, and it seems like it's good on tires. There's definitely a lot of people right now trying to make that happen.

"I feel like I have the team behind me, and I'm kinda calling the shots this year, which has worked well."

Rosenqvist's pole continues the strong qualifying form for the No. 60 Honda program that began with a front-row start at St. Pete -- just 0.0058 seconds shy of Josef Newgarden's pole -- followed by pole for his heat race at The Thermal Club to kick off the $1 Million Challenge.

"I've got huge respect for (Power) and the laps he can put down. This doesn't come easy," Rosenqvist said. "Every lap out there, you're flirting with the walls. But that was a fun one."

For Power, who put his Team Penske crew through the wringer Saturday morning after slapping the Turn 8 wall twice in practice -- including a latter hit that spun him and led to him crunching the nose of the car -- the front-row start in Sunday's Grand Prix comes as a welcome return to the pointy end of the grid after making a single Fast Six on road and street courses a year ago.

"Story of my life lately," Power said after hopping out of the car. "But I'll take a top-6 actually. Just to get in the Fast 6 again, its a big deal for me. I'm super stoked to transfer. Felix must've done a phenomenal lap. I couldn't pick anywhere where I made a mistake, but it was good to get the Verizon car on the front row again.

"It's been a long time."

Newgarden, who went on to lead 92 of 100 laps at St. Pete and win from pole, will start on the inside of Row 2 Sunday, sharing the row with 2021 Long Beach winner Colton Herta. Marcus Ericsson, Herta's teammate who finished last year on the podium to break up a 1-2-4 Andretti finish, will start 5th alongside his ex-CGR teammate Alex Palou, the defending series champ.

Christian Lundgaard (7th), Scott Dixon (8th), Marcus Armstrong (9th), Kyle Kirkwood (10th), Scott McLaughlin (11th) and Graham Rahal (12th) also made Saturday's Fast 12 and will make up Rows 4-6 Sunday.

Frustrations aplenty for Arrow McLaren in qualifying

On the other end of the spectrum, Arrow McLaren's drivers and team officials were left scratching their heads after a frustrating Round 1 of qualifying that left its trio of cars eliminated. Alexander Rossi will lead the charge for the team, starting 13th after finishing less than 5-hundredths back of Rahal and the ability to transfer out of Round 1 in Group 1.

"Just missing overall pace, man. We've had some moments where it was OK, but we're struggling for grip," he said after his No. 7 crew finished 7th and 10th-fastest in the weekend's pair of practices. "I don't know, not much we can do."

Pato O'Ward, who will share the seventh row with Rossi, starting 14th, finished a similar margin off of transferring out of his own Round 1 group, but came away seemingly more confident in what the three-car team could accomplish Sunday.

"I wasn't unhappy with (my run)," he said. "To be honest, we were just slow, just not fast enough. No real explanation for it. We went the wrong way in Practice No. 2 and then went back to what we'd had yesterday and just missed the window a bit.

"We're not missing a tenth. It's three-tenths, but the race is a different monster. You just try and get ready for what the race tends to be. We just need to focus on tomorrow and make our way forward with pit stops. If our racecar is good, we can do it, but we just have to make sure we can get in that window."

Theo Pourchaire, who will make his first-career IndyCar start Sunday in place of the still-injured David Malukas in Arrow McLaren's No. 6 Chevy, will start 22nd.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Felix Rosenqvist edges Will Power for Meyer Shank Racing's first IndyCar pole