Graham Rahal was barely 20 years old the last time he logged a pair of poles in an IndyCar season. Now 34 nearing the end of a contract year while in negotiations on a new deal with Mike Lanigan, the 34-year-old seasoned vet is beginning to flash a level of speed he’s rarely had in maybe the series’ most competitive era.

Rahal will aim to make it back-to-back-to-back winners from pole at Portland International Raceway on Sunday afternoon after edging defending race-winner Scott McLaughlin by 0.033 seconds in Saturday’s Fast Six filled with the two previous polesitters at the track – championship leader Alex Palou the other– as well as the only other driver alive in the title race, six-time champion Scott Dixon.

And Rahal and his No. 15 Honda crew did it by going against the grain.

“I said last night that we really struggled on the red tire, and so this morning (during Practice No. 2) we saved a set of blacks compared to everyone else, and it just worked out on new blacks,” Rahal said after he stepped out of the car to accept his NTT P1 Award. “Everyone’s pushed so hard to get our team back, so it’s nice to have two poles at the end of the year, and hopefully we can finish this one off tomorrow.

“That would be pretty sweet.”

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Three weeks ago, Rahal recorded his first IndyCar pole since June 2017 at Detroit and looked to have the strongest, fastest car all race on the IMS road course, but his RLL crew was bested by an immaculate fuel-save effort from Dixon, who used a Lap 1 crash to jump into an alternate pit stop strategy that only he could manage. Saturday’s pole for RLL also marks the team’s fourth of the year, the team’s total from 2008-2022.

heyve won just once from the pole – Christian Lundgaard at Toronto – to go with a 4^th from Lundgaard in May on the IMS road course as well.

“I feel like we have a good racecar – even better than qualifying, to be honest,” Rahal said. “From here on forward, we have to have good stops and our strategy is straightforward and we can keep the tires underneath us. My gut is this might be a black race tomorrow, and we have a lot of tires to use, so we’ll see what happens, but this was certainly a great day for us.”

Colton Herta, who will start directly behind Rahal on Row 2 Sunday, pointed out after qualifying that, should Rahal be correct and blacks be the preferred tire for the frontrunners in the 110-lap race on the track just outside downtown Portland, Sunday’s polesitter will have one less set to burn.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game, and you have to be willing to give up a little strategy-wise to get pole,” Herta said. “I think reds were best for us.”

Dixon will share the second row with Herta, only barely ahead of his teammate, who he’ll need to beat by a considerable amount to stay alive in the championship for one more week. Palou, with his 74-point edge on Dixon, starts on the inside of Row 3, next to Pato O’Ward.

Rahal was the final member of that Fast Six group to bump his way in, nudging out Will Power, who continues searching for his first win of the season following his 2022 championship. Callum Ilott, making his first Fast 12 appearance of the year, surpassed his previous best road/street course start of the year (15^th) and will start next to Power in 8^th. Alexander Rossi (9^th), Marcus Ericsson (10^th), Felix Rosenqvist (11^th) and Josef Newgarden (12^th) completed the first six rows for Sunday.

Newgarden, whose championship hopes ended last Sunday after crashing while attempting to sweep the ovals on the year and win his sixth-straight oval race, crashed again just under three minutes into the Fast 12 to bring out a red flag.

“Just unfortunately made a mistake (entering Turn 11). I knew I got in hot, and I just tried to get on the brakes, but still got wide and into the wall I hate making a mistake, but it can happen anywhere, and it happened then.”

Further down, Romain Grosjean – who confirmed to NBC Friday that he won’t return to Andretti Autosport in 2024 – and Kyle Kirkwood struggle to find the same speed as their teammate Herta and still start together on Row 8. Rahal’s teammate Christian Lundgaard, who paced Practice No. 1 Friday, also surprisingly failed to find the pace to make it out of Round 1 and will share Row 9 with his rookie teammate Juri Vips.

Like Grosjean, who saw Lundgaard pull out in front of him on a crucial lap in his qualifying session, both he and Lundgaard were incensed with traffic they felt was the culprit of preventing them from advancing.

“People go out of the pits and drive around slow,” Lundgaard said to Peacock after he stepped out of the car. “We just didn’t get to get our second lap, and that was it. It’s obvious we’ve been fast, so I’m a little frustrated. I don’t have anything good to say.”

Said Grosjean: “We didn’t have an amazing car, but good enough to go through. I don’t understand why (Lundgaard) didn’t get a penalty, but we didn’t get through just because of that. People should move out of the way when they’re in your way.”

IndyCar qualifying results at Portland

1. Graham Rahal

2. Scott McLaughlin

3. Colton Herta

4. Scott Dixon

5. Alex Palou

6. Pato O’Ward

7. Will Power

8. Callum Ilott

9. Alexander Rossi

10. Marcus Ericsson

11. Felix Rosenqvist

12. Josef Newgarden

13. Rinus VeeKay

14. Marcus Armstrong

15. Romain Grosjean

16. Kyle Kirkwood

17. Christian Lundgaard

18. Juri Vips

19. Ryan Hunter-Reay*

20. Agustin Canapino

21. Devlin DeFrancesco

22. Helio Castroneves

23. Santino Ferrucci

24. David Malukas

25. Sting Ray Robb

26. Benjamin Pedersen

27. Tom Blomqvist

* Hunter-Reay was given a six-spot grid penalty to serve this race for an unapproved engine change, meaning he’ll start 25^th. Everyone who qualified 20^th-25^th will jump up one spot on the starting grid.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyCar: Graham Rahal grabs Portland pole, RLL's 4th in 2023