There were four big stories in Indy Pro 2000 qualifying.

Championship leader Rasmus Lindh was the final driver on track, and his two-lap average of 142.857 mph was quick enough to grab the pole for the Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge Of St. Louis. The pole is the fourth of the season for the Juncos Racing rookie and the seventh in two Road To Indy seasons.

Kyle Kirkwood, who has won the last Indy Pro 2000 races, was set to start on the outside of the front row, but after running afoul of Rule 8.4.4 was disqualified and will start from the tail of the 12 car field.

Rule 8.4.4 states that:
While the Car is in the Qualifications line, an Entrant’s representatives may make Tire pressure and front wing flap adjustments only. Mainplane, wicker or complete wing assembly changes are not permitted.

The RP Motorsport crew made changes to the rear-wing after the Soul Red No. 28 was in the qualifying line.

Kory Enders, who was the fourth car on track for qualifying, held the provisional pole through six drivers before giving up the spot to Kirkwood first and Lindh second.

It was fun to watch the 22-year-old pace pit-road nervously while driver after driver failed to match his speed.

Antoine Comeau is making his first-ever oval start while driving for Peter Dempsey’s Turn 3 Motorsport and will start an impressive fourth.

Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis qualifying results

RANK CAR NO. DRIVER TEAM 2-LAP AVERGE (mph) 1st LAP 2nd LAP
1 10 Rasmus Lindh Juncos Racing 142.857 143.102 142.612
2 7 Kory Enders DEForce Racing 142.197 142.271 142.123
3 2 Sting Ray Robb Juncos Racing 141.444 140.992 141.899
4 3 Antoine Comeau Turn 3 Motorsport 141.039 140.850 141.229
5 5 Artem Petrov RP Motorsport Racing 140.930 141.009 140.851
6 6 Moises de la Vara DEForce Racing 140.856 141.549 140.170
7 68 Danial Frost Exclusive Autosport 140.642 140.492 140.792
8 90 Nikita Lastochkin Exclusive Autosport 137.578 137.279 137.878
9 8 Parker Thompson Abel Motorsports 136.860 136.138 137.589
10 83 Charles Finelli FatBoy Racing 136.406 136.201 136.612
11 51 Jacob Abel Abel Motorsports 136.190 140.440 132.190
12 28 Kyle Kirkwood RP Motorsport Racing DSQ DSQ DSQ

The 55 lap Cooper Tires Indy Pro 2000 Oval Challenge of St. Louis is scheduled to get the green flag on Saturday at 1:45 pm (Central).