Josh Pierson continues to show his newfound speed in INDY NXT by Firestone, and Tymek Kucharczyk isn’t going down without a fight after qualifying Saturday for the season-ending Grand Prix of Monterey doubleheader.

Andretti Global driver Pierson earned his second consecutive pole position of this season and his career in the INDYCAR development series by earning the top spot for Race 1 with a best lap of 1 minute, 13.6351 seconds in the No. 29 Starchive Andretti car on the 11-turn, 2.238-mile road course. Pierson’s first pole came last weekend on the Milwaukee Mile oval.

SEE: Race 1 Qualifying Results | Race 2 Qualifying Results

“I feel like I’m just really starting to jell well,” Pierson said. “I’m finally kind of finding my footing and really extracting what I want from this car. This car has been weird for me – it’s tricky. I never quite feel like I know what I want from it, and now I’m starting to kind of understand what I need and where I can find the time.

“Super grateful. Everybody on this Andretti crew, they never stopped believing in me. They never stopped giving me the car that can do it.”

Title contender Kucharczyk (photo, top) earned his first INDY NXT career pole, for Race 2, with his best lap of 1:13.8680 in the No. 71 HMD Motorsports car. The Polish rookie is third in the standings, 29 points behind leader Nikita Johnson of Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR and 26 points behind teammate Enzo Fittipaldi in second.

Josh Pierson

While Pierson (photo, above) led practice Friday, Kucharczyk rallied from ending up a disappointing eighth overall in the two sessions.

“Really happy for the qualifying session and very proud of the team,” Kucharczyk said. “The car was on rails today.

“We made a couple of adjustments yesterday. Yesterday’s pace was not our true real pace, so today’s quali felt amazing. I really executed to the maximum every lap, corner by corner. I was just super focused, super on it.”

Race 1 (35 laps) is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET today on FS2. Live coverage of Race 2 (30 laps) starts at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1. FOX One and INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls also are broadcasting all sessions live.

Kucharczyk will start second in the first race, joining Pierson in the front row after his lap of 1:13.8481. Niels Koolen qualified a career-best third at 1:13.9231 in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing machine. Myles Rowe will join him in the second row after his lap of 1:13.9728 in the No. 99 Abel Motorsports with Force Indy machine.

In Race 2, Pierson will join Kucharczyk again in the front row, this time starting second after his lap of 1:13.9047. Rowe and Koolen also will flip-flop in the second row, with Rowe starting third after posting a lap of 1:14.1378 and Koolen fourth at 1:14.1182.

Points leader Johnson will start fifth and sixth, respectively, in the No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR car. His closest pursuer, Fittipaldi, has work to do after qualifying only 13th and 12th, respectively, for the two races in the No. 67 HMD Motorsports entry.