The Indy 500 qualifying draw after Fast Friday threw up some interesting positions for the heavy hitters as their first official runs came late Saturday morning and early Saturday afternoon at IMS, full IndyCar report and results below.
Marcus Armstrong’s car was withdrawn from the order as the New Zealander had a monster crash at turn 3 in final practice, but he was cleared by the medical center to continue driving whenever the back up car was ready to go. Teammate Helio Castroneves did not get out initially as he pulled his car from the line as he made changes to the car. Two-time defending champion Josef Newgarden did the same.
Marcus Ericsson kicks things off as O’Ward and Shwartzman shine
2022 Indy 500 winner kicked off the first four-lap attempts in qualifying. The Swede’s average was a 232.132mph. Pato O’Ward put in a great run as he was second out, beating Ericsson as he did an average of 232.820mph.
However, it was Robert Shwartzman who rightly took most of the plaudits. The PREMA driver did an incredible four-lap average of 232.584mph go into 2nd. Scott Dixon would jump him a little later as he went to 232.659mph for P2.
Herta has a terrifying shunt in Indy 500 qualifying
Colton Herta was the fourteenth car out but it was over in a flash. He lost the car in turn 1, hit the safter barrier hard and flipped. His Andretti had a secondary hit of the safter barrier at turn 2. Fortunately he could get out of the car after the AMR safety team got to him quickly.
At that stage O’Ward, Dixon, Shwartzman, Rosenqvist, Malukas, Ericsson, Simpson, Daly, Siegel and Harvey.
Rahal, Andretti and Abel struggle
Initially through the first 18 drivers, Graham Rahal was the only driver below 230mph on averages of those who completed a lap as he sat at the bottom on a 228.686. However, he was soon joined by Marco Andretti (229.857mph) and Jacob Abel (226.859) as the rookie as well as the RLL driver were well off the back.
Alex Palou puts down a marker
Three-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou has never won the Indy 500 or on an oval. However, he is a previous polesitter for this iconic race and he flew on his qualifying run.
The Spanish driver did a four-lap average of a 233.043mph to put himself into P1 ahead of O’Ward and Dixon.
It was confirmed that Conor Daly lost his four-lap average as his car failed a post-quali inspection.
Scott McLaughlin goes very close
Team Penske have been flying through practice at the Indy 500 and the New Zealander put down a 233.013mph to narrowly miss out on beating Palou. He revealed after his run he got into the limiter in turn 1 on lap 2, slowing him down fractionally on that one.
Inside the last 15 minutes Marco Andretti clocked an average of 229.859mph, missing out on beating Rahal by the smallest of gaps.
Full order of Indy 500 IndyCar qualifying results after first runs
*Does not include those Daly whose car failed an inspection, crashed, plus Castroneves and Newgarden who pulled their cars from the initial qualifying order
- Palou
- McLaughlin
- O’Ward
- Dixon
- Shwartzman
- Rosenqvist
- Malukas
- Sato
- Ericsson
- Power
- Simpson
- Rossi
- Rasmussen
- Carpenter
- Kirkwood
- Ferrucci
- Ilott
- Siegel
- Foster
- DeFrancesco
- Harvey
- Robb
- Lundgaard
- Hunter-Reay
- Larson
- Andretti
- VeeKay
- Rahal
- Abel
Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves appear
Two multi-time Indy 500 winners Josef Newgarden and Helio Castroneves came out to play after 29 drivers got that initial run in. Unsurprisingly the Team Penske driver was extremely fast, slotting into P3 behind teammate as his four-lap average was a 233.004mph.
Castroneves clocked a 229.634mph average to go into 28th place. Only one of his laps was above 230mph.
After returning to the track, Conor Daly got a legal run in, moving himself into 16th and comfortably putting himself in the race.
A flurry of improvements
Santino Ferrucci (P13), Sting Ray Robb (P15) and Kyle Larson (P17) all improved as the final couple of hours approached. However, it was Alex Rossi who was the driver who moved himself into the top 12, clocking a four-lap average of 231.701mph.
In the danger zone, Graham Rahal had an average of 229.863mph to go into 29th, leaving Rinus VeeKay in 30th and facing the potential last row shootout.
After Helio Castroneves moved himself up to 20th, Arrow McLaren had even more reason to be happy as Christian Lundgaard joined Pato O’Ward in the top 12. His average of 231.809mph was enough to displace Alex Rossi.
RLL’s Devlin DeFrancesco made a big gain as he went from 26th to 16th, just missing out on the top 12 as he had to lift a bit too much in turns 1 and 2 as the run went on.
Colton Herta and Andretti come up clutch
After an incredible job by Andretti to get the back up car ready, Colton Herta returned to the track with just over an hour to go. The result? A brilliant effort by the Californian driver who moved up to P29 with a 230.192mph average, putting himself in the race at that stage.
It left Andretti, VeeKay, Abel and Armstrong in the Last Chance Qualifying zone.
Right at the end, Conor Daly so near got himself into the Fast 12 for Sunday but a 231.384mph on the final lap was too much of a loss. He starts 13th next Sunday.
Indy 500 Top 12 Qualifying (Sunday)
Palou, McLaughlin, Newgarden, O’Ward, Dixon, Shwartzman, Malukas, Rosenqvist, Sato, Power, Ericsson, Lundgaard
13th to 30th on the grid for the Indy 500
Daly, Rossi, Simpson, Carpenter, Ferrucci, DeFrancesco, Robb, Rasmussen, Larson, Foster, Ilott, Castroneves, Kirkwood, Siegel, Hunter-Reay, Harvey, Herta, Rahal
Last Chance Qualifying for the Indy 500 (Sunday)
Andretti, VeeKay, Abel, Armstrong
