Qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge usually is unpredictable, but no one saw this one playing out as it did over the weekend.
A rookie driver winning the pole? Robert Shwartzman became the first since 1983 and only the third since 1950.
SEE: Starting Lineup
A first-year team making its Indy debut atop the scoring pylon? PREMA Racing accomplished something that hasn’t been done in 41 years.
A one-off team earning the second starting position? There simply isn’t a comparison for what Takuma Sato and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing did since Team Penske arrived in the Indy Racing League for the 2001 season.
Those were only some of what made PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying unique:
- Rather than locking out the front row, as Team Penske did a year ago, the most successful team in Indy history will have a significant amount of work to do to score its record-extending 21st “500” victory Sunday. Scott McLaughlin will start 10th after missing the Top 12 round due to an accident. Josef Newgarden and Will Power will roll off in the 32nd and 33rd positions after being penalized Monday for improper modifications to their cars.
- Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, who lost the lead to Newgarden on the last lap of last year’s race, bounced back to score a career-best qualifying effort in the third spot.
- Qualifying has never had more international flavor. The top eight positions were earned by drivers from eight different countries: Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden, Spain, United States and Denmark. There are 14 countries represented in this field.
While the focus was on the top third of the field, the Last Chance Qualifying round had its unique heavy dose of emotion.
- Marco Andretti, who won the pole in 2020, had to endure the possibility of not earning a starting position for his 20th “500.” The Andretti Herta w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian driver will take the green flag from the 29th starting spot. He will become the 15th driver to start at least 20 such races.
- Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong put a Turn 1 crash Saturday behind him well enough to earn a second chance at Indy. He will start 30th.
- Dale Coyne Racing found itself in a worst-case scenario on Bump Day as Rinus VeeKay and rookie Jacob Abel were left to battle for the final starting position. VeeKay secured it despite withdrawing his posted time and then running slower. Abel had a final chance to bump his way back into the show, but he came up short. VeeKay will start Sunday’s race from the 31st position after five previous years in the top seven.
The weekend also saw Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly miss a spot in the Top 12 by only a few feet. He will start 11th in the race now that Team Penske’s two drivers have been moved to the last row. Alexander Rossi qualified 14th, the closest Ed Carpenter Racing came to extending its streak of consecutive final-round qualifying efforts to 13 years. He will start 12th.
Like Armstrong, Kyffin Simpson of Chip Ganassi Racing, Kyle Larson of Arrow McLaren and Colton Herta of Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian overcame crashes to earn their starting positions (13th, 19th and 27th), respectively. Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel will start 24th after being the lone driver in last year’s field not to make the cut.
Four-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian became the first 50-year-old driver to earn a starting position since Lyn St. James in 2000. He will roll off 22nd.
Castroneves’ effort earned him a fourth opportunity to break the event’s all-time record of five victories. He is one of eight former winners in the field, including Newgarden, who has the chance to win an unprecedented third consecutive “500” victory. The other former winners in the field are Sato (starting second), Scott Dixon (fourth for Chip Ganassi Racing), Marcus Ericsson (ninth for Andretti Global), Power, Rossi (12th) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (25th for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing).
Shwartzman has a huge head start toward winning the Rookie of the Year Award. The only other first-timers in the field are Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster, who earned the 20th starting position, and Siegel.
The field is set. “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” awaits on the weekend.