A Record-Breaking Indy 500 Quali

Felix Rosenqvist, Takuma Sato and Katherine Legge stood out among the crowd

With the lead-up to the 107^th-annual Indianapolis 500 well underway, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou is poised to dethrone his teammate and the 2022 Indy 500 winner, Marcus Ericsson.

The week of racing began with practice sessions running from Tuesday through Saturday morning. While the practice sessions seemed exhaustive, it was vital time to gauge car performance and test out the oval track for rookies like R.C. Enerson (Abel Motorsports).

Qualifying took on a unique format compared to other racing series, with cars sprinting around the track one by one for four laps. Positions 13 through 30 were locked in after Saturday, while the top 12 fastest drivers competed on Sunday morning to set positions seven through 12.

The last three places had a final chance to shuffle the starting order at the back, with Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing) and Jack Harvey (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) finishing 31 through 33. The first six places, including the highly anticipated pole position, were set in a shoot-out style qualifying round on Sunday afternoon.

Rinus VeeKay (Ed Carpenter Racing), who stuck close by the pole-sitter in the previous two qualifying sessions, will start second after finishing just 0.006 mph shy of Palou. Six-time IndyCar Champion Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) qualified last of the Fast Six behind Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren), Santino Ferrucci (A.J. Foyt Enterprises) and Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren).

Palou’s first-place finish, with a speed of 234.2 mph, came as a surprise after finishing third and fourth in the first and top-12 qualification rounds. The 2021 IndyCar Champion’s run came with several honors: the first Spaniard to win pole at the Indy 500, the fastest four lap average pole speed in Indy 500 history and the third consecutive Indy 500 pole position for Chip Ganassi Racing.

Palou wasn’t the only one breaking records.

Takuma Sato (Chip Ganassi Racing) dominated practices three and five, hitting 234.7 mph, the fastest practice lap since Arie Luyendyk’s 239.3 mph speed in 1996. Last year, Sato performed similarly, ranking first in practices two, four and five despite a slower top speed of 232.8 mph.

Rosenqvist made history with the second-fastest qualifying run in Indy 500 history before Palou took the title. Despite finishing first in the initial qualifying sessions, Rosenqvist was only able to qualify third among the Fast Six.

The second Swede, Ericsson, quietly continued his reign by driving away with the top speed in both practices four and seven. However, on the day that mattered, he fell back in qualifying and will start tenth come next Sunday.

As Ericsson’s team took pole, less legendary teams caught up.

Arrow McLaren proved their place amid the greats—Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing—in last year’s Indy 500 with Pato O’Ward finishing second, along with Rosenqvist placing fourth. Rosenqvist’s weekend qualifying lead, Tony Kanaan’s fastest 233.0 practice run with Alexander Rossi a tenth of a second behind and O’Ward’s 343.1 turn into the third corner during Friday’s practice solidify the team’s rise to the top.

The team’s ascendance may not be shocking after last year’s performance, but other, primarily low-scoring, teams made unexpected strides. Notably, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Katherine Legge, the only woman on the grid, set a record for the fastest qualifying lap by a female driver at 231.6 mph, as well as outqualified her teammates.

The performance sweetened the team’s sour week. Legge’s teammate, Graham Rahal, failed to hit similar speeds and was, therefore, cut from competing in the Indy 500.

While speed wasn’t an issue for most drivers, sliding was.

The oval track, free from tight-cornered chicanes, still posed dangers.

Several drivers—including Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport), Josef Newgarden (Team Penske), Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing), Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport), Rahal, Ferrucci and Sato—nearly brushed the wall as their cars floated too high and wide away from the racing line because of rear tire slide.

Despite the week’s sessions acting as a laid-back practice for the real deal, the proximity of cars, thanks in part to IndyCar bringing an additional 300 to 350-pound downforce upgrade, meant close calls.

O’Ward barely dodged a crash as first-time Indy 500 driver Enerson flew past, overtaking the McLaren driver while both cars left the pit lane. Castroneves backed off of a corner in practice during day two, preventing contact between his Meyer Shank Racing car and Rossi as the McLaren was late to commit to the inner-most racing line. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) swerved between two cars in a move much too risky for the first day of practice.

As fans and IndyCar’s own social media accounts begin to predict the outcome of next Sunday’s race, anything can happen once the green flag is waved. As a spec, or one-make, series, no one team dominates the field—even if they start first.

In 2022, Ericsson won the Indy 500 after qualifying sixth and Dixon, who started the race on pole, finished 21^st. O’Ward, who started just outside of the Fast Six in seventh, stood on the second podium step after Sunday’s race. Palou, who started second, finished ninth and Rossi finished fifth after qualifying 20^th.

While racing series, such as Formula 1, have more predictable race outcomes following qualifying, IndyCar brings a fresh and fickle format.

As F1’s Will Buxton said, the Indy 500 has “one of the most thrilling formats of qualifying anywhere in the motorsport world.”