All-around celebration for Spain’s Alex Palou at Indianapolis. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Chip Ganassi Racing has done it again in qualifying at the Indianapolis 500.
Alex Palou certainly lived by the moniker “Hello Palou” after his four-lap average of 234.217 mph was the fastest pole run in Indianapolis 500 history.
Despite being the third racer out to qualify in Sunday’s Firestone Fast Six, the moment he set an opening lap speed of 235.131 mph, it became an insurmountable task for the rest of the competition.
Rinus VeeKay tried but came up just 0.006 mph shy of knocking Palou from pole for next Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500. The closest margin between first and in second in qualifying history. Palou’s pole run extended Ganassi’s pole streak to three-in-a-row, becoming the first team since Team Penske from 1988-1991 to win at least three consecutive 500 poles.
Such milestone was worth a loud celebration as Palou’s No. 10 crew hugged and cheered. Even Palou and engineer Julian Robertson knew scoring a pole at Indy meant everything despite the 2021 INDYCAR champion dealing with a raspy voice.
“We just did a good job. I don’t know, we just live. We know that this time doesn’t come very often. We celebrated last week because it was a big win, and today we were the best on track, so we had to celebrate,” said Palou. “We couldn’t celebrate last year, and we don’t know if we’re going to be able to celebrate next week. When there’s chances like that, especially nowadays in INDYCAR, you have to celebrate.
“You could see on everybody, it was not just me, that I lost my voice, which maybe it was too much. You could see on every mechanic, every engineer, even Julian, he’s really quiet. When we win, he’s normally like ‘Yeah, that was a good race, good job.’
“But he was super excited today. It means a lot. It’s a big deal. It’s the pole for the Indy 500. It’s not the win for the race, but it’s as best we could do today.”
The moment Palou’s crew knew he won his second career INDYCAR pole. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
Now, the ball is in Palou’s court to bring home a sixth Indianapolis 500 win for Ganassi and sweep the Month of May after winning the GMR Grand Prix and the NTT P1 Pole Award for the 500. Only Simon Pagenaud in 2019 has accomplished all three at Indianapolis.
“It’s been amazing for the 10 car, honestly. This start of the season, especially the month of May, couldn’t be better with the GMR Grand Prix and obviously the pole today,” Palou said. “We knew we had a fast car since the beginning. We had to take advantage of that. Enjoying my time here.
“Last year, as I said, we were really close, learned how we could go be more aggressive if we were in that position again, and lucky if we were in that position again today, we took it.”
Felix Rosenqvist, who was fastest during Sunday’s Fast 12 session, wound up third quickest to round up an all-European front row, a first in the history of the Indianapolis 500.
Arrow McLaren’s top qualifier did not feel his No. 6 Chevrolet was sporty as it was when he set a four-lap average of 234.081 mph in the Fast 12, citing a tight car as a culprit to the shortcoming.
“I could feel on the run pretty much on my warmup lap that it didn’t feel as sporty as it did earlier today, so kind of had to look what went wrong,” said Rosenqvist. “Obviously we didn’t change a bunch on the car. We were pretty sure what we put on was the best we’d done all month.
“But man, it’s tight, and if you don’t get it 10 out of 10, there’s going to be two other boys sitting next to you with better lap times. I think anyway, it’s just been incredible, and just to have the privilege to drive a car that looks that good and is that fast I think is. It makes it pretty cool.”
Felix Rosenqvist looks to bring Arrow McLaren an Indy 500 victory next Sunday. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
Sandwiched in the battle between Ganassi and Arrow McLaren, VeeKay feels extremely confident about his No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet being a threat for the win as he will be one of many hungry drivers looking to flip the trend and upset the two dominant teams this month.
First, he must put himself in position to be in the mix and it all begins with simple concepts.
“The most important thing is staying out of trouble, having a clean race, and making sure we’re there when we tune it up at the end of the race,” said VeeKay. “I know looking at the practice rounds we’ve done that the car is maybe even better in race trim than qualifying trim. I was very happy on Thursday in our last traffic run, so yeah, just very excited to show that in the race.”
Earlier in the day, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing had a whirlwind of emotions as two drivers battled for the 33rd and final spot on the grid. In the absolute slightest of margins, Jack Harvey knocked Graham Rahal out of the Indy 500. A feat that’s both relieved and hallow as flashbacks beckoned the Rahal family.
After Rahal’s father, Bobby, missed the 500 in 1993, the younger open wheel veteran, in 2023, experienced the painful sorrow of missing the sport’s biggest event. Such emotions is why Indy hits different, more than anything a racer and organization deal with on a regular basis.
Jack Harvey barely made the big dance after sending Graham Rahal home. (Photo: Luis Torres | The Podium Finish)
“Today is about as humbling a moment as I’ve had at a racetrack. I don’t want to do this dance again, and neither do the team,” Harvey said. “There’s a lot of responsibility for all of us here. Just everybody please remember that we’re trying. We might not be trying the best way, but not one person in our team is happy with our performance, from the very top to the very bottom.
“We’re going to work as hard as we can. We’ve just got to find the grit and the determination to make it happen. But it’s a great group, and I’m excited that we’re going to be in the race, albeit last. We’ll do our best now.”
Only two more practice sessions remain with one commencing on Monday and the final tune-up on Friday as the 107th Indy 500, the race everyone’s prepared for months, being just a week away.
Live coverage begins at 11:00 a.m. ET on NBC with the 200-lap contest set to go green at 12:30 p.m. ET. Marcus Ericsson is the defending race winner after fending off Pato O’Ward in the closing laps.
107th Indianapolis 500 Starting Lineup
- 10 – Alex Palou
- 21 – Rinus VeeKay
- 6 – Felix Roseqvist
- 7 – Alexander Rossi (W)
- 5 – Pato O’Ward
- 9 – Scott Dixon (W)
- 7 – Alexander Rossi (W)
- 11 – Takuma Sato (W)
- 66 – Tony Kanaan (W)
- 8 – Marcus Ericsson (W)
- 55 – Benjamin Pedersen (R)
- 12 – Will Power (W)
- 33 – Ed Carpenter
- 3 – Scott McLaughlin
- 27 – Kyle Kirkwood
- 20 – Conor Daly
- 2 – Josef Newgarden
- 23 – Ryan Hunter-Reay (W)
- 28 – Romain Grosjean
- 06 – Helio Castroneves (W)
- 26 – Colton Herta
- 60 – Simon Pagenaud (W)
- 18 – David Malukas
- 98 – Marco Andretti
- 24 – Stefan Wilson
- 29 – Devlin DeFrancesco
- 78 – Agustin Canapino (R)
- 77 – Callum Ilott
- 50 – RC Enerson (R)
- 44 – Katherine Legge
- 45 – Christian Lundgaard
- 51 – Sting Ray Robb (R)
- 30 – Jack Harvey
Did Not Qualify: 15 – Graham Rahal
