The fast 6 107th Indianapolis 500 Qualifying
Car 10 Alex Palou Barcelona, Spain The American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda won pole for the 107th Indianapolis with time of 50002:33.7037 & speed of 234.217. 2nd Place Car 21 Rinus VeeKay Hoofddorp, Netherlands Bitnile.com Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet with time of 02:33.7077 & speed of 234.211. 3rd Place Car 6 Felix Rosenqvist Varnamo, Sweden Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren Chevrolet with time of 02:33.7713 & speed of 234.114.
4th Car 14 Santino Ferrucci Woodbury, Connecticut Homes For Our Troops A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet with time of 02:34.0695 & speed of 233.661. 5th Car 5 Pato O’Ward Monterrey, Mexico Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren Chevrolet with time of 02:34.4015 & speed of 233.158. 6th Car 9 Scott Dixon (W) Auckland, New Zealand PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing Honda with time of 02:34.4066 & speed of 233.151.
NTT INDYCAR SERIES STATEMENT:
Palou Wins Pole with Record Run in Fastest Indy 500 Field
INDIANAPOLIS (Sunday, May 21, 2023) – Alex Palou won the NTT P1 Award for the 107th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge on Sunday with the fastest pole speed in the history of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Palou earned his first career “500” pole, becoming the first Spaniard to take the top spot, with a four-lap average speed of 234.217 mph (2 minutes, 33.7037 seconds) in the No. 10 The American Legion Honda during the dramatic Firestone Fast Six session. He delivered Chip Ganassi Racing its third consecutive Indy 500 pole. CGR is the first team to win three straight Indy poles since Team Penske won four in a row from 1988-91.
“It means the world to me now,” Palou said. “It was really tight, but the 10 car crew did an amazing job. Super proud of the work they did all month, all year to get to this point. We knew we had to go aggressive, to trim the car a lot to get a good first lap and try to be consistent. The fourth lap was really tough to keep it flat, but we did it. I knew it was one chance only.”
This is the fastest field in Indianapolis 500 history. The average speed for the 33-car field is 232.184, shattering the record of 231.023 set last year.
Rinus VeeKay will start second in the No. 21 Bitnile.com Chevrolet fielded by Ed Carpenter Racing after his four-lap average of 234.211. That’s the second-closest margin in terms of speed between the top two qualifiers in Indy 500 history, as the .006 of a mph margin was bested only by the .003 gap between pole sitter Ryan Briscoe and James Hinchcliffe in 2012. The .0040 of a second gap between Palou and VeeKay broke the record for the closest time margin between the top qualifiers, .01 between pole sitter Al Unser and Johnny Rutherford in 1970.
Felix Rosenqvist earned the outside front-row starting spot after qualifying third at 234.114 in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet.
All three front-row starters were faster than the previous pole record of 234.046 set last year by Scott Dixon. Only Arie Luyendyk’s mighty run of 236.986, set on the second day of qualifying in 1996 and not eligible for pole, is faster.
This also was the closest front row in Indianapolis 500 history by speed, as .103 of a mph separated the top three. The previous record was .112 between pole sitter James Hinchcliffe, No. 2 qualifier Josef Newgarden and No. 3 qualifier Ryan Hunter-Reay in the 100th Indianapolis 500 in 2016.
Santino Ferrucci continued a magical month for AJ Foyt Racing by qualifying fourth at 233.661 in the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet. Pato O’Ward was fifth at 233.158 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, and six-time series champion Scott Dixon rounded out the Firestone Fast Six and second row at 233.151 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Palou was the third driver on track in the gripping Firestone Fast Six, which put the six fastest drivers from the Top 12 Qualifying session earlier in the day in competition for the pole on the 2.5-mile oval. VeeKay, Ferrucci and Rosenqvist followed but couldn’t topple him.
“It was not ideal, honestly,” Palou said of watching the last three qualifying attempts. “It was tougher than doing the four laps.”
Christian Lundgaard, Sting Ray Robb and Jack Harvey earned the final three spots in the 33-car field in an incredibly dramatic Last Chance Qualifying. Harvey bumped his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate and 15-time Indianapolis 500 starter Graham Rahal by 44 10-thousandths of a second over the 10-mile qualifying run on the last attempt of the session.
Practice for the 33-car field takes place from 1-3 p.m. ET Monday (live, Peacock and INDYCAR Radio Network). Public gates open at 11 a.m. It’s the last on-track session before the final practice from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Miller Lite Carb Day, Friday, May 26.
The 107th Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for Sunday, May 28 (11 a.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, Universo, INDYCAR Radio Network).
NTT INDYCAR SERIES 107th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Field Average: 232.184 mph Issued: May 21, 2023 Sunday, May 28, 2023 STARTING LINEUP
QP Car Driver Hometown Car Name Entrant Engine Total Time Avg. Speed
1 10 Alex Palou Barcelona, Spain The American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 02:33.7037 234.217 2 21 Rinus VeeKay Hoofddorp, Netherlands Bitnile.com Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 02:33.7077 234.211 3 6 Felix Rosenqvist Varnamo, Sweden Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 02:33.7713 234.114 4 14 Santino Ferrucci Woodbury, Connecticut Homes For Our Troops A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 02:34.0695 233.661 5 5 Pato O’Ward Monterrey, Mexico Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 02:34.4015 233.158 6 9 Scott Dixon (W) Auckland, New Zealand PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 02:34.4066 233.151 7 7 Alexander Rossi (W) Nevada City, California Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 02:34.4332 233.110 8 11 Takuma Sato (W) Tokyo, Japan Deloitte Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 02:34.4416 233.098 9 66 Tony Kanaan (W) Salvador, Brazil Arrow McLaren Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 02:34.4558 233.076 10 8 Marcus Ericsson (W) Kumla, Sweden Huski Ice Spritz Chip Ganassi Racing Honda 02:34.5801 232.889 11 55 Benjamin Pedersen (R) Copenhagen, Denmark AJ FOYT RACING/SEXTON PROPERTIES A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet 02:34.7246 232.671 12 12 Will Power (W) Toowoomba, Australia Verizon Team Penske Team Penske Chevrolet 02:34.7488 232.635 13 33 Ed Carpenter Indianapolis, Indiana Bitnile.com Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 02:34.7128 232.689 14 3 Scott McLaughlin Christchurch, New Zealand Pennzoil Team Penske Team Penske Chevrolet 02:34.7206 232.677 15 27 Kyle Kirkwood Jupiter, Florida AutoNation Andretti Autosport Honda 02:34.7311 232.662 16 20 Conor Daly Noblesville, Indiana Bitnile.com Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet 02:34.8833 232.433 17 2 Josef Newgarden Nashville, Tennessee Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Team Penske Chevrolet 02:34.9039 232.402 18 23 Ryan Hunter-Reay (W) Fort Lauderdale, Florida Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet 02:35.0837 232.133 19 28 Romain Grosjean Geneva, Switzerland DHL Andretti Autosport Honda 02:35.1744 231.997 20 06 Helio Castroneves (W) Sao Paulo, Brazil AutoNation/SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing Honda 02:35.2032 231.954 21 26 Colton Herta Valencia, California Gainbridge Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda 02:35.2055 231.951 22 60 Simon Pagenaud (W) Montmorillon, France AutoNation/SiriusXM Meyer Shank Racing Honda 02:35.2539 231.878 23 18 David Malukas Chicago, Illinois HMD Trucking Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda 02:35.3270 231.769 24 98 Marco Andretti Nazareth, Pennsylvania KULR/Curb Andretti Herta w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian Honda 02:35.3857 231.682 25 24 Stefan Wilson Sheffield, England DRR Cusick CareKeepers Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevrolet 02:35.4083 231.648 26 29 Devlin DeFrancesco Toronto, Canada Sodexo Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda 02:35.6061 231.353 27 78 Agustin Canapino (R) Arrecifes, Argentina Juncos Hollinger Racing Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet 02:35.6287 231.320 28 77 Callum Ilott Cambridge, England Juncos Hollinger Racing Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet 02:35.7212 231.182 29 50 RC Enerson (R) New Port Richey, Florida Abel Motorsports Abel Motorsports Chevrolet 02:35.7574 231.129 30 44 Katherine Legge Guildford, England Hendrickson Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 02:35.7971 231.070 31 45 Christian Lundgaard Hedensted, Denmark Hy-Vee Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 02:36.7607 229.649 32 51 Sting Ray Robb (R) Payette, Idaho biohaven Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda 02:36.8293 229.549 33 30 Jack Harvey Bassingham, England PeopleReady Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda 02:37.0916 229.166
NTT INDYCAR SERIES
107th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Field Average: 232.184 mph Issued: May 21, 2023
Sunday, May 28, 2023 STARTING LINEUP
Legend: R – Indianapolis 500 Rookie. W – Indianapolis 500 winner. All cars use 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES car (IR-18)
Next Event: 107th Indianapolis 500 Sunday, May 28, 2023
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