INDIANAPOLIS — It was all Team Penske during Saturday's first-round qualifying for the 108th Indianapolis 500.
Will Power set the fastest four-lap average in the session with a speed of 233.758 mph, putting his No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet on the provisional pole. However, he'll have to lay down a similar or quicker speed on Sunday in order to score his first pole in the "500."
His teammates Scott McLaughlin and defending winner Josef Newgarden rounded out the provisional front row. It's another positive run for the team following a controversial cheating scandal in the season-opening race.
"It was a good smooth run. Obviously got an early draw, which helps," said Power after qualifying. "Would like to have run in the heat, but Roger didn't want us to go out. We'll do the practice tomorrow."
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson was forced to abort his initial qualifying run earlier in the afternoon, but later came back to put his No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet solidly in the top-12 and confirming his chance to run for the pole on Sunday.
Larson is looking to become the second driver to complete all 1,100 miles on Memorial Day. Tony Stewart accomplished the feat in 2001, finishing sixth at Indy and third in Charlotte. Other drivers, including Stewart, have attempted the feat, but fell short of completing the full 1,100 miles. Kurt Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Cup champion, was the last driver before Larson to attempt "the double," finishing sixth at Indy, but finished 40th at Charlotte after a blown engine ended his day roughly 200 miles from completing the feat.
After a front-row start in the 2023 Indy 500, Felix Rosenqvist is back in the top-12 with his new team, Meyer Shank Racing. The Swede slotted himself provisionally seventh with a four-lap average of 232.547 mph.
Takuma Sato, in a one-off attempt for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, put his No. 75 Honda into the Fast 12 after laying down a four lap average of 232.473 mph and solidifying himself as the fastest RLL car in the show.
"I think Takuma is an anomaly. You can see that. Takuma, he's got a hell of an engine, man," said Graham Rahal of his teammate.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 winner, just barely made the Fast 12 in his one-off Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
FIGHT FOR THE LAST ROW
At the opposite end of the grid, Graham Rahal, Marcus Ericsson, Katherine Legge and Nolan Siegel were among the slowest to qualify and will have to retry on Sunday in order to avoid being bumped.
Ericsson, the 2022 winner, struggled for speed after crashing his No. 28 Honda during Thursday's practice session. The Swede made multiple attempts to get into the top-30, but just didn't have the pace of his teammates.
"That's how it goes. This place is tough. I think everyone can say that. We've been through ups and downs here. At the moment it's tough for us, but we need to keep fighting," said Ericsson in the press conference.
"We still have some potential. Can we put the car together and put ourselves in the race? We have not a lot, but we have a bit of time to try and tune on that for the race, and then anything can happen," said Ericsson.
For Graham Rahal, it marks the second year in a row that his No. 15 Honda struggled for speed.
"You know, we've just got to put our heads down, said Rahal in the post-qualifying press conference. "It's not at all what we expected as a team. I think it's a culmination of a lot of things that have put us back here again, but it's no excuse. We've got to figure out why we've lost some speed over the last couple of days and just go from there."
Rookie Nolen Siegel was arguably the slowest driver to make a qualifying attempt. The 19-year-old from California crashed and flipped during Fast Friday. His teammate Katherine Legge is also in the last row shootout.
Legge had a major moment during her initial qualifying run in which she made contact with the outside wall in Turn 4 coming to the checkered flag.
LAST-SECOND MIRACLE
Rinus VeeKay's Saturday couldn't have been more eventful. The Dutchman crashed in the north chute during his initial qualifying attempt, sending his Ed Carpenter Racing team scrambling to repair the car.
"I know what had to be replaced and it was basically the tub and the engine," said VeeKay about the damage to his car during the post-qualifying press conference. "Everything else kind of had to get swapped out. It was all spare parts, which it's not ideal, but we made it happen."
Ed Carpenter Racing definitely made it happen.
With around five minutes remaining in the session, VeeKay pulled onto the track for his final attempt at bumping his way into the field. To everyone's surprise, he not only made it into the top-30, he also made it into the Fast 12.
"Just such a roller coaster. I mean, such a heartbreak to start the day," said VeeKay. "Crew got the car back together in under three hours, which is incredible to start with. Then to get a banker run in, get the car cooled down, go back out again at the end and do that — I've never lost hope, but I mean, I never expected us to do that."
'PLENUM' OF PROBLEMS
Several drivers experienced issues during their qualifying runs that teams indicated was due to "plenum events." Several Chevrolet teams experienced these issues, causing runs to be waived off and frustration among drivers.
The first reported plenum event happened during Kyle Larson's initial qualifying attempt and didn't seem to slow down from there.
Arguably the most frustrated driver to encounter a plenum event was Argentinian sophomore driver Agustin Canapino, who on his final qualifying attempt had just set lap times of 233 and 232 mph before suddenly slowing down on his third lap, ruining a run that should have been good enough for the Fast 12.
Canapino was audibly frustrated as the NBC Sports broadcast aired him screaming in anger on the radio after his run finished.
The plenum problems can be explained as either an upshift or downshift that goes awry.
PROVISIONAL TOP-30
1. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 02:34.0053 (233.758 mph)
2. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 02:34.2863 (233.332)
3. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 02:34.3124 (233.293)
4. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 02:34.4609 (233.069)
5. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 02:34.6634 (232.764)
6. (17) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 02:34.7965 (232.563)
7. (60) Felix Rosenqvist, Honda, 02:34.8074 (232.547)
8. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 02:34.8415 (232.496)
9. (75) Takuma Sato, Honda, 02:34.8566 (232.473)
10. (5) Pato O'Ward, Chevrolet, 02:34.8826 (232.434)
11. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 02:34.8930 (232.419)
12. (23) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Chevrolet, 02:34.9153 (232.385)
13. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 02:34.9616 (232.316)
14. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 02:34.9682 (232.306)
15. (6) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 02:35.0184 (232.230)
16. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 02:35.0504 (232.183)
17. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 02:35.1608 (232.017)
18. (4) Kyffin Simpson, Honda, 02:35.2069 (231.948)
19. (98) Marco Andretti, Honda, 02:35.2458 (231.890)
20. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 02:35.2587 (231.871)
21. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 02:35.2723 (231.851)
22. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 02:35.2750 (231.847)
23. (41) Sting Ray Robb, Chevrolet, 02:35.2888 (231.826)
24. (33) Christian Rasmussen, Chevrolet, 02:35.3852 (231.682)
25. (66) Tom Blomqvist, Honda, 02:35.4554 (231.578)
26. (77) Romain Grosjean, Chevrolet, 02:35.4982 (231.514)
27. (8) Linus Lundqvist, Honda, 02:35.5034 (231.506)
28. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 02:35.5308 (231.465)
29. (24) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 02:35.6803 (231.243)
30. (30) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 02:35.7768 (231.100)
Bumped: Marcus Ericsson, Graham Rahal, Katherine Legge, Nolan Siegel.
