INDIANAPOLIS — Scott McLaughlin won the pole position for the 108th Indy 500, completing a sweep of the front row for Team Penske’s Dallara-Chevrolets.
McLaughlin posted a four-lap qualifying average at 234.220 mph in his No. 3, besting teammates Will Power (233.917) and Josef Newgarden (233.808).
“The Pennzoil Chevy was unreal,” McLaughlin said. “So much pride. Just a lot of pride. Hello to my mom and dad back in New Zealand. And there’s one person I know that is watching this that has helped me all week. You know who you are, brother. I’m working hard. Indy hasn’t been kind to me. A lot of it is my doing. This is the first step. The Thirsty 3s, we’re coming.”
The front row lockout was the first at the Indy 500 in 36 years for Team Penske, which has a record 19 victories at the Brickyard.
QUALIFYING: Full results l Fast Six l Fast 12 l Last Chance
In 1988, Rick Mears was on the pole position with a “Yellow Submarine” paint scheme just like McLaughlin’s) alongside teammates Al Unser and Danny Sullivan.
It was a big rebound for Team Penske, which was embroiled last month in a push-to-pass scandal that resulted in the disqualification of race winner Newgarden and McLaughlin from the St. Pete Grand Prix.
The team also suspended four team members from working on site at the Indy 500: president Tim Cindric, managing director Ron Ruzewski and engineers Luke Mason and Robbie Atkinson.
“Well, what a team effort this whole month,” team owner Roger Penske told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns.
“To see us come back from some adversity here, it shows how good our team is, what a deep bench we have, and I want to thank Tim Cindric and all the guys who are sitting at home during this time because they were a part of making this happen. Ron Ruzewski, obviously. Luke. Robbie. You’re part of this win.
“So again, we’re going to start with the car’s in the right place. Hasn’t been this way since 36 years ago. We dug deep, we delivered. To see the power of those Chevy engines were amazing.
On the second row were Alexander Rossi (233.090), Kyle Larson (232.846) and Santino Ferrucci (232.692).
After a short round of interviews, Larson hopped into a waiting Suburban and was driven to a helipad outside Turn 2. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion climbed aboard a helicopter with Hendrick Motorsports chief operating officer Jeff Gordon at 5:42 p.m. ET, heading to the Indianapolis International Airport.
A Hendrick jet there would take Larson and his contingent to North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, where he will race as the defending winner of the All-Star Race. The event will start at 8:30 p.m. ET as NASCAR delayed the green flag by 16 minutes to give Larson more time to arrive.
UPDATE: The green-flag time for tonight's #AllStarRace has been moved to 8:30 p.m. ET to allow @KyleLarsonRacin extra time to arrive at @NWBSpeedway.
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 19, 2024
Last Chance Qualifying, 4:05 p.m.
Nolan Siegel wrecked on the final attempt of a dramatic Last Chance Qualifying session that locked in the 33-car driver field for the 108th Indy 500.
Siegel, 19, was trying to make his Indy 500 debut. He brushed the SAFER barrier on the exit of Turn 1 with his right rear and lost control of the No. 18 Dallara-Honda of Dale Coyne Racing.
That set a last row of veterans Katherine Legge, Marcus Ericsson and Graham Rahal, who took the final spot a year after he was the only driver who failed to qualify.
“We’ve been hanging on by a thread,” Rahal told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “For the 15 car, I’m just happy we’re in. Last year, I saw everybody celebrating, and it just kind of rubbed salt in the wounds, so I’m not going to be that guy. We’re just going to turn the page to tomorrow, try to get a good good race car, which I think we have.”
Ericsson, the 2022 Indy 500 winner who finished second in last year’s race, needed nearly the entire hourlong session to lock into the field. His first attempt came up several mph short because Ericsson took his foot off the accelerator during the last lap, mistakenly believing his qualifying run had ended.
“It was all on me,” Ericsson told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “It’s just all on me. I messed it up. I shouldn’t be doing that with my experience. We’re going to change the procedure going forward for sure.”
After the aborted attempt, Ericsson sat in his No. 28 Dallara-Honda for 45 minutes with temperatures in the high 80s, waiting for one last chance that came up with less 10 minutes left.
“It’s been tough for sure,” Ericsson said. “We were safely in, and I can’t believe I did that. Sit here and wait and think I had one shot to make the race, and I had to hit that run. It was a very, very tough mental challenge for sure.”
Follow along here for live updates from the second day of Indy 500 qualifying.
Fast 12, 3 p.m.
Kyle Larson will be starting in the first two rows of his Indy 500 debut.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion posted a four-lap average at 232.788 mph around the 2.5-mile oval in the opening round of pole position qualifying Sunday, advancing to the Fast Six with the speed.
The battle for the pole position in the 108th Indianapolis 500 will come down to , Josef Newgarden, Alexander Rossi, Santino Ferrucci Larson will be facing off against Scott McLaughlin, who was fastest at 233.492 mph, Will Power (233.483), Josef Newgarden (233.286), Alexander Rossi (233.071) and Santino Ferrucci (232.723).
The Fast Six session will begin at 5:25 p.m. ET, and Larson will be the second driver to make an attempt after Ferrucci.
Larson then will need to hustle to a helipad outside Turn 2 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking a helicopter to a Hendrick Motorsports plane that will fly him to North Wiklesboro, North Carolina, for Sunday night’s All-Star Race.
Having qualified nine of the top 12 spots Saturday, Chevy ensured a lockout of the first two rows on the 33-car grid by sweeping the Fast Six.
Failing to advance from the Fast 12 session were Rinus VeeKay (232.610), Pato O’Ward (232.584), Felix Rosenqvist (232.305 as the fastest qualifying Honda), Takuma Sato (232.171), Kyle Kirkwood (230.993) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (230.567 mph).
Practice, noon-2 p.m.
Kyle Larson had his first big moment in May at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as he prepared to take a crack at nabbing the Indy 500 pole position as a rookie.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion nearly lost control of his No. 17 Dallara-Chevrolet after a 235-mph wiggle between Turns 1 and 2 on the 2.5-mile oval. Larson was able to gather the car up before sliding into the outside SAFER barrier, but he immediately aborted his four-lap qualifying simulation and headed to the pit lane.
“I feel like in these cars, whenever I get tight or understeer and add more wheel than I would want to, it gets to a point where it finally like grabs and then wants to snap,” Larson told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “So that was that moment and then we went out again and put together a complete run.
“I just had a good vibration so I couldn’t really see that well that time, so that made things a little bit sketchy but yeah good to run through some things there and then go talk about a little bit and see if we get a little bit faster and more comfortable.”
Larson, who will attempt to become the fifth driver to race the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day, turned the sixth-fastest lap among the 12 drivers who are in the second round of qualifying that will begin at 3:05 p.m. ET.
If his speed for the four-lap qualifying average remains in the top half of the Fast 12, Larson will advance to the Fast Six runoff for the pole position, which will start at 5:25 p.m. ET.
Larson will need to be in a golf cart heading to a helipad outside Turn 2 shortly after the session ends 30 minutes later. He will be taking a helicopter to Indianapolis International Airport, where he will catch a Hendrick Motorsports plane to North Wilkesboro Speedway, where the 8:14 p.m. green flag for Sunday night’s All-Star Race.
During a two-hour practice at Indy, Josef Newgarden turned the fastest lap (234.052 mph), followed by Felix Rosenqvist, Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi and Kyle Kirkwood.
Team Penske’s Will Power, who had paced Saturday’s first day of qualifying ahead of teammates Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin, was a frustrating 11th on the speed chart after he became the seventh Chevrolet driver to experience a plenum fire during a qualifying run.
“The engine stops, just dies for however long,” Power said. “It kills your speed massively. Yeah, I don’t where the speed is now. Sort of feeling a weird vibration on the front straight. We’ll look into it. Will be tough to make top six as we sit.”
Power said he thought his No. 12 Dallara-Chevrolet had an engine failure because of the vibration.
“They’ll have to look at the data; maybe it’s gearbox issue,” Power told Snider. “I don’t know. It may not even be an issue. It may be just something vibrating, an aero piece. Yeah, so we’ve got to go through a few (things), but we should have (done a second qualifying run) yesterday. Honestly, we should have run. I wanted to, and we didn’t, and that’s a bad decision in my opinion because we just wasted a run on the wrong aero bits and now we’re struggling with this stuff, so it’s our fault.”
In addition to two rounds of pole qualifying to set the first four rows for the May 26 race, the Last Chance Qualifying session will happen at 4:15 p.m. ET with Marcus Ericsson, Katherine Legge, Graham Rahal and Nolan Siegel battling for the last three spots in the race.
Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, continuing through 6 p.m.
