INDIANAPOLIS – The rain that endured long enough on Saturday to complete the first round of the Indianapolis 500 qualifiers in a full day of soup still produced incredible speeds not seen in 26 years at the Indianapolis Freeway.
Rinus VeeKay and Pato O’Ward, a new pair of young stars, posted a superior average of over 233 mph with a snappy Chevrolet horsepower. NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson qualified for his first Indy 500, and his Chip Ganassi team has shown it could be the strongest organization in Indy right now.
Meanwhile, Andretti Autosport had a bad day. And Team Penske was affected by the weather as it pulled Scott McLaughlinqualifying time was late Saturday afternoon and sent him back to try to break through the top 12. McLaughlin was 15th in the table when his time was stripped; The New Zealanders went even slower and dropped to 26th.
“Well, this place just kicked (me) in private – ah well,” McLaughlin posted on social media.
Teammate Penske Josef Newgarden followed McLaughlin for his own attempt to make the top 12, but his run was halted when lightning flashed. It was the second lightning stop of the day, and the rain continued for several minutes after that. IndyCar calls it a day that’s about 70 minutes ahead of schedule.
Only positions 13 to 33 are locked on Saturday and the top 12 return on Sunday for penalty shootouts for the pole. Fighting for the front row will be VeeKay and O’Ward, who posted the third-fastest and fifth-fastest four-lap qualifying averages in track history, and Felix Rosenqvist when Chevrolet took the top three.
Defending Champion IndyCar Alex Palou fourth fastest as Ganassi lifted his entire fleet of five vehicles into action Sunday. Tony Kanaan fifth, Johnson sixth, Marcus Ericsson is eighth and Scott Dixon 10th for the Honda-powered team.
Ed Carpenterwho on Saturday morning posted the eighth fastest lap in track history at 234,410 mph, the sixth fastest in qualifying when he and Spirit (11th) complete Chevrolet group.
Honda raised seven riders on Sunday as the Ganassi team joined Romain GrosjeanThe only driver Andretti to reach the top 12 and win twice Takuma Sato.
Sato had a roller coaster ride; he was disqualified after the first qualifying attempt for meddling Marco Andrettiheart of. On his second attempt, Sato scrubbed the wall and still made the top 12.
Places seven through 12 for the May 29 race will be determined in another qualifying round, then after halftime a “Fast Six” penalty shootout will establish the first two rows of the round. 106th run of the Indy 500.
VeeKay for Ed Carpenter Racing took his Chevrolet to the top of the scoring column with a four-lap average of 233,655 mph, edging past Arrow McLaren SP’s O’Ward to finish second with 233,037.
Arie Luyendyk set a four-round qualifying record in 1996 with 236,986, and VeeKay’s average was the third-fastest of all time behind Luyendyk and Scott Brayton’s results of 233,718. The O’Ward average is 5th fastest in history, with Tony Stewart coming 4th in 1996.
VeeKay, a Luyendyk fan from the Netherlands, said: “It’s really, really cool to have two Dutch boys in the top five fastest of all time.
Johnson once again showed incredible speed, and during an early Saturday morning practice session, spun a lap at 233,961 mph – the 14th fastest in track history.
“I think the speed scares my kids,” Johnson said. “When they see me, their eyes. They’ve been in a lot of races, but they’ve never looked at me like that.”
The seven-time NASCAR champion has slowly become a legitimate contender to win the Indy 500, which will be his fifth victory in the Indianapolis oval; Johnson has won four times at NASCAR.
“I had some quiet moments before rolling in, I was able to look around and really capture the moment,” Johnson said, “and it was a special moment, I’m so happy to be in Here. Everything is looking good for now.”
Not long after Johnson’s morning lap, teammate Dixon made the 13th fastest lap in history with 234,093. Carpenter finished the session as the fastest lap lead in an Indy 500 in fact since Luyendyk set a record of 237,498 mph in 1996.
Andretti Autosport struggled from the start as Marco Andretti had to drop out of the qualifying run when Sato couldn’t get off the track after a few moments.
Andretti will start on the 23rd.
“Don’t count 98 to win this race,” he said.
As the team was figuring out what to do with Andretti, Colton HertaHis engine seemed to fail during his run. The winner on the track just a week ago, Herta was trying to qualify when his Honda engine suddenly shut down.
He abandoned his run and returned to the pit, and later confirmed his motives would be changed.
Then, 2016 winner Alexander Rossi had a miserable first run: “We added downforce,” said Rossi, who called the decision “appalling.”
His second attempt is worse and Rossi will start 20th. Devlin DeFrancecoa rookie, 24th and Herta will start 25th.
Indy 500’s last row will be rookies Christian Lundgaard, Jack Harvey and Stefan Wilsonthe 33rd entrant. Wilson had a transmission problem on Saturday and needed an engine replacement and was never on track.
