Team Penske backed up its qualifying pace from Saturday with a front row sweep on Sunday.
Scott McLaughlin went out last on Sunday and posted the fastest four-lap run of the weekend to win the pole for the 2024 Indianapolis 500. His speed bested his Team Penske teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden, the defending Indy 500 champion.
McLaughlin’s average speed of 234.220 MPH over his four laps is the fastest pole run in Indianapolis 500 history. McLaughlin went out last after he posted the fastest speed earlier in the day and had the benefit of slightly more shade over a track that was cooling as the shadows got longer.
Kyle Larson qualified fifth for the 500 before he had to head to North Carolina for the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race later Sunday night. Larson is set to be the fifth driver to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day next weekend.
Larson had an early issue with his car during Saturday’s qualifying session but was able to complete a run that easily got him into the second round of qualifying on Sunday. The top 12 drivers from Saturday’s qualifying session raced for the pole position on Sunday.
Penske’s dominating speed
The six cars that went for the pole position late Sunday afternoon were all powered by Chevrolet engines and the Team Penske cars are clearly the fastest of the Chevy bunch.
The Indy 500 has always been the most important race for Roger Penske, and Team Penske’s front row sweep comes after a significant penalty to the team earlier this season. Newgarden and McLaughlin were disqualified from the season-opening race at St. Petersburg while Power was penalized because the team had software on its engines that allowed the drivers to use more push to pass boost than is allowed.
The DQs led to suspensions for Penske personnel for the 500 and a lot of chatter among the series’ other competitors. Penske is the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series.
His team is clearly the one to beat in a week as it looks to back up its historic success at IMS. Newgarden’s win in 2023 was the 19th Indy 500 win for Team Penske. No other team has more than six Indianapolis 500 victories.
Nolan Siegel misses out
Nolan Siegel pushed as hard as he could during his final run on Sunday and found that he went a little too close to the edge.
Siegel found himself 34th of 34 drivers after Marcus Ericsson pushed his way into the field with less than five minutes to go in the last-row qualifying session. Siegel’s first lap of his four-lap qualifying attempt wasn’t good enough to make the field and then he hit the wall on his second lap before his car crashed.
It was the second crash of the week for the 19-year-old after he flipped in practice earlier in the week.
Siegel’s DNQ means that Graham Rahal got the 33rd and final spot in the field. Rahal missed out on last year’s race but ended up driving the No. 24 car during the 500 because of Stefan Wilson’s practice crash.
Marcus Ericsson’s drama
Ericsson also crashed during practice this week and failed to lock into the field during Saturday’s qualifying session that guaranteed starting spots for the fastest 30 drivers in the 33-car field.
Ericsson was plenty fast on his first qualifying attempt but backed off after his third lap because of an apparent miscommunication about the number of laps he had completed. Had Ericsson kept going on his fourth and final lap, he wouldn’t have needed a second qualifying run.
Instead, he had to go again and did just enough to get in. Ericsson’s second run bumped Siegel from the field.
Indianapolis 500 starting lineup
1. Scott McLaughlin
2. Will Power
3. Josef Newgarden
4. Alexander Rossi
5. Kyle Larson
6. Santino Ferrucci
7. Rinus VeeKay
8. Pato O’Ward
9. Felix Rosenqvist
10. Takuma Sato
11. Kyle Kirkwood
12. Ryan Hunter-Reay
13. Colton Herta
14. Alex Palou
15. Callum Ilott
16. Marcus Armstrong
17. Ed Carpenter
18. Kyffin Simpson
19. Marco Andretti
20. Helio Castroneves
21. Scott Dixon
22. Augustin Canapino
23. Sting Ray Robb
24. Christian Rasmussen
25. Tom Blomqvist
26. Romain Grosjean
27. Linus Lundqvist
28. Christian Lundgaard
29. Conor Daly
30. Pietro Fittipaldi
31. Katherine Legge
32. Marcus Ericsson
33. Graham Rahal
DNQ: Nolan Siegel