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Team Penske reinforced its qualifying pace from Saturday with a front-row victory on Sunday.
Scott McLaughlin started last Sunday and posted the fastest four-lap run of the weekend to earn the pole for the 2024 Indianapolis 500. His speed surpassed his Team Penske teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden, the champion defender of the Indianapolis 500.
McLaughlin’s average speed of 234.220 MPH over his four laps is the fastest pole in Indianapolis 500 history. McLaughlin started last after posting the fastest speed earlier in the day and had the benefit of a little more shade on a track that was cooling as the shadows grew longer.
Kyle Larson qualified fifth for the 500 before having to head to North Carolina for the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race later Sunday night. Larson will be the fifth driver to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day next weekend.
Larson had an early issue with his car during Saturday’s qualifying session, but was able to complete a stint that easily moved him into Sunday’s second round of qualifying. The top 12 drivers from Saturday’s qualifying session battled for pole position on Sunday.
Penske’s dominant speed
All six cars seeking pole position Sunday afternoon were powered by Chevrolet engines and the Team Penske cars are clearly the fastest of the Chevy group.
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 in St. Petersburg, while Power was penalized because the team had software in its engines that allowed drivers to use more boost to overtake than allowed.
The disqualifications led to suspensions of Penske staff from the 500 and much 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 he looks to build on his historic success at IMS. Newgarden’s 2023 victory was the 19th Indy 500 victory for Team Penske. No other team has more than six Indianapolis 500 wins.
Nolan Siegel misses
Nolan Siegel pushed as hard as he could during his final run on Sunday and found he got too close to the edge.
Siegel found himself in 34th place out of 34 drivers after Marcus Ericsson made his way into the field with less than five minutes left in the qualifying session from the back row. Siegel’s first lap of his four-lap qualifying attempt wasn’t good enough to get into the field and he then hit the wall on his second lap before his car crashed.
It was the second fall of the week for the 19-year-old after he rolled over in practice earlier in the week.
Siegel’s DNQ means Graham Rahal earned the 33rd and final seed in the field. Rahal missed last year’s race but ended up driving the number 24 car during the 500 due to Stefan Wilson’s practice accident.
The drama of Marcus Ericsson
Ericsson also crashed during practice this week and failed to stay with the field during Saturday’s qualifying session that guaranteed starting spots for the 30 fastest drivers in the 33-car field.
Ericsson was quite fast on his first qualifying attempt, but fell back after his third lap due to an apparent miscommunication about the number of laps he had completed. If Ericsson had continued ahead on his fourth and final lap, he would not have needed a second qualifying round.
Instead, he had to go again and did just enough to get in. Ericsson’s second run took Siegel off the field.
Indianapolis 500 Starting Lineup
1. Scott McLaughlin
2. Willpower
3. Josef Newgarden
4. Alejandro Rossi
5. Kyle Larson
6. Santino Ferrucci
7. Rinus VeeKay
8. Duck 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. Marco Armstrong
17. Ed Carpenter
18. Kyffin Simpson
19. Marco Andretti
20. Helio Castroneves
21. Scott Dixon
22. Agustín 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. Marco Ericsson
33. Graham Rahal
DNQ: Nolan Siegel