Penske Power, Surprises Galore Mark Day 1 of Indy Qualifying
Photo Credit: Walt Kuhn, Penske Entertainment
Given their performance on Fast Friday, it wasn’t a surprise that all three Team Penske drivers topped the first day of qualifying for the 108th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. What happened behind them was less predictable and set the stage for more drama on the second and final day of PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying on Sunday.
Will Power led the way for Team Penske, posting a speed of 233.728 miles per hour in his No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske Chevrolet.
“Yeah, it was a good smooth run. Obviously got an early draw, which helps. Would like to have run in the heat, but (team owner) Roger (Penske) didn’t want us to go out. We'll do the practice tomorrow.”
While Power believes one of the team’s drivers will win the pole, he isn’t sure it will be a Penske lockout as it was in 1988 when Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser, Sr. swept the front row.
“I think (Alexander) Rossi is the one that could break up an all-Penske front row, but I think one of us will get the pole, I hope. We put a lot of work in. All the cars are about the same speed, and it'll be about the run.
“I would be extremely happy for the engineers and the guys who have done all this work because it's been pretty painful the last five years.
“Yeah, I think I'd be most happy for them. We're the lucky ones that get to drive the cars. I really hope that happens.
“We're definitely all in the game right now for a pole here and for a race win.”
Scott McLaughlin was second fastest in his No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet at 233.332 mph while Josef Newgarden rounded out the provisional front row at 233.293 mph in his No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske Chevrolet.
Photo Credit: Chris Owens, Penske Entertainment
Rossi was the only other driver to go over 233-mph, clocking in at 233.069 mph as Arrow McLaren placed three of its four drivers in the top 12.
“Yeah, it was a pretty wild day for us. It started with the draw last night, thanks to 34th. It was pretty tough. Obviously it was a little chaotic for the whole organization in the beginning.
“But we knew we had fast cars, and it was a lot of just teamwork to kind of stay calm with the unpredictable stuff that started to happen.
“I think Arrow McLaren did a great job so far this month. We've had good cars in really all conditions. Chevy has done an unbelievable job in making our lives pretty easy.
“It's the job we needed to do today, and now we focus on tomorrow.
“I think this place always presents new variables and new challenges,” Rossi continued, “but you have to be able to be adaptable, and we knew that despite the performance in qualifying we had last year that we still had to make a step, and I still don't think we're all the way there yet. Obviously there's three good cars in front of us still.
“But we're chipping away at it, we're getting there, and I have all the confidence in everyone that overnight we'll be able to bring three cars and put our best foot forward.”
NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson had the sixth fastest speed of the day at 232.563 in his first attempt to qualify for the 500.
"Today went well,” Larson said. “Obviously, we had a hiccup during our first run, but I was really happy with the second run we made. I could tell it was fast and balanced, so the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet felt comfortable. It was a solid day ending up in sixth, and I'm looking forward to Top 12 Qualifying tomorrow.”
Pato O’Ward put in a late afternoon run of 232.434 for the tenth fastest speed of the day.
Photo Credit: James Black, Penske Entertainment
Rinus VeeKay posted the eleventh fastest speed at 232.419 after crashing his No. 21 askROI Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet on his first qualifying attempt in the morning.
“Yeah, what a day indeed. Just such a roller coaster. I mean, such a heartbreak to start the day. 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. It's such a great story, such a great job by the guys.
“I think they are the real winners here today. I just had to stay flat for four laps today and hang on to the thing. They made it possible for me. Yeah, just really, really, really good job.”
There were a number of other surprises during the day, as well. After winning the pole last year, Chip Ganassi Racing was unable to get one of its five entries in the top 12.
After four attempts, 2022 Indy winner Marcus Ericsson failed to lock himself into the race. For the driver of the No. 28 Delaware Life Andretti Global Honda it’s been a tough couple of days.
“Yeah, it's been very tough, obviously. But yeah, I can only blame myself. I crashed our primary car on Thursday and put us in a difficult spot. I think the team has done a really good job at building up the backup car and really putting in a lot of work yesterday to try and dial it in.
“Again today, they were out there pushing all day to try and find speed and get me out there for new runs. Very thankful of that. But of course it's very frustrating, very disappointing.”
Photo Credit: Paul Hurley, Penske Entertainment
Ericsson will be joined by Graham Rahal along with Dale Coyne Racing’s Katherine Legge and rookie Nolan Siegel in tomorrow’s Last Chance Qualifying session to determine the make-up of the final three starting positions in the field. It’s the second year in a row Rahal and his No. 15 United Rentals Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda have been in this situation.
“Well, I hope that a smooth four is what it's going to take tomorrow,” a frustrated Rahal said. “But Kat, Marcus, me, we're all about the exact same. Nolan, I'm sure they're going to work hard overnight to find some speed there.
“But again, a smooth four (laps) is never a guarantee around here.
“You know, we've just got to put our heads down. 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.
“It's just the way this place goes sometimes,” Rahal continued. “Unfortunately, I feel like we busted our butts in the off-season, but we're still not there.
“Sad that it's us again, but that's life, and these things happen for a reason. They toughen you up, and hopefully we can get through tomorrow in a different fashion than we did last year, have a good day on Monday, and go from there. But we'll see.”
Photo Credit: Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment
Surprising, also, was the number of engine issues on Saturday.
Rob Bucker, Chevrolet’s INDYCAR program manager explained exactly what the plenum issue was.
“I think these engines are being operated on a knife edge here this weekend, and we're pushing for every bit of performance. So on top of the cylinder heads in the air inlet system of the engine is a plenum, and there's some port fuel injectors up there, so while these engines are sustained high speed, that plenum is very full of fuel, and if we have any event over a downshift that can ignore that fuel, it ends up evaporating the plenum of its fuel air charge, temperatures rise rapidly, and it pretty much -- to the driver it's a perceived engine kill, and they vary in duration, they vary in severity. Unfortunately here today, the ones we had were very noticeable to the drivers. Anything around Indianapolis is very noticeable to the drivers. It pretty much scrapped those runs, which we really hate for all those drivers that we impacted their day.”
Chevrolet wasn’t the only engine manufacturer experiencing issues at Indy. Honda suffered a number of engine failures beginning with the Sonsio Grand Prix weekend and in practice leading up to qualifying. According to Buckner, it’s not because of the age of the power units, rather a result of the competition between the two OEMs.
“Yeah, I think the engine wars are unique, and when we see the drivers pushing each other, it's easy to see their fast hands, reactions, and things they're doing to compete. The engine programs are really behind a wall, and we're competing out of public eye in a lot of ways in how hard we're pushing these engines, and we're seeing the results of that. I don't think it's due to the age of the engine. I think it's due to how hard you have to operate and push them, the development paths you have to take to get that performance.
“We take a tremendous amount of pride and responsibilities in showing up here with a great engine program, and we definitely had the power. We had the reliability, and we didn't fail any engines. All these engines are good to use, but we lacked some robustness in different conditions and the transience of the qualifying runs. I wouldn't say it's due to the age of the engines. It's really we are pushing very, very hard for every last bit of performance, and I'm very proud of the gains we made coming into this year. I think we brought great power. We've got to get all the details right, and I have high confidence that our group can do that overnight, and we've got a great shot at pole and front row tomorrow.”
To make sure the plenum issue that impacted six Chevrolet-powered cars doesn’t happen again, Jim Campbell, vice-president GM Performance and Motorsports said his team would be running dyno tests all through the night - globally.
“We do have teams in different parts of the world that will be running. We do have dynos that we have access to around the world. So we'll be running the dynos there, and then our team here will be pouring through all the data, all the data analysis is what you have to do. We've got to be ready to go tomorrow.
“We're pushing as hard as we can. This year we have nine out of the Fast 12. Last year we had eight out of the Fast 12, but we did not get the pole last year, so we're pushing to get to the pole.”