Arrow McLaren Serves Notice On Day 1 Of Indy Qualifying
Photo by Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment
Qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 can go either way on a team.
Saturday, it went well for Arrow McLaren, Chip Ganassi Racing and A.J. Foyt Racing. For others, like Team Penske, Andretti Autosport and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, not so much.
Arrow McLaren placed all four of its cars in the Fast 12 led by a late afternoon run by Felix Rosenqvist. His four-lap average of 233.947 was the third fastest in Indianapolis Motor Speedway history eclipsed only by Arie Luyendyk’s 236.986 set in 1996 and Scott Dixon’s 234.048 of last year.
While Rosenqvist’s speed only counted for getting him into the Fast 12, it was still reason to feel good.
“Yeah, I think it's still a pretty big day for us. I mean, we've been good here the last couple years. Today to have all the cars in the top eight, in this competition, it's really hard. We saw with Tony today, even if he's doing a perfect job, still things that can outside factors that can play in, it can become really difficult in this field.
“Super proud of the whole team for executing. That last run we did was just phenomenal. Almost in a 234 average. That was pretty mind-blowing how we found so much speed. We weren't super happy on our first run, so we had two or three reasons to think we were going to go quicker. We kind of put them all together, wow, what a run.
“Team Chevy as well, great job. Yeah, just a fun time to be in Arrow McLaren right now.
“Everything kind of resets for tomorrow, but we definitely feeling good right now.”
While Arrow McLaren grabbed the speed headlines, all four of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Honda-powered cars made it into the Fast 12 as well. Driver Alex Palou feels confident going into Sunday’s Fast 12 and Firestone Fast Six qualifying shootouts that will determine the starting order for the first four rows of next weekend’s race.
“Yeah. It's great to have four cars again in the Fast 12. I think it's pretty tough to do it, especially nowadays, how tight the field is.
“Yeah, we feel confident. That doesn't mean that we feel like it's going to be easy to get into the Fast Six or fight for pole. But we feel confident that we have speed. It's just going to take four amazing laps, no mistakes, try and get a consistent third and fourth (lap).
“Yeah, I have confidence in my car, but at the same time I'm not underestimating anybody on the Fast 12.”
Photo of Santino Ferrucci by Joe Skibinski, Penske Entertainment
No one expected A.J. Foyt Racing to place both of its cars in the Fast 12. Yet, there they were. Santino Ferrucci and rookie Benjamin Peterson both out qualified all the of drivers from Team Penske and Andretti Autosport. That the smaller, under-funded team went faster than two of the sport’s superteams was not lost on Ferrucci.
“It's pretty funny. You sit there going against two four-car teams that have an insane budget, up front like this for a long time. McLaren is new, but they have been doing a fantastic job. To compete with them is definitely something special.
“I think we've definitely been there more on the racing side of things, at least I have in the past few years. To see us up there on raw car speed is pretty cool.”
Photo of Josef Newgarden by James Black, Penske Entertainment
Speaking of Team Penske, only Will Power advanced into Sunday’s Fast 12. Teammate Josef Newgarden admitted the team is currently missing something.
“Look, there's no place to hide. We're just not fast enough. We really weren't. It's unfortunate. I feel terrible for our team because I'm front and center of being able to witness the amount of effort that has gone into this place. It is just not from a shortage of effort.
“We're obviously just missing something else. I don't know how we're missing it. We've worked hard, all of us collectively. We've tried to have no ego about it. It's just not enough.
“I think we're still short. Unfortunately the weird thing was I think we were more in the mix yesterday. I think the wind plays a big factor into that. Maybe we're missing something in these type of conditions that we saw today.
“Any way you want to slice it, we just weren't good enough. We've got to go back and really assess again. Unfortunately we've been doing that every single year here. What's most important now is we're going to focus on the race. I do believe with how tight the field is, there's opportunity anywhere. If you qualify for the race, there's opportunity anywhere to win this event
“We have to put our focus to that now and be able to collect ourselves after the 500 and see what we can do better. I have strong confidence we have great race cars and can be in the fight on Sunday.”
Rookie driver R.C. Enerson and ABEL Racing defied the odds, Saturday, qualifying 29th and earning a guaranteed spot in the starting lineup after only four days of on track experience. For team principle Bill Abel, it was an emotional dream come true.
“I’m so proud of our guys. We have had so much help from so many in the paddock. It’s encouraging and gratifying to have that support and to have the team we’ve been able to assemble. I hadn’t even let myself get to the point of believing we had a shot to make the race. And now we have. It’s just amazing. The support we’ve gotten from Chevrolet has been invaluable. They’ve believed in us and we couldn’t have done this without their trust in what we wanted to do. They’ve provided so much support, it’s been awesome.”
Photo of Graham Rahal, Katherine Legge and Bobby Mahal by Chris Jones, Penske Entertainment
While ABEL Racing realized a dream, it was quite the opposite for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Winners of the 500 as recently as 2020, none of the team’s full-time drivers has been fast enough to get a guaranteed starting spot in this year’s race. Only Katherine Legge, the team’s fourth entry in this year’s made the provisional starting field, qualifying 30th. For driver Jack Harvey, it has been a weird week.
“The first two days started out very good and then our lack of speed reared it’s head on Fast Friday. Sometimes you don’t know where you stack up until everyone is out there on the same program. We have worked very hard to find the speed but have not been able to make a big enough impact yet. We will continue to work on that tonight and come out fighting tomorrow.”
Driver Graham Rahal says their lack of performance has been disappointing.
“It’s a disappointing day to not be able to find more speed and sneak in there. We've just got to put our heads down tonight and try to find the speed necessary to sneak into the bottom three. It's going to be tight. Jack and I are very equal it seems.”
Given the short turn-around between Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s last chance runs, driver Christian Lundgaard isn’t sure there’s enough time to identify the source of the team’s troublers.
“We have basically covered the whole board on options. We have looked at every area that we track, that we can do different to extract more pace but we simply haven’t found the speed. I think there's something in the cars that we need to identify for next time but I don't think we are going to be able to find it here. Right now we're working on getting in the show.”
Starting positions 7-12 will be determined in Fast 12 qualifying, Sunday, followed by last chance qualifying for positions 31-33. Firestone Fast Six qualifying will follow to set the first two rows of this year’s 107th running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.