INDIANAPOLIS — As they always say, Indy picks its winners. The place is like an ever-evolving living, breathing mecca that houses hundreds of thousands of fans over the year. Friday was just the latest example of the storybook chapter of grace.
Graham Rahal was bumped by a teammate as the final qualifier in May’s Indy 500. On Friday, Rahal, the final qualifier across the timing line in the Firestone Fast Six, bumped a teammate from the pole.
For the first time in 105 races, Rahal will start on the pole for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix (2 p.m. ET, USA, INDYCAR Radio Network).
“Yeah, man. It was nice,” Rahal said. “It’s truly good to be able to just translate what we had in practice, to make it improve to qualifying.”
Rahal was dealing with a brake problem in practice and even early in qualifying, was dealing with a similar issue.
“Frankly, the very first Q1, I think we were still P2 or 3, but I was not pleased at all with the car,” he continued.
“Even in Q2 we were P1, but it was just a terrible lap. That’s always a good sign. It’s nice to be able to feel that way. It’s been a long, long time since I felt very in control, could make it happen when we needed to, put it together.
“Q3, it was really tricky, frankly. My brake pedal was really, really long through all of qualifying, which it was this morning, too. We bled them. Thought it was going to be better. It wasn’t. I locked a few times in Q3. Kind of released the pedal and hoped it stuck, and it worked out.
“We have a little bit of work to do to get better here and warm up before the race. It’s awfully nice to be able to have the Code 3 Associates car up front, to be able to go challenge from there with some clear road ahead. We’ll see how the start goes and things like that. But clear road ahead. See how it plays out.”
Christian Lundgaard (1:10.2286-seconds) bumped Alexander Rossi (1:10.2932-seconds) from the top spot late only for Rahal to return the favor by going 1:10.1132-seconds in his No. 15 Dallara-Honda to score his fourth career pole.
It will be an all Rahal front row in a race that they desperately want to win.
Row 2 will feature Arrow McLaren Racing teammates of Rossi and Pato O’Ward (1:10.3453-second). Row 3 will be Andretti Autosport teammates of Devlin DeFrancesco (1:10.3938-seconds) and Romain Grosjean (1:10.4021-seconds). To continue the theme, Row 4 will be Chip Ganassi Racing teammates of rookie Marcus Armstrong (1:10.2106-seconds) and Alex Palou (1:10.2974-seconds).
Palou was promoted up to 8th as he initially qualified 9th. Jack Harvey was originally eighth but was bumped six spots for an engine change heading into the weekend.
Heavy Hitters Out In Round 1
It was a wild session for which saw three of the top five drivers in points eliminated in Round 1. You also have two Andretti cars failing to advance too.
In Group 1, Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Josef Newgarden and Will Power all failed to advance. In the second group, Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson did too.
The thing is, when looking at stats, this isn’t all too surprising.
Herta did qualify 14th in May so he’s in the wheelhouse of where he was the last time out. In fact, he’s started in Row 7 in 3 of his last 4 tries here.
Newgarden also failed to get out of the first round in May but he started 13th. Now, he starts 19th. His started 20th in this race in 2021 for which he’d finish eighth in.
For Dixon, qualifying has been Achilles Heel here. His last eight qualifying efforts being 12th, 15th, 16th, 26th, 21st, 20th, 9th, 16th respectively.
Similar for Ericsson. Qualifying has been his crux too. He’s started 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 15th, 11th, 18th, 25th, 7th and 18th respectively.
Power is the only surprise. He has never been eliminated in the opening round here. He has six poles here for crying out loud. The rest are about where they have trended to be in.
No Penske’s Or Ganassi’s In Fast Six
Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske has won 10 of the last 13 races here. However, none of their seven combined cars made the Fast Six on an overcast Friday qualifying session.
Marcus Armstrong was the top qualifier among them in 7th. Alex Palou was next best in qualifying 9th but will move up to 8th with Jack Harvey’s six-spot grid penalty. None of the others made it into the top 10.
Scott McLaughlin will move up to 10th after qualifying 11th. His teammates start 16th (Will Power) and 19th (Josef Newgarden).
Armstrong and Palou’s teammates Scott Dixon (15th) and Marcus Ericsson (17th) were ousted in Round 1 too.
RLL Shines Again
In May, RLL qualified 1-4-8. On Friday, they went 1-2 in the second round and Jack Harvey was 8th. He however has a grid penalty dropping him down to 14th, but still it was another great round for them.
In practice earlier, the went 1-3-12. In qualifying, 1-2-8. Can they win from the front row?
8 of the 14 races were won from the front row here including 2 of the last 4.
Devlin Dazzles
Devlin DeFrancesco’s best career start entering this weekend was 9th. That came last year at the World Wide Technology Raceway. On Friday, he marched all the way to the Fast Six in qualifying his No. 29 Dallara-Honda 5th for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix.
By comparison, Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood each were eliminated in Round 1 in qualifying 13th and 15th respectively.
DeFrancesco had an average starting spot of 17.76 this season so improving by 11 spots is massive. He had qualified 19th or worse in 4 of the last 5 races on the season and rolled off from Row 8 on back in 9 of the 13 races run previously.
Now, he comes from 2nd.
In his previous three qualifying tries here, he’s started 17th, 14th, 15th.
3 McLaren’s In Top 10
Coming into May’s GMR Grand Prix race weekend, one of the things I was wondering was if Arrow Mclaren Racing could improve on the 2.439-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.
Arrow McLaren has become one of the top organizations in the entire NTT INDYCAR SERIES paddock. However, they’ve struggled on this road course over the years. Then, they went out on May and took 2 of the 3 podium spots and all 3 cars in the top 5.
The question now is, can they back that up?
At that point, McLaren was rolling. Pato O’Ward had 3 runner-up finishes in the first 5 races. Felix Rosenqvist had three straight top 10’s while Alexander Rossi had 3 top 8 finishes in the first 5 races himself.
Since?
Rossi has 2 top 8’s over the last 8 races, Rosenqvist has 3 top 10’s in the same span while O’Ward has just 2 top 5’s, both 3rd place finishes, since as well.
Can they turn it back on this weekend?
“Over the past few races, we’ve experienced a few struggles,” admitted Rossi. “But motorsport is never a straightforward journey; it’s a test of resilience. As we return to the site of our last podium, it reminds us that every race is an opportunity to learn and grow. We’re going to harness that past success.”
What do they do this time around?
“Back in May, we had the best performance we’ve ever had on the Indy road course,” O’Ward quipped. “It will be awesome to go back to try and repeat that podium.”
Rosenqvist agreed.
“I’m happy to be back at our home track,” he says. “We had a great race here in May with all three cars. I love this track, and we’ll do everything we can to have that same success and get that first win for the team.”
In qualifying, they put all 3 cars in the top 10 with 2 cars in Row 2 (Rossi-O’Ward) and one in 10th (Rosenqvist). Similar to their starting spots in May in going 2-5-10.
Gallagher Grand Prix Starting Lineup
Row 1: Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard
Row 2: Alexander Rossi, Pato O’Ward
Row 3: Devlin DeFrancesco, Romain Grosjean
Row 4: Marcus Armstrong, Alex Palou
Row 5: Felix Rosenqvist, Scott McLaughlin
Row 6: Colton Herta, Linus Lundqvist
Row 7: Kyle Kirkwood, Jack Harvey
Row 8: Scott Dixon, Will Power
Row 9: Marcus Ericsson, Helio Castroneves
Row 10: Josef Newgarden, Rinus VeeKay
Row 11: Santino Ferrucci, Ryan Hunter-Reay
Row 12: Agustin Canapino R, Sting Ray Robb R
Row 13: Callum Ilott, David Malukas
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