Palou Eyes Second ‘500’ Pole After Hectic Saturday Drills

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Alex Palou’s dominant start to the NTT IndyCar Series season may be starting to extend to the ovals, as evidenced by the opening day of PPG Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend for the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

The three-time champion from Chip Ganassi Racing led the opening act of time trials for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing on Saturday, posting the best four-lap average of the six-hour qualifying window at 233.043 mph in the No. 10 DHL Honda.

It’s a strong statement, given that Palou has won four of the first five races this year leading into the Indy 500, but has yet to win on an oval in his already-storied Indy car career.

“It’s tough conditions out there,” Palou said of his lone attempt, which came at 1 p.m. ET Saturday. “Yesterday it was with the temperature; today it was with the wind. The car has been really good. We were struggling this morning (in practice). I was unable to finish a four-lap (qualifying simulation) run. Now we were able to finish it quite strongly.

“Super happy. I don’t know if there’s more (speed in the car), but there’s always more. The line between more and too much is very thin here at IMS. We’ll see what we have for tomorrow.”

Palou is seeking his second Indy 500 pole, previously leading the field to green in 2023.

Also near the top of the board with Palou, Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin and Josef Newgarden are in the top three among the Firestone Fast 12 that will qualify again Sunday afternoon for a shot at the pole for the Indianapolis 500.

McLaughlin was second (233.013 mph average) and two-time defending ‘500’ winner Newgarden third (233.004 mph), with the top three the only ones to end day one with an average speed above the elusive 233-mph threshold.

Fourth through 11th were all in the 232 mph range. Among them included a remarkable single run by Italy’s Prema Racing and rookie Robert Shwartzman. The Indy car rookie and former Formula 2 driver from Tel Aviv, Israel set a strong 232.584 mph average early, placing him comfortably in sixth.

Ahead of Shwartzman were Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and CGR’s Scott Dixon, while seventh through 12th were AJ Foyt Racing’s David Malukas, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist, RLL Racing’s Takuma Sato, Team Penske’s Will Power, Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, and O’Ward’s teammate Christian Lundgaard.

Power qualified 10th with a 232.144 mph average, which will give the 2018 Indy 500 winner another chance at his first Indianapolis 500 pole, one he has yet to earn in the 70 total poles of his storied career.

Attempting the Memorial Day Double for the second year in a row, 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson notable qualified 21st in Arrow McLaren’s No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet.

But while Palou continued his dominance at the top of the IndyCar field going into Pole Day, the biggest story Saturday was - as is typical of Indy 500 qualifying – near the bottom of the timing sheet.

RLL’s Graham Rahal once again found himself caught in the danger zone at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but this time, he escaped on the right side of the day as the last man locked into the Indy 500 going into Bump Day Sunday.

The second-generation Rahal’s average speed was 229.863 mph, placing him 30th and allowing him to avoid reliving his Bump Day nightmare from 2023, where he was the driver to go home before later finding a spot in the field filling in for the injured Stefan Wilson.

Rahal’s main challengers to the top 30 were Andretti Global’s Marco Andretti and Dale Coyne Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, both of whom are among Sunday’s Bump Day quartet fighting for the last row of the grid.

Both VeeKay and Andretti placed their cars in the priority lane late, allowing them to make another qualifying run as soon as they got to the front of the line but forcing them to withdraw their previous attempt.

Veekay laid down a 229.519 mph average, which was not enough. The run for Andretti was tracking to take Rahal out, if not for the slightest lift of the throttle that foiled the attempt by the smallest of margins. Andretti posted a 229.859, just four-thousandths of a mile-per-hour off Rahal’s average.

After two years of Bump Day anxiety, Rahal was relieved to not have to think about last row qualifying this time around.

“I’ll just say this: man, that beer is going to taste good tonight,” Rahal said. “I was all day just praying that somehow this would happen … and thanks so much to the team for making it happen.”

Colton Herta was one of two drivers who had massive impacts with the SAFER Barrier Saturday.

After a major impact that sent his car upside-down and skating across the short chute between turns one and two on his first qualifying attempt, Herta’s Andretti Global team resorted to a backup speedway tub with components from the damaged car to make a last-ditch effort to lock into the field.

Even with a jammed weight-jacker, Herta was able to overcome adversity to wheel his No. 26 Gainbridge Honda into the big show with a 230.192 mph four-lap average, placing him just above Rahal in 29th. That was the run that bumped out his teammate Andretti in the process..

“Yeah, I mean today really isn’t about me,” Herta said, “I tried all I could to ruin our day, and the guys did all they could to make it.

“I’m amazed that they were able to get a car and put it together in this amount of time. It’s not like we had a chassis pre-loaned ready to go. That was a lot of work, and not just for my guys, but from the sister teams as well.”

If Herta’s day was gut-clenching, then Marcus Armstrong’s was a nightmare by comparison.

Armstrong was forced to a back up road course car after a massive crash in Saturday morning’s practice. The Meyer Shank team pulled together, however, and got Armstrong back out well before the end of the day in a Frankenstein-ed No. 66 Honda using spare pieces and covers.

The runs made proved to be only for driver confidence heading into Sunday, with Armstrong’s 227.224 mph average not nearly enough to secure a spot in the top 30.

IndyCar Series rookie Jacob Abel is the fourth driver needing to bump his way in alongside Armstrong, Andretti, and VeeKay, only mustering a 226.859 mph four-lap average.

The second and final day of PPG Armed Forces Qualifying is slated for Sunday, May 18 at 4 p.m. ET, live on FS1, the IndyCar Radio Network, and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation, channel 218.

The Last Row Shootout and Firestone Fast Six move to FOX at 5:15 p.m. ET.