INDIANAPOLIS — Santino Ferrucci and Benjamin Pedersen picked a great day to drive for team owner A.J. Foyt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, and Jack Harvey picked a bad day to drive for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. And it was Arrow McLaren and Chip Ganassi Racing that ruled the day sending all four of its entries into Sunday’s “Fast 12” for the 107th Indianapolis 500.
Felix Rosenqvist was the fastest driver in Saturday’s first round of Indy 500 qualifications as the Arrow McLaren driver of the No. 6 Chevrolet delivered with impressive four-lap average of 233.974 mph on his second run of the day. That knocked teammate Alexander Rossi off the No. 1 position on the timing list after the 2016 Indy 500 winner ran a four-lap average of 233.528 mph on his only attempt earlier in the day.
“It was one of those runs where you have kind of like a perfect balance,” Rosenqvist explained. “You feel the rear sliding, but you’re not reacting that much on the wheel. You’re just putting in less wheel. You get a perfect arc, which is great. You’re not shaving off speed on any axle really. I was kind of able to keep that balance for the whole run.
“It got a little bit spicy on the last lap.
“The speed was just there. Actually, when I looked down at my dash the first time on lap three, I saw a 33.7, I actually thought it was stuck from lap one. I didn’t even know I had done a 234 at the time. My steering wheel was like a Christmas light for most of the run, which normally means you’re going quick.
“That’s just awesome. It’s fun. I wish I broke into the 234, but we can try that tomorrow.”
Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing finished with the third-fastest speed of the session with four laps at 233.398 mph in the No. 10 Honda. The remainder of the Fast 12 included Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing — fourth at 233.395 mph in the No. 21 Chevrolet. Five-time Indy 500 pole winner Scott Dixon was fifth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda with a four-lap run at 233.375 mph.
Another Arrow McLaren driver, 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, was sixth at 233.347 mph over four laps in the No. 66 Chevrolet. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato was seventh at 233.322 mph for four laps in the No. 11 Deloitte Honda for CGR followed by Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren at 233.252 mph.
Then came Ferrucci, the diminutive driver from Woodbury, Conn., who gave Indy 500 legend A.J. Foyt reason to smile as he made the Fast 12 with a four-lap average of 233.147 mph in the No. 14 Chevrolet.
“I think it’s a pretty impressive feat for the team,” Ferrucci said. “To see the 14 up the front, my teammate right there as well who went earlier in the day, it’s been pretty awesome. To see us up there is pretty sick, man. The goal here is to bring home A.J.’s sixth win, sixth 500 victory.
“I actually feel a lot more comfortable in the race car than I have been in the qualifying car. To be in the Fast 12 and have a shot at pole tomorrow I think is huge. Our car definitely has some more in it. It’s getting really tight up top there. Inches are going to make the difference. I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow.”
Just a few weeks after his wife of 68 years, Lucy, passed away, 88-year-old A.J. Foyt had a huge smile on his face as he talked to Ferrucci on pit lane during the qualification photos.
“I think he’s really happy to see that car up on top,” Ferrucci said of Foyt. “I think he’s more thrilled that both cars are equally competitive. I think he believes in what we’re doing. He believes in the program. It’s just one of those things where he’s ready to see what we can do on race day.”
Defending Indianapolis 500 Marcus Ericsson put another Chip Ganassi Racing Honda into the Fast 12 with four laps at 233.030 in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Spritzers Honda. Rookie Pedersen put another A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet into the Fast 12 at 232.739 mph in the No. 51 entry.
Team Penske’s Will Power, the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner, was the last driver to make the “Fast 12” with a four-lap average of 232.719 mph.
And now, for the other side of the grid.
None of Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s three full-time IndyCar Series drivers have earned a position in the starting lineup as only the top 30 are locked into the 33-car starting lineup based on Saturday’s results. That means Christian Lundgaard, Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal will have to join Dale Coyne Racing’s Sting Ray Robb in Last Chance Qualifying to fill the final three positions on Sunday.
The only Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver currently in the field is Indy 500-only driver Katherine Legge, who hasn’t driven an Indy car in 10 years. She was the last driver to get locked into the field with a four-lap average of 231.070 mph.
“This is not really what we want,” Graham Rahal said after his final attempt was yellow flagged. “We’re running the exact same setup, downforce as Katherine, and she’s 2 mph faster. We’ve all been there. It’s a fun spot to be in. At this stage, how much further can you push the pedal than 100 percent? We’ll see tomorrow. We’ll try one more tonight.
“The reality is there’s not a 31 (lap time) in my car. It’s not there. We’re going to have to fight tomorrow for consistency and hope to sneak in.”
Graham Rahal and Christian Lundgaard are not yet in the race, but Callum Ilott and RC Enerson will start next Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500.
Lundgaard was forced to drive a backup car for teammate Augustin Canapino after his primary car was too slow in the first three days of practice. The backup wasn’t much faster, but somehow Ilott and the Juncos-Hollinger team were able to get it to run fast enough for the inside of Row 10 with a four-lap average of 231.182 mph in the No. 77 Chevrolet.
“I don’t know where to start with that,” Ilott said. “It’s been a tough week, a tough month actually from the open test. We changed chassis middle of yesterday. I was kind of given an almost impossible task from what some people said. Just tried to keep the confidence high.
“The first run wasn’t great. I don’t think my engineers would even look at the video because they were scared to watch it. We just managed to turn the car around into something that was fast, managed to scrape four laps out of it.
“I obviously was there when they were rebuilding it. This morning it was a big thank you. Then it was hard work, trying to stay in it because it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a nice car to drive at first. But we managed to make it drivable and fast. Then at the end there when we knew we made it through, that was another big thing. I’ll buy them dinners at some point soon, but I’m going to have a quiet one on my own and destress a bit.”
Enerson was able to run a four-lap average of 231.129 mph in the No. 50 ABEL Motorsports Chevrolet and will start his first Indy 500.
“I mean, this team, they just they’ve done an awesome job with the car. I mean, it’s fast, I don’t have much else to say besides that the car is fast. I think we went a little conservative on that run. Just because track conditions we weren’t really going to try to push it just get a good four lap average and go back to the garage, see where we stack up and see what we need to do to get in, but you know, it’s a solid four-lap run and we didn’t have to be too aggressive with tools,” Enerson said.
“Really turn one’s only issue. So we’ll have to go back to the garage, see timing, get this thing prepped for another run and then see if we need to make another run today. If we’re able to avoid that then we would not go out the goal is to make the field.”
There were 84 qualification attempts on Sunday, smashing the record for most attempts on a single day. The previous record was 72 set in 2019. The slowest car in the field is Legge at 231.070, which nearly assure this year’s Indianapolis 500 will be the first in history where all 33 cars in the starting lineup have qualified at over 230 mph.
The fastest 12 drivers will advance to Top 12 Qualifying on Sunday from 2-3 p.m. (ET) followed by Last Chance Qualifying for positions 31-33 from 4-5 p.m. (ET). This year, it’s the Firestone “Fast Six” instead of the “Fast Nine” and that will determine the pole winner.
That session is from 5:15 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. (ET).