Rosenqvist fastest in Indy 500 qualifying, leads the way into Sunday’s pole shootout

Saturday afternoon was the first day of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, and it was dedicated to locking in the middle portion of the field.

The fastest 12 drivers earned the right to compete for pole on Sunday, and likewise, the bottom four drivers will be forced to come back on track Sunday to fight for a spot on the grid.

Qualification times were set by averaging four consecutive laps around the 2.5-mile oval, and challenged drivers to stay perfect for 10 miles at a time.

The fastest driver of the day was Felix Rosenqvist, and he clocked an average speed of 233.947 MPH in his Arrow McLaren Chevy.

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He unseated his team-mate later in the afternoon with a perfect run, and Alexander Rossi lost the honor of having his name on the top of the leaderboards.

The exact positions do not technically matter, as all the front runners will return to whittle the eligible drivers down to six, then those will take the track once again to finally decide the pole sitter.

All four drivers from the Arrow McLaren squad will advance to Sunday, as well as all four Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, both AJ Foyt drivers, one Ed Carpenter Racing entry by way of Rinus VeeKay, and a lone Team Penske entry, represented by Will Power.

At the other end of the field, the four drivers that will be fighting for the final three positions are mostly composed of a single team.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing camp could never quite find their footing, and Graham Rahal, Jack Harvey, and Christian Lundgaard will be fighting against one another in Sunday’s last chance qualifying.

Dale Coyne Racing has one driver that was also in the bump zone, with rookie Sting Ray Robb among the unfortunate group.

The four drivers will have two hours dedicated to their efforts on Sunday afternoon, and one will be sent packing without taking part in the Indy 500.

And all of those drivers are full time participants in the championship, meaning that their early exit will have devastating points implications as well.

David Malukas was very nearly among those at the bottom of the field, but a late set of laps with just a few minutes remaining jumped him up to the 23rd position and guaranteed him a spot in the Indy 500.

Ed Carpenter is the first driver that is locked into his position, and he will start his 20th Indy 500 from 13th.

He will start alongside Scott McLaughlin and Kyle Kirkwood on the fifth row on the three-wide grid. Conor Daly, Josef Newgarden, and Ryan Hunter-Reay will make up the row behind.

Newgarden made one of the biggest gamble of the day, choosing to abandon his previous time to make a run in the final minutes as the sun was lowering on the horizon.

He was not faster than his earlier time, but luckily he was only slightly slower and only lost a single position.

All of the single event drivers are locked in, including Abel Motorsports’ RC Enerson and RLL’s Katherine Legge. Those two drivers were the final two drivers to guarantee themselves a spot in the race, and had a very nervous final few minutes.

The front and the back of the field will be determined on Sunday, with the first runs taking place at 2:00 PM Eastern. The pole will be determined later in the afternoon, at roughly 5:15 PM.