Drivers produce blistering speeds in Indy qualifying
Rain held off long enough on Saturday to complete the first round of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 on a soupy day that still produced eye-popping speeds not seen in 26 years at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Rinus VeeKay and Pato O’Ward, a pair of young new stars, posted blistering qualifying averages of over 233 mph in a flex of Chevrolet horsepower. NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson qualified for his first Indy 500 and his Chip Ganassi Racing team showed it might be the strongest organization at Indy right now.
Team Penske got bit by the weather when it pulled Scott McLaughlin’s qualifying time late Saturday afternoon and sent him back out to try to crack the top 12. McLaughlin was 15th on the board when his time was forfeited; the New Zealander went even slower and dropped to 26th.
Penske teammate Josef Newgarden followed McLaughlin out for his own attempt to make the top 12, but his run was halted when lightning flashed. It was the second lightning stoppage of the day, and the rain followed minutes later. IndyCar called it a day about 70 minutes short of the scheduled completion.
Only spots 13 through 33 were locked in Saturday, and the top 12 return today for a shootout for the pole. The fight for the front row will be VeeKay and O’Ward, who posted the third and fifth fastest four-lap qualifying averages in track history, then Felix Rosenqvist as Chevrolet swept the top three spots.
Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou was fourth fastest as Ganassi advanced its entire five-car fleet into today’s action. Tony Kanaan was fifth, Johnson was sixth, Marcus Ericsson was eighth and Scott Dixon was 10th for the Hondapowered team.
Ed Carpenter, who on Saturday morning posted the eighth-fastest lap in track history at 234.410 mph, was seventh fastest in qualifying as he and Will Power (11th) completed the Chevrolet group.
Honda advanced seven drivers to today as the Ganassi group was joined by Romain Grosjean, the only Andretti driver to make the top 12, and two-time winner Takuma Sato.
Sato was disqualified following his first qualifying attempt for interfering with Marco Andretti’s lap. When he made his second attempt, Sato scrubbed the wall and still made it into the top 12.
NASCAR Cup
The NASCAR All-Stars during qualifying were the pit crew members for Kyle Busch, who earned the pole for the annual $1 million non-points exhibition race in Fort Worth, Texas.
Busch won the final round of an unusual elimination bracket involving the pit crews doing a four-tire pit stop when he beat Ryan Blaney to the finish line.
All 20 drivers locked into tonight’s 24-car All-Star race field went through a normal one-lap qualifying. The top eight then went into an elimination bracket, when two cars at a time were staged in temporary side-by-side stalls at the end of pit road. The drivers had to wait for a signal before charging forward for a four-tire pit stop, then raced a lap around the 1½-mile track.
Busch had an easy lap in the semifinal round when he went head-to-head against reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, who won his last two All-Star starts.
Larson stalled his car before getting to his crew. That allowed 2017 All-Star winner Busch to easily advance to the final, even after his rear tire changer fell down.
William Byron, who was beat by Blaney in the other semifinal, starts third and
Larson fourth. Kurt Busch, Ross Chastain, Martin Truex Jr. and Aric Almirola rounded out the top eight.
The remaining four spots for the All-Star race will be determined in a three-segment race earlier today. The winner of each segment (20, 20 and 10 laps) will advance to the main event, with the final spot determined by fan vote.
NASCAR Xfinity
Cup regular Tyler Reddick led the final 31 laps of the NASCAR Xfinity race at Texas after a two-car pass, giving second-year team Big Machine Racing its first victory and ending a three-race streak in which three different JR Motorsports drivers took the checkered flag.
Reddick finished 1.8 seconds ahead of William Byron, who was driving for JR Motorsports in his first Xfinity race since he was the series champion for that team at 19 years old in 2017.