Indy Qualifying Shocker, Shwartzman 1st Rookie To Win Pole in 42 Years
(Photo by Travis Hinkle/Penske Entertainment)
By Dennis Krause
Predictably unpredictable. How else can you describe Day 2 of PPG Armed Forces Qualifying for the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge?
Rookie Robert Shwartzman stunned himself and everyone else at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by winning the pole for next Sunday’s race. Shwartzman became the first rookie to do so since Teo Fabi in 1983. And PREMA Racing, the team for which Shwartzman drives, is, itself, a rookie in the NTT INDYCAR Series and thus becomes the first first-year team to win the pole since Meyer Motor Racing put Tom Sneva and Howdy Holmes in the first two starting positions in 1984.
The 25-year-old from Tel Aviv, Israel, was in shock by what he and the PREMA Racing team accomplished, winning the pole with a speed of 232.790 mph.
“Honestly it's unbelievable. I was just processing it, and I still can't believe it. It's just a dream.
“I was just thinking in my dreams fantasizing, How will it feel to take pole position in Indy 500? How is the vibe? Then I was, like, Yeah, Robert, get back to reality. You have a new car, new team, you are a rookie. How can you expect to be in this position? It's just in your dreams.
“But still I was keeping that tiny dream deep inside like maybe, maybe,” continued Shwartzman. “Coming here, honestly, we missed the first testing day. Let's say the free practice. Even so, I think the thing that made me sit here now in this position I think is just the right team mentality. You don't need to be a genius. You don't need to have incredible experience. You just need to have a good people around you as a team, which are conscious of what they're doing.
“You know, as a whole team, you just know that, Okay, we'll go step by step, small steps without rushing because even though I don't have experience, I've heard a lot of people saying that Indy doesn't forgive. One slight mistake can cost you a lot.
"We've seen Colton (Herta), Marcus (Armstrong), Scotty (McLaughlin), they were really fast, but I think they could have definitely challenged, but with that mistake, they didn't manage to do it. So that was the thing that I didn't really want to do. That's why we didn't come up with the warmup yesterday and in practice today. It was just like, you know, No, let's keep it safe, just stable. We know that the car is quite quick. Just need to be consistent, do the four laps, and the last run I just give it all. I give maximum what I could.
“I tried to stay as long as possible flat, and here we are. We managed to survive it. I managed to hold it on. Honestly it was the best feeling ever. The car was just amazing.”
(Photo by Chris Jones/Penske Entertainment
In practice during the week leading up to qualifying, Shwartzman and his PREMA teammate, Callum Illott, were nowhere near the top the speed charts until Shwartzman jumped up to 13th on Friday. According to Shwartzman, that was all part of the plan.
“Just to make it clear, I think in free practice we were definitely way faster than where we were. The problem is that other people were mainly simulating race runs while we were actually focusing on quallie runs. We were always in the free air trying to search and find the free air, obviously without the boost.
“So that's why we were not as good-looking in the field because other drivers, they had slip stream, and that was definitely giving them some speed advantage. We didn't really care at that stage, let's say, at the ranking. The target was just to get the car in the right window with the right balance for quallie.
“Again, that's another thing,” Shwartzman continued. “I would have not known how to approach it, but luckily, there is my engineer, Eric (Leichtle), who have done that in the past, he was a Josef (Newgarden) engineer, and he knew how Indy 500 works.
“That was his input, and he said, ‘Guys, we're going to do it like this.’ Obviously we have full trust in him. At the end here we are. He managed to give me a pole position car.”
Reportedly, Leichtle is using vacation from his regular job at SpaceX in order to engineer the No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet. He was hired by Team Penske in 2022 and dropped the following year.
(Photo by Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment)
Another former Penske employee, driver Ryan Briscoe, is a part of the PREMA team and has been helpful to Shwartzman, as well.
“For sure. Yeah, for sure he helps. That's what he's doing. He's really helping a lot with his experience, his knowledge, things he was doing in his past.
“Yesterday morning I was feeling really nervous about going to the qualifying. I was, like, ‘Ryan, were you actually nervous going for quallie?’ For me I never actually was nervous in my career in qualifying. It's just one lap. You go there. There's nothing dangerous, nothing scary. Here it was, like, first time being really nervous to go out there and, like, because you don't know. You don't know what's going to be, how the car is going to be. You definitely don't want to end up crashing here.
“I was really nervous, and I was, like, Ryan, were you nervous? He was, like, Yeah, I was. It's normal. It's absolutely normal. We chatted. He calmed me down. He is, like, listen, take it easy. It's the first year. You're a rookie. No expectations. Just enjoy it.
“That's what I did. Especially when you have a good car and you can get confidence and trust that the car is going to be good, that also helps a lot.”
Because he was focused on his qualifying simulations, Shwartzman didn’t do much race prep. That makes the Monday’s practice session and Carb Day on Friday really important.
“For sure. For me, like I said, we spoke with Ryan who was helping me, Ryan Briscoe, and he was, like, basically Indy splits in two races. There is one race that is just quallies and then there is another race which is actual race. For me it's the same approach.
“We don't have much time obviously, and we need to try to figure out what's about best way for the race car, how is it going to be looking like? Plus, I don't have much experience. I have none experience racing on oval, so I don't know exactly how are the overtakes, how do you defend? It's something absolutely new. So I don't want to put any high expectation on myself on that point.
“It's obviously amazing to start first, but again, I just probably take it easy. I guess I need to just analyze and see what the others are also doing because, you know, it's very easy to make be a mistake here. As I said, it can cost a lot. I just want to make it a smooth ride. The approach is just we use maximum we can the free practice we got for the race, and then hopefully it's going to be good enough to put the car in a decent position. Then we're just going to race. I try to enjoy the battling, the racing with the other guys.”
(Photo by Josh Hernandez/Penske Entertainment)
Not as shocking as Shwartzman’s pole, but a surprise, nonetheless, was Takuma Sato’s run. The 48-year-old Sato, who crashed heavily in April’s open test, came back with a rebuilt car. The two-time Indy 500 winner had the second fastest speed in the Firestone Fast Six, putting his No. 75 Amada Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda in the middle of the front row with a speed of 232.478 mph.
“I think no matter what result was today, I think getting the top six was our goal. Once we locked into the top six, I think we should be very proud of the team.
“I'm very happy for the team who put my car, the 75 car, on the front row, which is amazing result because I think we were kind of a roller coaster situation. Not just today, but through yesterday and probably the last two weeks. As everybody knows that the team has to build brand new car after we had a moment in open test.
“We showed good speed, but wasn't able to produce a good lap in through the practice. In the quarterfinal finally the car was perfection. Very, very impressive. Very happy for my engineer, Eddie Jones, who should be retired five years ago, but I keep pulling him back from Ireland.
“Myself and entire engineering team and 75 crews, you know, it's amazing the people, just their dedication and meticulous job. I understand every team applied the same rule, but I think they did a phenomenal job. They are really great, deserve to be celebrated for the front row, and of course, I'm very, very happy to be back in the front row.”
It’s the third time Sato has qualified on the front row. Each time before, in 2017 and 2020, he went on to win the race.
(Photo by Travis Hinkle/Penske Entertainment)
Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward rounded out the front row. O’Ward’s speed of 232.098 mph in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was good enough for the young Mexican to score his first front row start at Indy.
“Yeah, super stoked to have my first front row start here at the 500. Definitely was pushing for that pole. First of all, I want to thank everybody, guys and gals, at Arrow McLaren. This is obviously the first time that I've had a true shot to compete for pole, but also compete to be one of the best three. We've got the best view going into turn one.
“Big thanks to them, Team Chevy, you know, for us and as well for the pole setter. The rookie of rookies on ovals, team, I mean, it's phenomenal what they did today. It really is. I think it's an amazing storyline.
“I'm happy to see that they obviously do look surprised. I believe they've built a rocket, and it's phenomenal to see it's the best definition that I can probably give Indianapolis is full of surprises. Yeah, just cool to be a part of it.”
(Photo by Joe Skibinksi/Penske Entertainment)
Indy surprised early on Sunday when Scott McLaughlin, second fastest qualifier on Saturday and the pole winner from last year, wrecked his No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet in Turn 2 in pre-qualifying practice, eliminating him from competing for the pole.
“I’m just really, really, really, really sorry for everybody at Team Penske and the guys on the (No.) 3 car, and everybody on the 2, 12 and everyone who builds these cars. It was talking to me,” said McLaughlin, “and I sort of felt it and I should have backed out. But, you know you are trying to complete a run to see what it feels like, and was it worth the risk. It probably wasn’t.
“I’m incredibly sad. You just try and brace yourself and hope you don’t go in the catch fence. I’m very grateful to INDYCAR for the safety. My team and the SAFER Barriers kept me safe.”
But that was just the beginning of what was to come for the team that has won Indy 20-times and locked out the front row in qualifying a year ago. Two-time and reigning 500 champ Josef Newgarden’s No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet and Will Power’s No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet were excluded from the Top 12 Qualifying session when it was discovered the rear attenuator of those cars had been altered with a filler having been applied to the seams where two pieces come together. The team was given the choice of qualifying and failing inspection afterwards, or withdrawing from qualifying - which they chose to do. McLaughlin, Newgarden and Power will make up the fourth row of the starting field.
(Photo by James Black/Penske Entertainment)
Afterwards, O’Ward felt the Penske cars should have been forced to run in the Last Chance Qualifying session instead of being moved to the fourth row as the last three cars of the Top 12 group.
“They weren't accidentally doing it because they had the blowtorch right there in order to get it out,” O’Ward said. “Honestly, I feel for everybody that did the last chance qualifying. Those (Penske) cars weren't in regulations.
“I'm not an engineer, so I can't tell you what they were doing, how much speed that it is or if it is any speed. Obviously it's not in regulation. The rule is pretty black and white. Those cars should have been in the last chance qualifier. Like, those cars should have never -- obviously they didn't do anything in the Fast 12, but they should have been brought into the LCQ because they had that yesterday, I guarantee you. Until someone pointed it out today. Those cars, if they're disqualified today, they should have been disqualified yesterday.
“It's a shame really because they don't need to be doing that stuff. They're a great team. They have got great drivers. Why are doing that? It makes no sense.”
Scott Dixon, Alex Palou and Felix Rosenqvist qualified in row two, with David Malukas, Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Ericsson in row three.
Marco Andretti, Marcus Armstrong and Rinus VeeKay make up the eleventh and final row, with Jacob Abel not qualifying.
It was a day that started out with all the usual suspects as favorites to win the pole - until they didn’t. Indy qualifying proving, once again, to be predictably unpredictable.
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.