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Well, that was interesting! If you watched qualifying at home, you were able to keep up with who was in and who was out of the Top-Twelve much better than us at the track.

They were experiencing technical difficulties with the software that operates the pylon, so this is what we saw most of the late afternoon, when things were really getting hectic.

But when the dust settled, we learned one thing – to trust the results you see earlier in the week in practice. We knew the Ganassi and Arrow McLaren cars were fast, and they were. Skeptics were claiming reality would hit the Foyt cars in the face, because there was no way they could be that fast. They were.

Skeptics also said that the Penske cars were sandbagging, and there was no way they were as slow as they seemed in practice. They were. Lastly, we wondered if the Rahal cars would show as bad as they did in practice. They did.

Late during the Friday afternoon practice, I ran into a friend of mine that is fairly high up the food chain with one of the major teams. I asked him who was going home. Without hesitation, he said “I’m worried about Graham”. Now we all know that Graham and two of his other teammates could be in trouble on Sunday. The only Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver that can relax on Sunday is Katherine Legge. She survived many late attempts to knock her off the bubble, and she is now locked into starting on the outside of Row Ten.

The four that will battle for the three remaining spots on Sunday are Graham Rahal, Christian Lundgaard, Jack Harvey and Sting Ray Robb. Last Chance Qualifying will take place between 4:00 and 5:00 pm tomorrow. When the music stops, one of those drivers will not have a chair. Most people are saying it will be Graham Rahal. I’m thinking Sting Ray Robb is the one who will be watching the race from the stands next weekend, and not from his cockpit.

I still think experience will be the difference when those four do battle with each other. Ultimately, I think the four RLLR cars will occupy the last four starting spots. Maybe between Sunday night and Friday morning, they can put their heads together to see if they can find more speed on Carb Day.

But today had three different storylines, all going at the same time. You had those jockeying to stay in the Top-Twelve, so they could battle for the pole tomorrow. There were those that just wanted to safely make the field, possibly maximizing their starting position. Then you had those fighting for survival, just looking to stay about the last row. So Tony Kanaan’s final run to be the sixth quickest, was just as dramatic as the run of David Malukas in the closing minutes to be locked in at twenty-third. The last run of the day was an unsuccessful attempt by Christian Lundgaard to bump his teammate, Katherine Legge, setting up the battle for tomorrow.

On the other end of the spectrum, Alexander Rossi spent most of the day on the top of the charts, but with about an hous or so to go, his teammate, Felix Rosenqvist moved him down to second – as Rosenqvist ran the third fastest qualifying speed in IMS history. When the gun went off at 5:50 pm, the Top-Twelve consisted of four cars from McLaren, four from Ganassi, two from Foyt, one from Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR) and one from Team Penske. The four Ganassi cars were the only Hondas in the Top-Twelve.

Notably absent were any cars from Andretti Autosport. Their highest placed car was Kyle Kirkwood, who will start fifteenth next Sunday. Will Power was the only Penske car in the Top-Twelve. Scott McLaughlin and be in the middle of Row Five next Sunday, while Josef Newgarden will start in the middle of Row Six.

Tomorrow will be interesting. I will stand behind my pick of Scott Dixon to win the pole, but it would not surprise me if Alexander Rossi does. But what will really be interesting is to see who goes home. I’m not going to say I prefer this qualifying format to what I knew for decades, but it was entertaining – I’ll give them that.

There is a practice at 11:30 EDT tomorrow morning, then Top-Twelve Qualifying will begin at 2:00 pm EDT on Peacock to determine positions seven through twelve. Last Chance Qualifying begins at 4:00 pm EDT on Big NBS, then the Firestone Fast Six will commence around 5:00 on Big NBC.

That will do it for us tonight. I’ll close with a few photos from today/ Susan wants to go to Brozinni Pizza tonight, which is located in the old 1911 Grille location, that was owned by Sarah Fisher. Being the wonderful husband that I am, I will oblige. I will have a quick post up here first thing in the morning, then Susan will have a post late in the morning or early afternoon. Then I’ll have a quick wrap-up late tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for following along today.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 20, 2023 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.