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Be honest, who had rookie Robert Shwartzman winning the pole of the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500? I will admit, I did not. Nor did I have him making the Firestone Fast Six or even the Fast Twelve. In all candor, I had him on my list for the Last Row Shootout or Last Chance Qualifying, or whatever it is called. Due to the fact he had never driven on an oval, and he was with a brand new team to IndyCar – he was my pick to be the one driver to go home, less than a week ago.

It just seemed like too big a task, especially after his PREMA team wasn’t fully ready when the delayed practice began on Tuesday. I think he ran a total of six laps on Tuesday, while teammate Callum Ilott ran sixteen. They were also the two slowest cars that first day of practice, with top speeds in the 217 mph range. But every day Shwartzman showed progress and was outpacing his veteran teammate regularly.

By Fast Friday, folks in the IMS Media Center were beginning to take notice. When Shwartzman easily placed his car in the Fast Twelve, even the skeptics were becoming believers. Today, he transferred into the Firestone Fast Six, and then pulled off the highly improbable. He put himself on the pole, beating the likes of Takuma Sato, Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon. In the process, he became the first rookie to sit on the pole since Teo Fabi in 1983.

Takuma Sato will start alongside Shwartzman in the middle of the front row. Pato O’Ward achieved his best starting position ever, and will start on the outside of the front row. Scoot Dixon starts inside Row Two, while Felix Rosenqvist is in the middle and Alex Palou is in the sixth spot on the outside of Row Two.

AJ Foyt’s David Malukas starts on the inside of Row Three, while Christian Lundgaard and Marcus Ericsson round out the third row.

Last year, Team Penske locked out the front row. This year, they locked out the fourth row. Scott McLaughlin had a frightening crash in the practice session. With so little time to repair the car or prepare a backup, he will start twelfth – the lowest he could start by earning his way into the Fast Twelve. That was until…

After qualifying for the Fast Twelve had begun, the other Penske cars of Josef Newgarden and Will Power violated rules by making changes to the attenuator after the cars had already gone through technical inspection. The cars were not allowed to qualify. McLaughlin was moved to tenth, while Newgarden will start eleventh and Power twelfth. I would not want to be the one that had to explain this to Roger Penske.

At the other end of the field, there was not as much drama as anticipated. Marco Andretti and Marcus Armstrong both made solid runs and put themselves safely into the field with runs in the 229 mph range. Rinus VeeKay went next and had a questionable run in the mid-227 range. Shortly thereafter, Jacob Abel made an even slower run in the low-227 range. It became a waiting game for Abel to make one more run.

Instead, VeeKay’s crew made the head-scratching decision to withdraw VeeKay’s time; meaning that if VeeKay crashed his once-qualified car – he was out of the Indianapolis 500. The second worst thing happened, as VeeKay posted a much slower time than the one he withdrew. If Abel simply matched his previous time, he would be in. Fortunately for VeeKay and unfortunately for Jacob Abel, Abel posted a slower time as the gun went off. VeeKay was in by default.

There was no elation from Rinus VeeKay. After all, he had just bumped out his teammate. I’m sure he was embarrassed by putting his starting position at risk unnecessarily withdrawing his time. For his sake, it’s a good thing it didn’t jump up and bite him.

The field is now set, and the stage is set for what looks to be a very entertaining Indianapolis 500. A rookie sensation will lead the field, and the driver who has dominated the season was silences a bit today. Several good cars will be mid-pack. This could be a good one.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 18, 2025 at 7:53 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.