Palou, Honda Claim Pole for 107th Indianapolis 500
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
・Fourth consecutive Indy 500 pole for Honda
・Alex Palou records second-fastest qualifying run in Indianapolis 500 history; quickest pole run
・Scott Dixon also advances to Fast Six final qualifying, will start sixth
Alex Palou delivered Honda's fourth consecutive Indianapolis 500 pole today in a thrilling final qualifying contest that resulted in one of the closest front rows in "500" history.
After qualifying second to teammate Scott Dixon in 2022, Palou piloted his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a four-lap record speed of 234.217 mph – eclipsing the mark set last year by Dixon – to claim the second-fastest qualifying run in Indianapolis 500 history. Palou's speed edged Rinus VeeKay by just 0.006 mph over the four-lap, ten-mile qualifying run.
Also advancing to Final Round qualifying, Dixon will start sixth in his #9 Chip Ganassi Honda. Other Honda drivers to advance out of first-round qualifying to the "Fast 12" second round earlier today included two-time Indy winner Takuma Sato, who will start eighth; and defending "500" race winner Marcus Ericsson, who will start his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda from 10th.
Prior to the Firestone Fast Six final qualifying round, the 11th and last row of the starting grid was completed with Last Chance Qualifying, with four drivers competing for the final three starting positions. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Christian Lundgaard and Jack Harvey made the cut, and will start 31st and 33rd, respectively.
Dale Coyne Racing with RWR's Sting Ray Robb will start from the middle of the back row, 32nd; while Graham Rahal failed to make the field in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry.
Fast Facts
・This is Honda's 14th pole in 23 races at the Indianapolis 500, and 8th pole in 17 Indianapolis 500s with multi-manufacturer competition. It is Honda's fourth consecutive '500' pole, a streak begun by Marco Andretti in 2020 and continued by Dixon in 2021-22.
・Honda has won more Indianapolis 500 races than any major automaker: 15 victories from 22 races – a win ratio of 68% – since the company entered the INDYCAR competition in 1994.
This means the world to me, to the guys on the team, to everyone. We knew it was going to be tight, and it was really tight, but the #10 car guys and Honda did an amazing job. They made the fastest car today. I'm just super-proud of the work they've done all month, all year, to get us to this point. We knew that we had to go aggressive [with the setup] to get a good first lap. That made the fourth lap really tough to stay flat [in the turns], but we did it. We'll celebrate tonight, but then get ready for next week [and the race]
Congrats to Alex [Palou], that was definitely a mighty fine run there. Our car was just too 'on the nose', super loose, so we were just scrubbing speed right from the get-go. But we're looking forward to next week. I think we have a really good race car; all four Ganassi Hondas should be strong in the race.
It was crazy out there, really. I'm so happy for everybody on the #30 People Ready Honda that we have our place in the 107th running of the Indy 500. We had to do a cool down run, and then did another run and went slower. I asked the guys if there was a point in doing a final run and they said 'you never know'! So we made one change to the balance and it was a lot better. I feel terrible knocking out another team car [bumping teammate Graham Rahal], but I'm thrilled to make the show.
I'm enormously proud of all the magnificent men and women of HPD, of Chip Ganassi Racing — an amazing team there — and of course of Mr. Alex Palou. We got pole [again!] at the Indy 500. It's really astonishing, to be honest with you. It's hard to describe, but you literally cannot make this stuff up. Just a massive shout out to everybody involved. This is a team sport, it's an engineering-prowess sport and we just showed our engineering prowess. Well done, Honda. Well done, everybody. That was amazing!
