Qualifying for the 109th Indianapolis 500 took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday and Sunday, May 17-18, 2025. The NTT INDYCAR SERIES, which campaigns over 17 races this season produced 34 entries for the 33 available slots, so it was inevitable that one driver wouldn’t make the cut.
As it unfolded, an unexpected entity secured the pole position for this 500-mile contest. PREMA Racing, a new team in this series that has had some hiccups learning the ropes, had one of its former Formula 2 drivers earn pole position for the vaunted contest, which is scheduled to take place this coming Sunday, the day before Memorial Day.
Rookie Robert Shwartzman, 25, from Tel Aviv, Israel is driving on an oval for the first time. The first rookie team and driver to earn the vaunted pole position since driver Teo Fabi performed the feat in 1983 and, a year later Mayer Motor Racing secured pole position with Tom Sneva, set the mark with his four-lap average of 232.790 mph on the 2.5-mile oval track. Indianapolis is the first oval contest on the schedule this year; INDYCAR has only raced on street and road courses prior to the start of practice for the 500 the Tuesday before qualifying.
The first day of qualifying, on Saturday, determined the 12 fastest drivers that would vie for pole position on Sunday. It also determined those that would fight for the right to be on the grid’s final row, with a single driver/team outside the 11 rows of three cars. On Saturday, Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing, the 2024 pole sitter, was the quickest driver on the grounds. He led the 12 drivers eligible for pole position on Sunday: Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske, his teammate and two-time reigning 500 winner Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren, six-time INDYCAR champion Scott Dixon, Shwartzman, A.J. Foyt Racing’s David Malukas, Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing, two-time 500 winner Takuma Sato Team Penske’s Will Power, Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global and Christian Lundgaard, racing with Arrow McLaren.
Those vying for the final spots on the 33-car grid in Last Chance Qualifying were Rinus VeeKay and Jacob Abel, both driving for Dale Coyne Racing, Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong and 2020 pole sitter Marco Andretti, racing with Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian. Spoiler alert: Abel didn’t make the field. VeeKay, who started on the front row for Ed Carpenter Racing on three occasions during his five years with the team, has the final starting slot.
Before the final day of qualifying, INDYCAR held a two one-hour practice sessions; during practice for the 12 quickest, Team Penske driver Scott McLaughlin had a bad crash and rendered him unable to fight for the pole. With the field down to 12 and then to Firestone Fast Six fighting for pole and having a single attempt to do so, the tension was high. Even before Top 12 qualifying began, INDYCAR announced that McLaughlin’s teammates, Newgarden and Power would not take part, as they’d been in violation of Rule 14.7.8.16, an unapproved body fit to the rear attenuator of their Dallara race cars.
On Monday morning INDYCAR updated the information on Team Penske’s violations. Apparently, this was confined to the cars of Newgarden and Power; McLaughlin’s car did not have the violation. And also apparently, the violation was missed by the technical department when the two cars rolled through technical inspection several times. “Upon further review last night and early this morning,” the series stated, “INDYCAR will be moving cars No. 2 and 12 to the 32nd and 33rd starting positions for this year’s Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. They will start in order, based upon their qualifying times from Saturday.”
J. Douglas Boles, INDYCAR president made the following statement: “The integrity of the Indianapolis 500 is paramount, and this violation of the INDYCAR rule against modification to this part and using it ‘as supplied’ is clear. The penalty should be more than simply starting where the cars might have qualified anyway, if given the opportunity. The cars belong in the field as two of the fastest 33; however, starting on the tail of the field is the appropriate penalty in this instance.”
In addition, INDYCAR has suspended the two cars’ strategists, team president Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski, who work with the No. 2 and 12 cars, respectively. Each team has forfeited its qualification points and each entry has been fined $100,000. Team Penske stated it will announce the replacement strategists later in the week. The two cars will have to wait until ever other qualified car has chosen its pit box before they are allowed to secure their spots on the pit road.
This is not the first time Team Penske has violated rules and been suspended. In 2024 both Cindric and Ruzewski were suspended for the Indy 500 after the push-to-pass controversy. Still, Newgarden won without his regular strategist on the stand. Team Penske’s statement regarding these new penalties read: “We accept the penalties issued today by the INDYCAR Series which are due to a ‘Body Fit’ violation that occurred prior to the qualifying session yesterday. We are disappointed by the results and the impact it has on our organization. We will make further announcements later this week related to personnel for the upcoming Indianapolis 500.”
The swirling news of these penalties did not dim the joy of PREMA’s first pole position in its first attempt to make the field of 33 at IMS. The No. 83 car of Shwartzman had few miles to its credit before qualifying began, but with the added boost for the past weekend of Fast Friday and qualifying, the cars came alive. Shwartzman was sixth on Saturday, giving him this opportunity for Fast 12 qualifying, where he improved to third. Then with his single attempt in the Fast Six shootout, he beat out Takuma Sato, Pato O’Ward, Scott Dixon, Felix Rosenqvist and Alex Palou.
“Have to say big thanks to my engineers,” the pole sitter said. “They did an amazing job, step by step, by improving the car, trying new things. All of these steps that we did were just better, better, better. And then got to a point where the car was really good.”
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