It was Team Penske day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during Fast Six qualifying.
Santino Ferrucci went first in his stars and stripes-liveried AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet and put down a 232.662 mph four-lap average speed, but Kyle Larson was up next and answered with a 232.846 mph run.
It looked fast, but Larson’s Arrow McLaren teammate, Alexander Rossi, who won the 2016 Indy 500 as a rookie, took the top spot next with a 233.090 mph attempt.
Up next was defending Indy 500 champion Josef Newgarden who drove his Team Penske Chevrolet to a 233.808 mph average, but he was immediately bumped by teammate Will Power’s 233.917 mph run.
But it was their teammate Scott McLaughlin who would win the pole with the fastest-ever qualifying speed of 234.220 and clinch the first front row sweep for Team Penske in 36 years.
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At the other end of the lineup, Graham Rahal avoided last year’s fate of failing to qualify by finishing in the final spot during Last Chance Qualifying.
2022 race winner Marcus Ericsson was on the bubble after he miscounted the laps during his run and lifted off the throttle with one lap to go, but went out for another run and moved ahead of Rahal. Taht left Nolan Siegel to make a final attempt as the session clock ran out, but he crashed allowing Rahal to hold on to the last spot. Katherine Legge fought an ill-handling car to out-qualify all of them in 31st.
