Story By: ANNE FORNORO / AJ FOYT RACING – INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The first round of qualifying for the 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 had its share of drama, even for AJ Foyt Racing.
At 1 p.m., Sting Ray Robb had qualified the No. 41 Goodheart.vet/Pray.com Chevrolet at a a four-lap average speed of 231.346 mph. Robb knew there was an issue with the car’s handling so the team took it back to the garage and made some adjustments.
The 22-year-old Idahoan went back out to make another run when he had slipped to the ninth row in the 27th spot. In his second run three hours later, he posted an average speed of 231.827mph which put him in 20th on the grid at that time. By the time qualifying ended, he was 23rd.
“Big improvement from run one and run two,” said Robb after his second run. “Happy with the things we found back at the garage. Still disappointed with the result. I think that we can be further up. Just based off of Santino (Ferrucci), I feel like we were the same speed [that he ran Friday] if not a little bit quicker than yesterday. I think that if we get a chance, we’d like to get one more run, but at the moment, I can be proud of the guys. We’re in the show, and we’ll find out on Monday what kind of Goodheart Chevy we have.”
Santino Ferrucci, who went out an hour earlier at noon when the track was cooler, qualified the No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet at an average speed of 232.496mph. which put him fifth. Once everyone had made at least one run, he slipped to eighth which was still in the Fast 12 for Round 2 tomorrow when drivers make an attempt to get into the Fast 6 and then go for the pole tomorrow afternoon.
“We were pretty good,” said Ferrucci, who spent most of the afternoon watching other drivers attempt to break into the Fast 12. “Chevrolet power is obviously the motor to be on it looks like today. Very thankful for that, for them, and for Homes For Our Troops. We’ll see where we’re at when it’s over.”
Drivers who qualified between 13th and 30th were locked in Saturday afternoon when the gun went off at 5:50 PM, signaling the end of qualifying today.
The most drama surrounded Rinus Veekay who crashed hard on his first run and the team managed to repair the car in time for him to make two more additional runs. His last run saw him sweep into the Fast 12 in the closing minutes of qualifying.
The top qualifier today was Will Power who posted a speed of 233.758mph. He was followed by his teammates Scott McLaughlin and Joseph Newgarden. Alexander Rossi made a successful second attempt to get into the Fast 12 for fourth quickest. Kyle Kirkwood rounded out the top five.
Qualifying for Round 2 including the run for the pole will be broadcast on NBC and streaming on Peacock starting at 3 p.m. ET.