INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Roger Penske couldn’t ask for much more in the buildup to the Indianapolis 500 after the fastest weekend in 107 years of “The Greatest Spectacle of Racing.”
Well, he could have hoped his own three cars had qualified better. But a Team Penske win Sunday isn’t going to make or break the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, who closed on its purchase roughly eight weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the world.
His first 500 as owner was held in front of empty grandstands, and only 150,000 or so were permitted on the sprawling grounds for the 2021 race. Last year was closer to a typical Indy 500, but now Penske has the place as close to perfection as possible.
He considers the speedway the motorsports version of Augusta National Golf Club, and with a fast field and ticket sales on the rise, the show on Sunday could be one of the best ever.
So far, so good after a dramatic weekend of qualifying.
Alex Palou set the fastest pole qualifying mark in Indy 500 history at 234.217 mph to become the first Spaniard to land there and make Chip Ganassi Racing the first team to win three consecutive poles since Penske won four-straight from 1988-91. Palou will line up alongside Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing and Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren Racing in the fastest front row at a 234.180 mph average.
It already had been a terribly tense Sunday in which Rahal Letterman Lanigan put all three of its full-time cars through a brutal qualifying session just to make the race. It took Jack Harvey, a British driver with both his seat at RLL and his IndyCar career on the line, three qualifying runs to ultimately bump teammate Graham Rahal from the race.
“We’re going to be starting 30th, 31st and 33rd, and I hated it. Felt like we were in the ‘Hunger Games’ with our own team,” Harvey said. “There’s a lot of emotions. Like, massively grateful to be in the race, massively sad that we bumped out a teammate because I know what that means for the entire team.
“It’s about as humbling a moment as I’ve had at a racetrack. I don’t want to do this dance again, and neither do the team. I said to Graham, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not sorry.’ What do you say to someone in that moment? I want to be in the amazing year for our region,” Bay Area Host Committee President and CEO Zaileen Janmohamed said. “It’s the same year that San Francisco turns 250 years old and it’s also the year that we will host FIFA World Cup matches.
So with the addition of hosting Super Bowl 60, we have this incredible opportunity that doesn’t really exist anywhere else to unite the entire region with sport across multiple sporting events. I’m ready and excited.”
The next Super Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Super Bowl 59 will be played at the Superdome in New Orleans in 2025.
The league also announced on Monday that the 2025 draft will be held in Green Bay. Detroit will host the 2024 edition, after it was held in Kansas City this year.
Graham Rahal is the son of the team owner, the most sponsored driver on the team, and at 34 years old has made it clear he’s not interested in driving uncompetitive cars. He was in tears after Harvey bumped him.
field, but returned to the speedway Monday and helped the other three RLL cars — which includes Katherine Legge, the only woman in the 33-car field, whose qualifying average of 231.596 was the fastest ever for a woman.
Rahal said he was too proud to push Harvey or another driver out of the race by buying the seat.
“There’s still a lot I can add here, trying to be here for all the teammates, see how much better we can make their cars and go compete,” Rahal said. “I want to make sure I’m here to help the organization get as far forward as I can.”
