INDIANAPOLIS — Josef Newgarden took some solace in his inexplicable qualifying run. At least he has a better starting position in this year's Indianapolis 500 than last year's.
Kyle Kirkwood endured a much rougher day. His car was slow, his team was shut out of Indy's 12-car pole shootout and it became less likely he'll cut into Alex Palou's 27-point lead during next Sunday's race.
It was an abysmal afternoon for the two American drivers and others on a challenging Pole Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway because of hot temperatures, soaring track temps and and some of the windiest qualifying conditions Kirkwood could remember at the Brickyard's 2.5-mile oval.
“That’s the speed she wants to go,” Newgarden said after posting a four-lap average of 230.165 mph. ”I’m happy with the car and race trim, but that's what she had. I’m ready to go racing."
He qualified 24th — the outside of Row 8 — and it's a big improvement over last year when he was trying to become the first driver to win three consecutive 500s.
That attempt was derailed when Newgarden and his then-teammate Will Power were penalized for making unapproved changes during qualifying weekend to the rear attenuator on their cars, a safety device designed to absorb and reduce the force of impacts. Series officials made the assumption those changes gave the two Team Penske cars an aerodynamic advantage in qualifying and responded by sending drivers to the back of the 33-car starting grid, taking away their qualifying points and pit box selections and suspending their team strategists. Newgarden started 32nd with only Power behind him.
By comparison, almost anything would have been better — even on a weekend where Newgarden was the only Penske car absent from the shootout and nearly 1 mph out of the No. 12 spot.
“This place giveth and taketh,” he said. "Everyone has been working hard on the Shell team, and we’ll keep working hard until next Sunday. I’m ready to go racing.”
But for Andretti Global, not much has gone right since series officials gave each car a boost of about 100 horsepower Friday.
Each of the team's three drivers struggled in that first practice with the faster cars then waited, watched and wondered what would happen after the rainout. It wasn't good.
All three — 2022 Indy winner Marcus Ericsson, Kirkwood and 2018 Indy champ Will Power — all missed the shootout and only Ericsson, who qualified 18th at 230.667, and Power made it into the top 20. Power will start 20th after going 230.279 before the track really heated up.
Kirkwood was not as fortunate with the 23rd qualifying spot and winding up No. 26 on the grid at 229.607. Even worse, Palou then managed to sneak into the pole battle despite taking the third-to-last run in Round 1 of qualifying.
All Kirkwood, Ericsson and the two former teammates — Newgarden and Power — can do now is hope they're better next Sunday in IndyCar's biggest race of the season.
“We’re good on low boost,” Kirkwood said before addressing his team's woes. "We work hard to be as fast as we possibly can. It’s unexpected, but we've got good people down there to produce fast cars. Unfortunately, today we struggled a little bit.”
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