By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
SPEEDWAY – Let the record show that there were not a million qualifying runs during last Saturday’s Day 1 of qualifications for the Indianapolis 500. It only seemed that way.
There were many qualifying runs, though. The most ever for any day of qualifying. A total of 84 qualifying attempts were made by the 34 drivers angling for a spot in the field of 33 for the 107th running of the Indy 500.
“My life goal, ever since I was a kid was to be a part of history, no matter in what way that would be,” said David Malukas, a young American driver who earned a place in the 500 for a second time. Malukas provided some exciting moments for the late afternoon fans when he pulled out a speed of 231.769 miles per hour for his qualifying run, one that came during a frantic last hour of driving.
Noblesville’s Conor Daly was part of the history as well. The veteran driver – this will be his 10th Indianapolis 500 – qualified 16th for the race. Daly made three attempts, and his first one was the fastest at 232.433 mph.
While Daly was frustrated about not being able to go faster, he was aware that when it comes to the 500, it’s not always about where a driver starts.
“Honestly, we’ve started from much worse and ended up leading and being up front, so it doesn’t really matter too much,” said Daly. “It makes it a little bit harder to get there, but we’ve got there every time the last couple years.”
Not only were their many runs, but they were all fast as well. Five drivers touched 234 mph during individual laps, with Felix Rosenqvist reaching that level twice. Rosenqvist was the top qualifier of Day 1 with a speed of 233.947 mph, which is the third-fastest qualifying run ever. Rosenqvist is behind only Scott Dixon’s 2022 pole position speed of 234.048, and Arie Luyendyk’s 1996 run of 236.986.
“Super proud of the whole team for executing,” Rosenqvist said. “That last run we did was just phenomenal. Almost in a 234 average. That was pretty mind-blowing how we found so much speed. We weren’t super happy on our first run, so we had two or three reasons to think we were going to go quicker. We kind of put them all together. Wow, what a run.”
The top 10 speeds on Day 1 were all better than 233 mph. Alexander Rossi, the 2016 Indy 500 champion, led for most of the day with a 233.528 until Rosenqvist’s attempt, which finished at 4:42 p.m. Alex Palou, winner of the Indy Grand Prix race on May 13, was third with a 233.398.
Three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford shakes hands with Alexander Rossi, the 2016 champion. Rossi placed second in the Day 1 qualifications with a speed of 233.528. (Kent Graham)
The top 30 drivers automatically earned a place in this year’s race, with the 30th spot going to Katherine Legge. The British driver had to sweat out the last few minutes of qualifying before hanging on for a place in the 500. Legge’s speed was 231.070 – a 230 wouldn’t get a drive into the top 30 this year, which shows just how fast this year’s field is.
“Our qualifying average is 232.4 and I’m upset with that,” said Daly. “But that’s an insane speed.”
Malukas, a 21-year-old from Chicago, proved to be a young man with perseverance. After getting bumped twice and waved off another time, Malukas made it into the field for good on his fourth try, with less than an hour to go. Malukas started with a first lap of 232.433, and only dropped slightly throughout his next three laps.
“We were really confused with what we needed to do on the setup,” said Malukas. “We tipped the scales the first time obviously way too on the safe side, and then the next run was way too much on the intense side. So we had to try to find it in between.”
Malukas and his team found the in-between in the second to last run, and Malukas implored his team to give him a fourth run – “I promise you, if we get one more run, we’re not just going to make it, but we’re going to be there,” Malukas told his team.
“The run was perfect,” said Malukas. “And everybody did a perfect job.”
The top 12 qualifiers drove again last Sunday afternoon for a chance to make the Fast 6 qualifying, with those six drivers competing for pole position. The bottom four drivers participated in a Last Chance qualifying, with the top three getting in the race. As for positions 13 to 30, they all took a breather, and began preparing for the big race this coming Sunday.
“We just go back into race mode,” said Daly. “We got a session on Monday, we have a session on Friday. So we got a few more things we want to try to dial in and just get better and better. But we left Thursday having a really, really competitive race car, feeling like we were a top-five race car pace-wise. And that’s the goal.”