Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Motor Speedway has no peer, and this incredible palace of speed played host to an incredible pole-setting day Sunday.
Robert Shwartzman became the first rookie since 1983 to win the pole for an Indianapolis 500, a driver few would have expected to win the pole for the biggest oval race in the world — considering he has never raced on an oval in his life.
And in unexpected fashion, Team Penske had two of its drivers (two-time defending race winner Josef Newgarden and Will Power) parked on the final day of qualifying for a rules violation where they had filled seams that connected to their attenuator.
The other Penske driver — defending race pole sitter Scott McLaughlin — never got to qualifying after a hard wreck in practice.
It wouldn’t matter who was battling Shwartzman for the pole. It seemed the fans at IMS enjoyed seeing a driver with no INDYCAR history driving for a Prema Racing team with no INDYCAR history earn the biggest preliminary prize for the motorsports spectacle.
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“I still can’t believe it,” Shwartzman said. “It’s just a dream.”
Shwartzman was never fast in practice leading up to qualifying, spending more time ranked in the bottom 10 than he did in the top 15. But he put up a solid run in qualifying Saturday, ranked third among the top 12 in the opening round Sunday and then took the pole with an average speed of 232.790 mph.
“I was just thinking in my dreams fantasizing, ‘How will it feel to take pole position in Indy 500? How is the vibe?’” Shwartzman said.
“Then I was, like, ‘Yeah, Robert, get back to reality. You have a new car, new team, you are a rookie. How can you expect to be in this position? It’s just in your dreams.’”
The thing about dreams? They occasionally do come true as Shwartzman will start in a front row with two veterans — two-time Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato and Arrow McLaren driver Pato O’Ward.
“What an amazing event with [a] rookie driver in pole position is entirely impressive,” Sato said. “Huge congrats to everyone involved for that team.”
How did the team do it? Shwartzman said they just focused on taking things step by step and improving throughout the week.
A former Formula 1 reserve driver for Ferrari and Sauber, Shwartzman carried a reputation as a solid road racer who was expected to struggle on ovals.
But he didn’t do anything incredible in the first five races and enters the 500 at 24th in the series standings.
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“I gave maximum what I could,” Shwartzman said. “I tried to stay as long as possible flat [out], and, yeah, here we are.
“We managed to survive it. I managed to hold it on. Honestly, it was the best feeling ever. The car was just amazing.”
There were three drivers who wished they could have attempted to earn such a feeling. Last year’s front row of Team Penske all finished in the top 12 on Saturday and hoped they could repeat the feat.
But McLaughlin crashed hard in practice Sunday morning and was done for the day. Then the Newgarden and Power cars had an issue prior to qualifying for the top-12 cars on Sunday afternoon.
Series officials saw the bondo issue in the seam in Power’s car but let it go to the grid to qualify before they ruled, INDYCAR president Doug Boles said. When the inspectors saw the same issue in Newgarden’s car, they failed Newgarden’s car and told Team Penske that Power’s car would likely fail post-qualifying tech.
The team opted not to have Power qualify the car and risk any potential calamity when the time wouldn’t be allowed.
“In our eyes, it’s not a performance advantage, but at the end of the day, if they don’t like the seam being filled, they don’t like the seam being filled,” Team Penske INDYCAR President Tim Cindric said. “You’ve got to do what the inspection process is and conform to that.
“We’ll live with it and start on the fourth row. … Everybody’s trying to make the cars as sleek as you can and whether this much makes a difference or not, the facts are this didn’t pass inspection.”
‘It’s unbelievable honestly’ – Robert Shwartzman talks emotions of winning the Indianapolis 500 pole
O’Ward, who started third, said he felt the Penske drivers should have had to battle for a spot in the field, but Boles said the rules are clear that they start in Row 4. The teams could face additional penalties.
“It’s a shame, really, because they don’t need to be doing that stuff,” O’Ward said. “They’re a great team. They have got great drivers. Why are they doing that? It makes no sense.”
The Penske drivers would likely have challenged for some of the top spots, and their absence made the final rounds more unpredictable.
And it ended up the least of the predictable happened as an Israeli-born driver who primarily lived in Russia but also spent time in Italy will now lead the field to green in the 109th Indianapolis 500.
“It’s my first experience on ovals,” Shwartzman said. “That was just something unbelievable. Especially going 240 miles an hour, which is like 385 kilometers an hour.
“It’s just a new experience. I’ve never driven a car so fast. Now sitting here being in pole position is just, again, just a wow.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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