CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
TEAM CHEVY SATURDAY QUALIFYING REPORT
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2025
Seven Chevrolet Drivers Qualify in Fast 12
All 18 Team Chevy Entries are Locked Into 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500
- The 2024 Indianapolis 500 pole winner, Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet, posted second fastest four-lap average of the day – 233.013 mph
- Will run in the Fast 12 for the second straight year
- Two-time and defending Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden’s appearance in the Fast 12/Fast 9 driving the No. 2 Shell V-Power NITRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet is his fifth powered by Chevy, and his seventh overall
- He posted the third fastest four-lap average of the day – 233.004 mph
- Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet will participate in the Fast 12/Fast 9 for the fourth straight year, his 232.820mph four-lap average is his quickest on the 2.5-mile oval and fourth fastest of the day
- Rookie Robert Shwartzman powered his No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet to the sixth fastest four-lap average of 232.584 mph in his career-first oval track qualifying attempt
- David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, will make his first appearance in the Fast 12
- Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, will make his 13th career total, 11 with Chevy power appearance in the Fast 12/Fast 9
- Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, will make his first appearance in the Fast 12
- Chevrolet powered drivers have appeared in the Fast 12/Fast 9 a total of 72 times since 2012
- All 18 Team Chevy entries are locked into the Indianapolis 500
- Starting positions 13 to 30 are locked in as they qualified today
Indianapolis 500 Saturday Qualifying Results
Indianapolis 500 qualifying tune-in alert
Sunday, May 18 (PPG Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend)
· NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice –1pm-3pm (ET)/noon-2pm (CT)/11am-1pm (MT)/10am-noon (PT) – FS2/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218
· NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying – 4pm-7pm (ET)/3pm-6pm (CT)/2pm-5pm (MT)/1pm-4pm (PT) – FOX/ INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (Fast 12 Participants)
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske Chevrolet / Team Penske
· Saturday Rank: 2nd
· Four Lap Average: 233.013mph
· Quote: “It just was pretty quick there towards the line. I started to build a little loose at the end, so maybe just in a little bit of balance, but yeah it’s close. I on that one too, I hit the limiter, uh going into the turn one, so I lost the chunk of speed. I think that’s why I would I went down to a (2)32 5. So I think we can easily stay in the 33’s. I’m really proud of the guys, the Pennzoil “yellow submarine” and Team Chevy. This car’s good and we can definitely run for pole tomorrow. It’s good in race trim. But I tell you, it is my fifth one of these, and it just does not get any easier. It’s just like it’s so I was like nearly sick, Kev, I was nearly sick before the run and I mean, for up to Shwartzman, he did an awesome run this morning, um and uh, yeah, really happy with that guy, I guess. it looks like he’s been about all week. And how hard it is as a rookie and it’s a good job.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske Chevrolet / Team Penske
· Saturday Rank: 3rd
· Four Lap Average: 233.004mph
· Quote: This team has done a good job. It’s very close. Maybe a little shy on a couple of things as far tuning tools. I thought it was really solid car. The conditions were pretty nice to me. It seems like the track (temperature) came down there with the clouds and the wind was lower, but gusty. Some corners it feels totally fine, some corners it makes you feel like you’re going to fly. But, a good first run. Hopefully we don’t have to do much more and we can fight tomorrow.
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet / Arrow McLaren
· Saturday Rank: 4th
· Four Lap Average: 232.820mph
· Quote: That’s what we wanted, we wanted four very consistent laps, and in terms of consistency that’s hard to beat. We didn’t feel the need to practice this morning. The car was dialed in. I was happy with it. I was playing around with my tools, giving me a big enough window to play in. I’ve got to give it to the guys and gals at Arrow McLaren and Team Chevy. Hopefully, that’s good enough to get us into the Fast 12 tomorrow and we’ll see what we can make happen.
Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet / PREMA Racing
· Saturday Rank: 6th
· Four Lap Average: 232.584mph
· Quote: Honestly, I was quite nervous before the run, wondering how it was going to be feeling. It is quite cooler today and we haven’t driven in these conditions. Everything is new to me, so I was like woah, woah, woah, how is it going to be. Then, I was like it’s one chance, it’s my first qualifying, and I just have to go for it. I just floored it and went flat. The first two laps were really good, the car was hanging on and it was really fast. From Lap 3, it started to have a bit of a deg on the rears and the car started to move, so the last two laps were on the edge. I was trying to hold onto it and I was really happy I managed to finish my qually run. I know I could have done an even faster lap time, but for my first time, I didn’t know how to react to these changes. Overall, I’m really happy. The emotions in the car. How fast it goes and how you’re playing it on the limit at 240mph. That’s crazy. It’s a new experience.
David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet / A.J. Foyt Enterprises
· Saturday Rank: 7th
· Four Lap Average: 232.546mph
· Quote: “What a morning! With the timing of when we were going out, we were kind of on the crest of the wind picking up, and then we had the yellow and the delay, and obviously we didn’t have the car set for those conditions. The wind picked up on that run. And I’m just gonna say that was the toughest, toughest four laps I’ve had to do here since I’ve driven here. I mean, it’s been a short time. It’s only my third year but, that was very, very difficult, that [Turn] one and two was treacherous but this team has built an incredible car. I mean, it all comes down to the cars at these speeds. These are the best drivers in the world so anybody can drive. And when it comes down to these qualifying days, a lot of it is on the team, and they’ve built an incredible car to withstand those tough conditions — and we stayed flat. I think out of that run that we had to do, that is damn near the best.”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet / Team Penske
· Saturday Rank: 10th
· Four Lap Average: 232.144mph
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet / Arrow McLaren
· Saturday Rank: 12th
· Four Lap Average: 231.809mph
· Quote: “After the first run, we weren’t really happy. On the second run, we made a massive improvement. I was much more comfortable and able to commit a lot more. It paid off. I definitely didn’t think the lap speed was going to stay. There were plenty of fast cars in the field. We’re really happy with the outcome and we get to do it again tomorrow.”
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (Entrants Locked In & Starting 13th-30th)
Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet / Juncos Hollinger Racing
· Saturday Rank: 13th
· Four Lap Average: 231.725mph
· Quote: “Honestly, the team had a wild day. The first run, the front wing being, like wrong, was crazy because we obviously had to go through tech right before we ran, so it was a shame that we had to come back in the middle of the day [to qualify]. We didn’t quite have exactly what we needed [in his first run], so we trimmed out in the last run. But I did not get the weight jacker back to the right position for Turn One on the last lap, so it was definitely my fault. The team deserved to be in the top 12. You just have to be perfect here. So that cost us.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Java House ECR Chevrolet / Ed Carpenter Racing
· Saturday Rank: 14th
· Four Lap Average: 231.701mph
· Quote: “One of the longest qualifying days I’ve ever had here. We were just chasing it trying to find what we could to get into the Fast 12 and came up a little bit short. There were some glimmers of hope at various points, but ultimately we didn’t have the balance or the speed to get it done. It’s not a terrible position to start, but I’m really bummed that we aren’t 13th. I think our race car is good and I know we can go forward next week.”
Ed Carpenter, No. 33 ECR Splenda Stevia Chevrolet / Ed Carpenter Racing
· Saturday Rank: 16th
· Four Lap Average: 231.392mph
· Quote: “Not an awesome run. I didn’t do a very good job with data. One pretty big mistake hurt our average. So, I know the average is a little better. I was hoping our first up speed was going to be a little bit better than that. So got to go back and review the data. For sure we can make it better than that. We just have to execute a little better. I mean, about how I expected it to be. You know, it’s actually it’s really windy. It’d be a lot harder coming from the west. It’s very difficult, but I’m confident we can improve.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Homes For Our Troops Chevrolet / A.J. Foyt Racing
· Saturday Rank: 17th
· Four Lap Average: 231.593mph
· Quote: You know, obviously we’ve been very behind all month. Catching up on the car today, honestly, we’re finding such a great balance on being able to enter in super strong get the car to the apex, find confidence in my lines. And, just to be honest with you, our luck has been so bad, I don’t even know how to explain it. And I get it all the way down to the apex in two on lap one, and it sticks. Get it down to the apex in lap two, and it takes off. Get down the apex in lap three, and it sticks again. So I need a bird to come crap on my shoulder or something at this rate.
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet / Juncos Hollinger Racing
· Saturday Rank: 19th
· Four Lap Average: 231.461mph
· Quote: “Messy. The conditions this year today especially seem very tricky, because we’ve seen plenty of wrecks so far. I don’t know what it is. Wind sure doesn’t help. Track-temps are up. So looks interesting. I hope we get another chance out there today.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Splenda ECR Chevrolet / Ed Carpenter Racing
· Saturday Rank: 20th
· Four Lap Average: 231.438mph
· Quote: “I feel good about being comfortably in the show, I feel like there was a little bit more in it. I think we’re on that line in 13th, and I think it was more left in the car. I think we have a top-12 car. So we are going to go out and try for it. We were very happy about our effort this morning, so we hit the balance right on the nail there. Obviously it wasa little bit too early today. We just live with the wind. I mean, it’s tricky when the balance definitely had a big balance shift into it. But that was what I was really happy about this morning, was that the car was originally hitting very, very well, down in three, four, and I had to make some adjustments for one two, but I could still get there with my experience, instead of watching my balance as we were trying to get to the top-12”
Kyle Larson, No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren Chevrolet / Arrow McLaren
· Saturday Rank: 21st
· Four Lap Average: 231.326 mph
· Quote: “I’m not sure exactly what they did, but I would assume trimmed out a litte bit. I felt like they matched the balance well. I got a little free into (Turn) 2 the last lap. Other than that, I could tell it cut through the wind a little bit better. It was good to go faster. I don’t like qualifying here, but I feel like we’re going to qualify again because they are going to want to make the Fast 12. It gets sketchier every time you go out. We’ll see. We’ll talk to them and debrief, but probably make another run again. Maybe, the conditions will get a little bit better.”
Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet / PREMA Racing
· Saturday Rank: 23rd
· Four Lap Average: 230.704mph
· Quote: “It’s not been a bad day. I think we had an okay first run, there was a little bit more time in it, but with the time of day it was never going to be easy with the temperature and the wind. We waited and tried to change a couple of things before going again and improved slightly. We have secured our position for next week which was the goal of today. Robert has done an amazing job and the whole team have nailed it today. We need to find a little bit more speed for next time, but pretty happy.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet / Arrow McLaren
· Saturday Rank: 26th
· Four Lap Average: 230.571mph
· Quote: “It was a fine first run. The car is fast. We were conservative for exactly the reason that we just saw (Colton Herta accident) and I think it’s been really, really tricky getting a four lap run together for everyone. We’ve seen a lot of big first laps and then bailed runs and our goal was to do four solid laps that’ll get us in the show and that’s what we did. So I think it was the right approach and we can go back out later and trim and go faster, but I’m glad that we have a solid one on the board. I’d like to go and try to make the Fast 12. I don’t think what we did was quite enough. And there’s a lot more speed in the car that we can get easily. I think it depends a little bit on the conditions and we’ll wave and see what happens. We have the luxury right now of waiting and seeing what everyone else does. So we’ll do that, but really happy with the car, no issues at all. And great team Chevy power. gave us a lot of speed done straightway. And I think if we can just open it up through the corners a little bit, then we’ll show our true speed.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, No.23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES. / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
· Saturday Rank: 27th
· Four Lap Average: 230.236mph
· Quote: “We were consistent but just slow in the first run this morning. We need to find some more grip. We were just sliding too much. We are just trying to find a downforce package with wind. Track conditions might deteriorate during the day with this wind. Jack, my teammate, just nipped us by a tenth of a mile per hour. His crew went for bigger speed early and we went with the consistent runs. The car is a different feeling with the hybrid system and weight in the rear. But it is the same for everyone right now.
Jack Harvey, No. 24 DRR CUSICK INVST / Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
· Saturday Rank: 28th
· Four Lap Average: 230.348mph
· Quote: All week so far, I’ve stayed pretty calm and taken things as they come; not getting too happy and not getting too sad. I still feel that way today. I hope we get to do another run because I think we are a little bit better than the speed we did. Working with Chevy has been exactly what you hope and expect it to be. It’s a top class organization. All of my experience has been really good.
Robert Schwartzman
Conor Daly
Press Conference
THE MODERATOR: Robert Schwartzman, top 12 tomorrow. How pleased are you with obviously the effort and I’m sure the team is ecstatic about today’s results?
ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN: Yeah, really good day. I honestly did not expect it to go that well. We were gradually improving the car step by step. To have such a good run this morning, I was like, Okay, this car is really fast.
Obviously was really tricky, as I said already before. It’s the toughest I think qualifying of my career. Four laps consecutive, focus, one slight mistake and you’re done. Yeah, definitely it was a big challenge for me.
I’m happy that I managed to complete all four laps. We’re going to top 12. I think it’s also a good thing it’s the first one of the team.
We finally got a top 12, it’s here in Indy. Quite a legendary moment for us. Pretty happy.
The team did a really good job with engineering and mechanics. Everything was step by step without rushing things, making sure everything is right. I think that’s where it paid off.
THE MODERATOR: Conor, a bit of heartbreak certainly. What happened on the last qualifying run?
CONOR DALY: Yeah, I mean, honestly, we had a wild day. Honestly our first run the whole front wing being wrong was crazy because we obviously have to go to tech before we run, too. It was kind of a shame there.
Yeah, we had to come back. In the middle of the day, didn’t quite have exactly what we needed. We trimmed out for the last run just to try to stay above where we needed to be.
Yeah, I mean, I did not get the weight jacker back to the right position before turn one in the last lap. It was definitely my fault. The team deserved to be in the 12. You just got to be perfect here.
I was trying a few different things to be as consistent as possible. Just happened to not get the weight jacker back in time. Yeah, that cost us the 12. But a good bounceback, for sure, for our group, definitely.
THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions.
Q. Robert, when you found out your speed after your run, what was the initial reaction? Were you surprised it was that fast?
ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN: Yeah, honestly this morning I came to my engineer, I was like, What do you think? How fast are we going to go with cooler temps?
I guess two miles an hour.
Damn, I was optimistic.
Yesterday we showed 231. Okay, well…
The first lap I do, I was like, I floor it. Whatever happens happens. I see 233. I was like, He was actually right. The car actually is fast, okay.
Yeah, I managed to hold it for two laps. We were a bit too aggressive with balance. I started to lose a bit the rear. It was sketchy in the third and fourth lap. I just need to survive, just finish it.
At the end I think overall it just gave me the boost and understanding that the car is really fast. Honestly, going into the corner, the car is just holding on. I was feeling it a bit yesterday, from the free practice. The car seems to be good. We can actually put it.
Yeah, today it just showed the car is really there. Obviously we still need to do some work to catch the top guys. I want to believe that we can battle for the top six tomorrow.
Q. How much confidence does the run today give you ahead of tomorrow?
ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN: For me, honestly it’s just we need to fix a little bit the balance just so I can hold on more safely for the third and fourth lap going flat. I believe that’s going to be a good step forward.
Q. Compared to all the other places you qualified, how does this compare?
ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN: It’s not comparable. Honestly like with Alex, he also comes from Europe, it’s pretty clear that this is very special qualifying. You never feel the same emotion.
I was actually never really worried about qualifying in my entire life. Even when I drove F1 car practicing, I was calm. Sometimes you can have this worry in races whenever you’re starting from pole, normal worry. Here yesterday night, We have a decent car, it’s my first quallie, four laps, I have to stick to it.
Honestly, when you go out, it’s full focus. Not even a slight second you have to relax. Normally in European tracks or quallie, you have a moment of just breathe. Here it was one single breath, go, that’s it.
Q. Robert, you said it was the most stressful qualifying compared to all your other race experience in Europe. What was your realistic expectation before you went out?
ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN: Well, again, as I said, I didn’t expect to be that fast. My target was focus, improve, gradually improve the car, the team, get few things and also learn at the same time.
I’m a rookie. Team is a rookie. We try to just find some pieces and if it works just to fix them, learn that’s how it worked.
Coming in qualifying today, the expectation was I want to complete four laps. That was the only thing. I just need to finish four laps. Whatever I’m going to be, I’m going to be. I really wasn’t looking at it. I was just trying to get the confidence that I can drive this car fast and have it under control. That’s it.
Q. Conor, to come that close to getting into the Fast 12, how could you describe? Is it excruciating? At least you have the solace to know you’re safely in the field?
CONOR DALY: Honestly it’s the best I’ve started in a long time. I’m obviously very frustrated and I’m super honest with everyone when it comes down to me making a mistake. I have to take responsibility for that one, you know what I mean?
The car, I would say I definitely got creative on that last run and used some gearing strategies that were not suggested to me. I just took a gamble and they worked, so that’s good. But then I cost myself on the last lap, too.
It’s part of the game here. It’s so close, so crazy. This day was a range of emotions. I wanted to ram my head through a drywall earlier. Now I still want to do the same but I’m slightly happier while doing so.
Thankful for the team. They gave me a shot today. That is all you can ask for, is a proper shot at it. And we know after all week of practice, we have a great race car. That’s what I’m happy about.
THE MODERATOR: Conor, to your point, this is your best starting position since you started 11th in 2019. There you go.