Robert Shwartzman Puts PREMA on Pole for Indianapolis 500

Magical things tend to happen at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Israel’s Robert Shwartzman, who has never raced on an oval, has provided that moment on Sunday (May 18) by winning pole for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Shwartzman became the first rookie NTT IndyCar Series driver in 42 years to win the pole for the Indy 500, posting an average speed over four laps of 232.790 mph. PREMA Racing, in its first Indy 500 attempt, wins the pole with its No. 83 Chevrolet.

Firestone Fast Six

Takuma Sato earned his career-best Indy 500 start, qualifying second. In his two previous best starts of fourth and third, he won his two-career Indy 500s.

Last year’s runner-up finisher Pato O’Ward will join Shwartzman and Sato on Row 1 for his first front row start.

Position	Driver	Number	Team	Average Speed (mph)
1	Robert Shwartzman	83	Prema Racing	232.79
2	Takuma Sato	75	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	232.478
3	Pato O’Ward	5	Arrow McLaren	232.098
4	Scott Dixon	9	Chip Ganassi Racing	232.052
5	Felix Rosenqvist	60	Meyer Shank Racing	231.987
6	Alex Palou	10	Chip Ganassi Racing	231.378

Fast 12

Josef Newgarden and Will Power were both penalized for their rule violations in Fast 12 qualifying. The two will start 32nd and 33rd for the Indy 500 and lost their team strategists. Both team have each been fined $100,000.

Will Power and one of the favorites for the pole Josef Newgarden had to roll off of the grid and back to the garage after Newgarden’s No. 2 Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection due to a problem with his rear attenuator. Although Power had passed inspection with the same discrepancy, Team Penske made the call to pull Power’s car.

With Scott McLaughlin‘s heavy crash in practice earlier this afternoon, all three Team Penske cars, who shared the front row last season, could not make a lap in the Fast 12 and will instead share Row 4.

Position	Driver	Number	Team	Average Speed (mph)
7	David Malukas	4	AJ Foyt Enterprises	231.599
8	Christian Lundgaard	7	Arrow McLaren	231.36
9	Marcus Ericsson	28	Andretti Global	231.014
10	Scott McLaughlin	3	Team Penske	No Time
11	Josef Newgarden	2	Team Penske	Disqualified
12	Will Power	12	Team Penske	Disqualified

Last Chance Qualifying

Rinus VeeKay pulled his time which removed a time that was much quicker than Jacob Abel‘s initial run of over 227.112 mph. VeeKay made a bold move to remove his time and go for a quicker attempt. However, VeeKay still bested his teammate in the waning moments of the session.

Position	Driver	Number	Team	Average Speed
31	Marco Andretti	98	Andretti Global	229.741
32	Marcus Armstrong	66	Meyer Shank Racing	229.091
33	Rinus VeeKay	18	Dale Coyne Racing	226.913

Day 1 Qualifying

Conor Daly took the final attempt of Saturday’s qualifying session and was .084 mph away from taking the final spot in the Fast 12 away from Lundgaard.

Kyffin Simpson had a hard airborne wreck during Fast Friday to put up the 15th-best time in CGR’s No. 8 Honda.

Colton Herta was the hero of Saturday after flipping on his roof during qualifying and destroying his car. Using a back-up speedway car after being medically cleared to drive, he qualified 29th to advance to the 500 and today’s last row qualifier.

Graham Rahal qualified in the 30th and final transfer spot by .004 mph ahead of Andretti to avoid Bump Day for the first time in three years.

Position	Driver	Number	Team	Average Speed (mph)
13	Conor Daly	76	Juncos Hollinger Racing	231.725
14	Alexander Rossi	20	Ed Carpenter Racing	231.701
15	Kyffin Simpson	8	Chip Ganassi Racing	231.641
16	Ed Carpenter	33	Ed Carpenter Racing	231.633
17	Santino Ferrucci	14	AJ Foyt Enterprises	231.593
18	Devlin DeFrancesco	30	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	231.575
19	Sting Ray Robb	77	Juncos Hollinger Racing	231.461
20	Christian Rasmussen	21	Ed Carpenter Racing	231.438
21	Kyle Larson	17	Arrow McLaren	231.326
22	Louis Foster	45	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	231.058
23	Callum Ilott	90	Prema Racing	230.993
24	Helio Castroneves	06	Meyer Shank Racing	230.978
25	Kyle Kirkwood	27	Andretti Global	230.917
26	Nolan Siegel	6	Arrow McLaren	230.571
27	Ryan Hunter-Reay	23	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	230.363
28	Jack Harvey	24	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	230.348
29	Colton Herta	26	Andretti Global	230.192
30	Graham Rahal	15	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	229.863

2025 Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Results

The green flag for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 is scheduled for next Sunday, May 25 at 10 a.m. ET with coverage provided by FOX.