Marco Andretti leads Honda rout over Chevy in Indy 500 qualifying

INDIANAPOLIS — Marco Andretti led a Honda rout on the initial working day of Indianapolis five hundred qualifying — a session dominated by Andretti Autosport and Honda as Team Penske was shut out of pole rivalry.

Andretti posted a 4-lap normal of 231.351 mph to major the pace chart Saturday in advance of teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe. The fastest nine advance to a Sunday shootout that decides the initial a few rows for the Indy five hundred.

The Andretti business grabbed 4 of the slots and Honda drivers took 8 of nine total.

“Honda brought it this year,” Andretti said. “I was ready to just go out and do my job and, guy, when it all comes with each other, it is just lovely.”

Hunter-Reay was next, Rossi 3rd and Hinchcliffe fourth in the Andretti sweep.

“To be just one-by way of-4 is fairly unheard of,” Rossi acknowledged.

Andretti Autosport experimented with to get all six of its cars into the major nine but Colton Herta was 10th and Zach Veach seventeenth right after several attempts.

It is really also not clear that the Andretti team has the fastest car — Scott Dixon logged the fastest lap of the working day at 232.356 mph in an aborted qualifying run at the buzzer. Dixon said he was not seeking to bump the Andretti quartet off the major when he manufactured the late run for Chip Ganassi Racing.

“We were being just examining a couple points for tomorrow, we needed to get the correct stability,” Dixon said.

It was a depressing energy for Chevrolet, which only placed 19-year-old rookie Rinus Veekay from Ed Carpenter Racing in the rapidly nine. The Chevy camp has struggled with straight pace since the Friday horsepower increase and all 4 of the flagship Team Penske entries will begin deep in the field.

Josef Newgarden, the reigning sequence winner, was the maximum-qualifying Penske driver at thirteenth. Will Electrical power was 22nd, defending race winner Simon Pagenaud was 25th and a few-time winner Helio Castroneves was twenty eighth.

The race was initially scheduled for its regular Memorial Working day weekend date but pushed to Aug. 23 for the reason that of the pandemic. Teams are not accustomed to these temperatures and the warmth has been just one of Chevy’s most important problems.

The manufacturer assumed it caught a break when Newgarden and former race winner Electrical power the two drew early qualifying slots, supplying them a shot to make their operates for the duration of cooler temperatures. It need to have worked, but Newgarden was only the next-fastest Chevrolet.

Electrical power experienced just one of the worst qualifying endeavours of his Indianapolis career and will begin just one place better than his career-worst twenty third starting off situation in his 2008 debut.

“Probably just one of my slowest cars at any time. It just blows my mind,” Electrical power said. “We ran significantly less downforce than Josef and we were being slower.”

Electrical power said the 4-car Penske business will now focus on race preparing and acknowledge the sub-par starting off spots.

“Now we can get back again to race focus,” Electrical power said. “We are better in race trim, for absolutely sure.”

The shootout for the pole will consist of the 4 Andretti drivers, Dixon, VeeKay, rookie Alex Palou of Dale Coyne Racing and Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

Andretti likes his chances even as he at first anxious his early pace would not keep. He is winless in fourteen previous attempts to gain “The Finest Spectacle in Racing” and the famed Andretti loved ones has just just one gain in the event, a 1969 Mario Andretti victory.

“The most important hurdle when you occur to Indy is pace,” Andretti said. “We experienced it. But then you begin to surprise — is Chevy sandbagging? Is it as well very good to be real? Male, Honda brought it. We’ve obtained the pace down. We’ve just obtained to execute.”

Andretti obtained praise from his father, Michael, the team operator.

“He blew me away,” Michael Andretti said. “That initial lap was awesome. We were being all stunned by it. Final two laps he was pedaling the heck out of it. He did a good job.”

Michael Andretti was equally happy of his overall business for making ready six robust cars.

“One of the problems is seeking to make all our cars equivalent,” Michael Andretti said. “They’re as near with each other as they’ve at any time been. Until eventually yesterday, I didn’t know the place we were being going to be. Then I assumed we have a legit shot of putting six cars in the major nine.”

Fernando Alonso, in a Chevrolet, also unsuccessful to locate considerably pace. The two-time Formulation A person winner is making an attempt to near out motorsports’ variation of the Triple Crown, but his Arrow McLaren SP entry has been driving since Alonso crashed late in Thursday’s observe.

Alonso’s qualifying time of 228.768 mph was twelfth out of 13 drivers when he manufactured his endeavor. Alonso, who was bumped from the field past year, will begin twenty sixth.

“We just needed to put with each other a reliable run with no drama and put the car in the exhibit,” the Spaniard said. “We were being not as rapid as we needed and we experienced to acknowledge that.”