By Austin Lawton, Staff Writer
A rookie has won pole at Indianapolis but has been overshadowed by a scandal that is rocking the sport with Team Penske
The 20-time Indy 500 champions started the day with having to repair the No.3 Pennzoil Chevrolet of Scott McLaughlin. McLaughlin was on a practice run early in the afternoon on Sunday when exiting Turn Two, lost the rear of the car and went airborne, losing the left-rear wheel and even putting a gouge in the track surface from the impact.
McLaughlin landed on all four tires and was in good health after leaving the medical center.
“Just ran a little light on downforce,” McLaughlin told the media after being checked from the medical center. “ I just tried to finish the run. Should have bailed but unfortunately, I did not. I’m really sorry to my team, it kills me. It’s a character building day.”
McLaughlin did not make a qualifying attempt as the crew aimed to get the backup car ready for Monday’s practice session. McLaughlin starts 10th next Sunday for the “500” ahead of his two Team Penske teammates in Josef Newgarden and Will Power.
Newgarden and Power were perennial favorites for the pole position but did not make a qualifying attempt after failing pre-qualifying inspection. IndyCar found an illegal part on the attnenuator of the car. The attenuator is on the rear of the rac car, intended for use to crash impact. The IndyCar rule book clearly states that the attenuator is not to be altered as it is a safety piece in Article 14.7.8.16 ‘Body Work Fitting’. This rule tells the team which parts of the car body they can and cannot modify.
Team Penske are alleged to have bonded a section on the rear of the attenuator where carbon pieces form a weave, with a slight lip and gap. The team filled in that gap on the rear wing assembly, modifying that part that is not meant to be modified.
The issue was fully, first identifed on the No.12 of Power but was allowed to go thorough, due to the bustle of getting the car to pit lane, per IMS and IndyCar President, Doug Boles during a session with reporters. The inspection crew then noticed the same attenuator issue on the No.2 of Newgarden, identical to the No.12. The No.12 team was then held on pit lane. At the same time, the No.12 crew hassled to fix the attenuator on the car before going out to qualify.
When the team was notified of the infraction, they chose to withdraw the cars and not post a Fast 12 qualifying time. This story will continue to develop post-”500” as all three Penske cars are set to start on the fourth row of the grid.
O’Ward, a teammate via Chevrolet came to the defense of the Last Row Shootout participants and called for Penske to be disquaflied.
“They weren’t accidentally doing it because they had the blowtorch right there in order to get it out,” O’Ward said in the end of day press conference. “Honestly, I feel for Abel and for everybody that did the disqualifications or the last chance qualifying. Those cars weren’t in regulations. I’m not an engineer, so I can’t tell you what they were doing, how much speed that it is or if it is any speed. Obviously it’s not in regulation. The rule is pretty black and white. Those cars should have been in the last chance qualifier. Like, those cars should have never — obviously they didn’t do anything in the Fast 12, but they should have been brought into the LCQ because they had that yesterday, I guarantee you. Until someone pointed it out today. Those cars, if they’re disqualified today, they should have been disqualified yesterday. It’s a shame really because they don’t need to be doing that stuff. They’re a great team. They have got great drivers. Why are doing that? It makes no sense.”
Shwartzman Becomes a Hero Overnight
A rookie is on pole for the “500” for the first time since 1983 when Teo Fabi in the Skoal Bandit Cosworth powered March chassis, accomplished that feat. Robert Shwartzman is now the latest rookie to sit on pole for the “500”.
Shwartzman is competing in his first Indycar season after attempting to climb the Formula One ladder and running for Ferrari’s Hypercar program in the World Endurance Championship. PREMA Racing, a team known for developing drivers in Europe, are in their first IndyCar season as well. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the first oval Shwartzman has ever driven on. The driver from Tel Aviv, Israel, laid down a four-lap average of 232.790 mph to claim his first pole position.
“Honestly it’s unbelievable. I was just processing it, and I still can’t believe it,” Shwartzman said of the historic feat. “It’s just a dream. I was just thinking in my dreams fantasizing, ‘How will it feel to take pole position in Indy 500? How is the vibe? 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.’
Still I was keeping that tiny dream deep inside. Coming here, honestly, we missed the first testing day. Even so, I think the thing that made me sit here now in this position I think is just the right team mentality. You don’t need to be a genius. You don’t need to have incredible experience. You just need to have a good people around you as a team, which are conscious of what they’re doing. You know, as a whole team, you just know that, ‘Okay, we’ll go step by step, small steps without rushing’ because even though I don’t have experience, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that Indy doesn’t forgive. One slight mistake can cost you a lot.
We’ve seen Colton, Marcus, Scotty, they were really fast, but I think they could have definitely challenged, but with that mistake, they didn’t manage to do it. So that was the thing that I didn’t really want to do. That’s why we didn’t come to the warmup yesterday and in practice today. It was just like, ‘let’s keep it safe, just stable. We know that the car is quite quick. Just need to be consistent, do the four laps, and the last run I just give it all’ I give maximum what I could. I tried to stay as long as possible flat, 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.”
The 25 year old in the No.83 Chevrolet already shocked the world by making the Fast 12 after Saturday’s qualifying sessions. On Sunday afternoon, as the afternoon dwindled and the track started to get cooler, Shwartzman would lay down a blistering average to end up third fastest and transfer to the Fast Six. Going out with shade covering over half of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Shwartzman piloted the car, which seemed glued to the track surface, to pole.
Shwartzman will be joined on the front row by two-time “500” champion Takuma Sato (232.478 mph) for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and the popular O’Ward (232.098 mph) for Arrow McLaren.
SEE: The Starting Grid for the 109th Indianapolis 500
Shwartzman was able to experience elation at Indianapolis, but with elation at Indianapolis, comes disappointment at Indianapolis.
Going into Sunday, one driver of Jacob Abel, Rinus Veekay, Marcus Armstrong and Marco Andretti would not be in the field for the 109th Indianapolis 500. Abel, the driver of the No.51 Miller High Life Honda for Dale Coyne Racing missed the show. The young 24 year old from Louisville, Kentucky, is a full-time driver in the IndyCar series and will wait another year to attempt the race.
“It’s a bummer because the whole week kind of felt like it was going really well,” Abel said. “We had pace. I was happy with the car. We were good in traffic. We were pretty good on the no tows. We had consistent, conservative runs on Friday with way more downforce than we had on today. They ended up being 3 miles an hour faster than we ran today. So they have an anomaly. We kind of thought we found something last night that should have been pretty clear to help us. It was the issue we thought, but yeah, so that ended up not being it. It’s weird. It’s both the Dale Coyne cars too. It’s not just me.
Rinus isn’t happy either. We got slower and slower each run. I actually got excitement and then was a bit down in the dumps all day today, and then Rinus goes out and does a 226 something. I’m, like, ‘Oh, we actually have a chance at this now.’ Went out and fought all four laps, stayed on top of the tools to maintain the balance, but just didn’t have any speed at all. It’s weird. It’s weird. It’s just the car doesn’t accelerate up to the same speeds that all the other cars do. So I hope they find something. Otherwise, Rinus is probably going to have a pretty tough Sunday next week. I guess I will be watching on the sidelines.”
Bill Abel, owner of Abel Motorsports and the Abel Construction company, has watched his son come through the ladder, sponsoring and helping him along the way, will remember the memories the most of being with his son at Indianapolis.
“This is a pretty big stage,” Bill Abel told KickinTheTires. “Just to have the opportunity to compete here is something most people will never get to see. For Jacob to just be here and do this is such a phenomenal experience. It’s good he’ll carry this for the rest of his life. Hopefully there will be more, to get some positive memories on top of this. To do what we’ve done, to do what he’s done, to get through this, is pretty fantastic. I think that’s the way were going to look at this.”
As the field is set for the 109th Indianapolis 500, the cars will take to the track for a two-hour practice session on Monday, with the final practice on Friday during Carb Day.