TrackSide Online presented by Honda

It’s Indy 500 raceday! Cannon fire and fireworks with a beautiful sunrise backdrop to kick off the best day of the year.

A few Thursday Media Day sights around the Speedway - Alexander Rossi back with his ECR machine, new colors on the Ryan Hunter-Reay McLaren, Pato’s car back on the set up pad, new Wurth branding on Mick Schumacher’s 47 and some assorted happenings.

Unfortunate end of Monday practice for Alexander Rossi who lost the back of the car at the apex if turn 2 and backed hard in to the wall, nearly turning over. ECR has already rolled out the backup car. Also collected were Pato O’Ward and Romain Grosjean who had damage but not as extensive.

Is there anyone surprised at all that Alex Palou and the #10 crew came out on top after given three tries to solve today’s qualifying riddle?!? Alexander Rossi and David Malukus finish out the front row. Felix Rosenquist had a repeat of 2025 where a dominant Top 12 performance only netted an inside row 2 spot in the Fast 6.

Felix Rosenquist was the star of a tricky first round of qualifying as the only driver in the 232 mph range. A half dozen Chevy powered cars followed the MSR Honda with David Malukus and Connor Daly leading that pack. In all there are 8 different teams among the 12 moving on (4 Honda, 8 Chevy). Ganassi has all 3 cars moving on (the most) with Penske and Foyt having 2 each. Next round coverage starts at 4:00 on Fox.

Morning warm-up was a lightly attended session with just 14 cars. Christian Rasmussen lead the way with a 232.255 lap, a full .5mph quicker than Takuma Sato. Sato made the first wall contact of the week though after running his quick lap, pushing high exiting turn 2 after running low at the apex. Damage looked minimal as he drove back to the pits but RLL will have it back on the setup pad before Quali starts at Noon for sure.

Polar opposite weather day today as we attempt to squeeze two days of qualifying in to one! Sun and blue skies greeted cars and drivers to a reshuffled pit lane this morning. Definitely a change of scenery for the Ganassi crew with 2 of their 3 entries at the North end of the grid today reflecting their qualifying order. Most notably Jack Harvey and Alex Palou rolling off 30th and 31st will keep tensions high until the end of round1!

The only gets better with time and no better time than a rain day to indulge! This will be the final weekend to see the historic Pole car in the opening display. And so many other new displays, cars, etc - just an amazing tribute to the past and a gift to the current fans to see the history and inner workings of IMS.

The rain continues this morning keeping everyone in a holding pattern but that can’t keep us from thinking about the fun and colors of the last few days! 6/7 for the kids! Some serious looks from some serious contenders. Everyone’s president Doug Boles closing another deal. A slow but fun Honda as the I in Indy. Wrong Firestone’s for today sadly. A couple of the many, many kids looking for autographs Friday!

Some of the fun of Fast Friday and the Big Boost days are all of the aero bit variations in sidepod blockers, suspension covers, undertray strakes, wickers and more.