Who won’t take part in the 108th running of the Indy 500? Four drivers will take part in the Last Chance qualifying: rookie driver Nolan Siegel, who has missed out on quite a bit of practise following a Fast Friday crash, Graham Rahal, whose qualifying has been strongly impacted by engine troubles, Marcus Ericsson, with the Andretti driver still not at ease with his backup car and Katherine Legge, who made contact with the wall on her qualifying attempt yesterday.
Out first was the youngest Dale Coyne Racing driver. His first attempt averaged a speed of 229.566mph, an improvement on his earlier practice performance.
Photo credits Penske Entertainment Karl Zemlin
2022 Indy 500 race winner Marcus Ericsson is up next. His first laps was very impressive in 232.9mph, which was followed by two extremely consistent follow ups in the mid 230mphs, but he lifted a lap earlier than he should have, ending up with a first average of 220.7
Katherine Legge is up next, with a big wiggle on her first lap, but she was still able to lap in 230.8mph. She ran wide high on her final lap as well, but the 2mph lower speed didn’t bring down her average by that much, sliding comfortably in P1 with a 230.092mph
Last out is Graham Rahal. After a first fast lap in 230.396mph he was able to keep the degradation under control, signing the second fastest average speed of the session in 229.974mph.
Ericsson returns on track trying to cool off his car, while the highest track temperature of the weekend so far is recorded at 127F, and has a final attempt with 8 minutes to go. In spite of the heat and a couple of wiggles he is able to achieve an average of 230.027mph, bumping out provisionally Siegel.
The young driver, also competing in INDYNXT, will need his best time of the weekend to outpace RLL’s Rahal in P33 and qualify for his first ever Indy 500. However, after a slowish first lap in 229.2mph, Siegel crashed exiting Turn 1. The driver is fine, but unfortunately he won’t be taking part in next weekend ‘s race. The final row will thus see Legge, Ericsson and Rahal line up.
