“Marc”-ed Man: Andretti the Driver to Beat on Saturday

Just like on Fast Friday, Marco Andretti with his Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco Andretti and Curb-Agajanian Honda setting the fastest four-lap average speed as Andretti Autosport cars held the top four positions in the fast nine going into Sunday.

Marco’s first run was enough to put him pole, with a four-lap average speed of 231.351 mph. Most drivers were not able to improve as the day went on as they had to combat increasing track temperatures.

Second place would be the DHL Honda of Ryan Hunter-Reay with a four-lap average of 231.330 mph. The 2012 Indianapolis 500 winner would be followed by the 2016 winner of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” Alexander Rossi. The final Andretti car in the top five would be James Hinchcliffe in fourth.

Scott Dixon would be the one to break the Andretti stranglehold in fifth, putting his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda in fifth with a four lap average of 231.155 mph. Right at the end of qualifying, Dixon set the fastest single lap of the day with an average of 232.356 mph.

NTT IndyCar Series rookies Rinus Veekay and Alex Palou would find themselves sixth and seventh respectively after brilliant drives by the two. Veekay’s sixth place effort was the fastest by a Chevrolet powered car on Saturday as they continued to struggle for pace.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing would round out the fast nine, with Graham Rahal and 2018 Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato in eight and ninth respectively.

Team Penske’s struggles continued on Saturday, as Josef Newgarden was able to only post a team-best thirteenth place position with a four-lap average of 230.296 mph. The next fastest Penske machine would be Will Power in twenty-second, followed by Simon Pagenaud in twenty-fifth and Helio Castroneves in twenty-eighth (his worst career Indy 500 qualifying position).

This lack of pace has plagued the team as well as Chevrolet all week so far, with the manufacturer putting only one car in the top ten in two of the first three practice sessions, none of which were a Team Penske car.

Team boss Roger Penske will not be happy with the performance of the team at the track he now owns. Both the boss and the drivers expect to be fighting for the pole here, but have languished outside of the top ten. All parties will be hoping that Chevrolet’s pace issues are fixed and that race pace is better than their single lap pace come 23 August.

This lack of pace is also hurting the triple crown chances of Fernando Alonso, who will be starting from twenty-sixth in his No. 66 Arrow McLaren SP entry.

Going into the fast nine shootout on Sunday, one question looms. Will anyone be able to stop Andretti? And if not, which Andretti driver will be on pole? We will just have to wait and see on Sunday.

Indianapolis 500 Saturday Qualifying Results

RANK	CAR NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TOTAL TIME	AVERAGE SPEED
1	98	Marco Andretti	USA	Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco Andretti and Curb-Agajanian	02:35.6078	231.351
2	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	USA	Andretti Autosport	02:35.6217	231.33
3	27	Alexander Rossi	USA	Andretti Autosport	02:35.6638	231.268
4	29	James Hinchcliffe	CAN	Andretti Autosport	02:35.7126	231.195
5	9	Scott Dixon	NZ	Chip Ganassi Racing	02:35.7396	231.155
6	21	Rinus VeeKay (R)	NED	Ed Carpenter Racing	02:35.7674	231.114
7	55	Alex Palou (R)	ESP	Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh	02:35.8213	231.034
8	15	Graham Rahal	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	02:35.9641	230.822
9	30	Takuma Sato	JPN	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	02:35.9844	230.792
10	88	Colton Herta	USA	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	02:35.9962	230.775
11	8	Marcus Ericsson	SWE	Chip Ganassi Racing	02:36.1374	230.566
12	45	Spencer Pigot	USA	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing w/ Citrone/Buhl Autosport	02:36.1557	230.539
13	1	Josef Newgarden	USA	Team Penske	02:36.3203	230.296
14	10	Felix Rosenqvist	SWE	Chip Ganassi Racing	02:36.3491	230.254
15	5	Pato O’Ward	MEX	Arrow McLaren SP	02:36.3769	230.213
16	20	Ed Carpenter	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	02:36.3781	230.211
17	26	Zach Veach	USA	Andretti Autosport	02:36.5484	229.961
18	47	Conor Daly	USA	Ed Carpenter Racing	02:36.5525	229.955
19	18	Santino Ferrucci	USA	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan	02:36.5736	229.924
20	60	Jack Harvey	ENG	Meyer Shank Racing	02:36.6161	229.861
21	7	Oliver Askew	USA	Arrow McLaren SP	02:36.6852	229.76
22	12	Will Power	AUS	Team Penske	02:36.7252	229.701
23	14	Tony Kanaan	BRA	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	02:37.0993	229.154
24	41	Dalton Kellett	CAN	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	02:37.2880	228.88
25	22	Simon Pagenaud	FRA	Team Penske	02:37.3180	228.836
26	66	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Arrow McLaren SP	02:37.3646	228.768
27	51	James Davison	AUS	Dale Coyne Racing with Rick Ware Racing	02:37.3789	228.747
28	3	Helio Castroneves	BRA	Team Penkse	02:37.6368	228.373
29	4	Charlie Kimball	USA	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	02:38.0625	227.758
30	59	Max Chilton	ENG	Carlin	02:38.3789	227.303
31	24	Sage Karam	USA	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	02:38.5210	227.099
32	67	JR Hildebrand	USA	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	02:39.0518	226.341
33	81	Ben Hanley	ENG	DragonSpeed	02:41.4948	222.917