Scott McLaughlin leads Penske front row sweep for Indianapolis 500; Kyle Larson to start 5th

Team Penske backed up its qualifying pace from Saturday with a front row sweep on Sunday.

Scott McLaughlin went out last on Sunday and posted the fastest four-lap run of the weekend to win the pole for the 2024 Indianapolis 500. His speed bested his Team Penske teammates Will Power and Josef Newgarden, the defending Indy 500 champion.

Kyle Larson qualified fifth for the 500 before he had to head to North Carolina for the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race later Sunday night. Larson is set to be the fifth driver to compete in both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in the same day next weekend.

Nolan Siegel misses out

Siegel pushed as hard as he could during his final run on Sunday and found that he went a little too close to the edge.

Siegel found himself 34th of 34 drivers after Marcus Ericsson pushed his way into the field with less than five minutes to go in the last-row qualifying session. Siegel’s first lap of his four-lap qualifying attempt wasn’t good enough to make the field and then he hit the wall on his second lap before his car crashed.

It was the second crash of the week for the 19-year-old after he flipped in practice earlier in the week.

Siegel’s DNQ means that Graham Rahal got the 33rd and final spot in the field. Rahal missed out on last year’s race but ended up driving the No. 24 car during the 500 because of Stefan Wilson’s practice crash.

Marcus Ericsson’s drama

Ericsson also crashed during practice this week and failed to lock into the field during Saturday’s qualifying session that guaranteed starting spots for the fastest 30 drivers in the 33-car field.

Ericsson was plenty fast on his first qualifying attempt but backed off after his third lap because of an apparent miscommunication about the number of laps he had completed. Had Ericsson kept going on his fourth and final lap, he wouldn’t have needed a second qualifying run.

Instead, he had to go again and did just enough to get in. Ericsson’s second run bumped Siegel from the field.

Indianapolis 500 starting lineup

1. Scott McLaughlin

2. Will Power

3. Josef Newgarden

4. Alexander Rossi

5. Kyle Larson

6. Santino Ferrucci

7. Rinus VeeKay

8. Pato O’Ward

9. Felix Rosenqvist

10. Takuma Sato

11. Kyle Kirkwood

12. Ryan Hunter-Reay

13. Colton Herta

14. Alex Palou

15. Callum Ilott

16. Marcus Armstrong

17. Ed Carpenter

18. Kyffin Simpson

19. Marco Andretti

20. Helio Castroneves

21. Scott Dixon

22. Augustin Canapino

23. Sting Ray Robb

24. Christian Rasmussen

25. Tom Blomqvist

26. Romain Grosjean

27. Linus Lundqvist

28. Christian Lundgaard

29. Conor Daly

30. Pietro Fittipaldi

31. Katherine Legge

32. Marcus Ericsson

33. Graham Rahal

DNQ: Nolan Siegel