First Impressions: 110th Indianapolis 500 Saturday Qualifying

1. Rain washed out the first qualifying day for the 110th Indianapolis 500, and Sunday will see a modified schedule to set the grid.

There will be a practice session at 9:30 a.m. ET, split into two groups with each group getting 30 minutes.

At noon, qualifying will begin with each car getting only one attempt. There will be no second attempts. At the end of the first session, the top 12 cars will advance to the Fast 12, which will take place at 4:30 p.m. Like in recent years, the Fast 12 will see each car get one attempt in reverse order of their qualifying speeds from round one. The top six will advance to the Fast Six and repeat the process to set the first two rows. The Fast Six will follow the Fast 12 after a mandatory cooling off period.

2. It is a bummer qualifying did get rained out, however, there is something nice about this streamlined approach.

Each car gets one run. Get it right the first time or live with the consequences.

There are only 33 cars. There will be no bumping. There is no need to jump through hoops and qualify over and over again. The draw will favor some. The draw will bite others. Everyone is going to get to race. This is fine.

This is reminiscent of 2017. Though a qualifying day was not lost that year, rain delayed Saturday qualifying, and there was only enough time to get one run to make the Fast Nine on that Saturday. There was heightened urgency on each qualifying run. You had to nail it to make it to the next round. Just like this year, there were only 33 cars in 2017.

I don't think Indianapolis 500 qualifying should just become a single-car run, but it is not a bad alternative when the schedule is condensed.

3. I am not going to miss the Final 15 attempt. Not much excited me about seeing if the 13th fastest car can be one spot better or if the 15th fastest car could somehow make up three spots only to have to qualify again and need to make up six more spots.

As we covered during the week, it was an unnecessary change with a necessary reason behind it to fill the television window. I just cannot say I found anything exciting about who could be 15th after Saturday. That is practically seeing who can be in the top half of the field. There is no need to see half the field qualify again just to see three cars be eliminated to fill row five.

4. The reason for the Final 15 session was the lack of bumping, and IndyCar president Doug Boles said to Racer Magazine he understands the importance of bumping and expressed an interest in having it moving forward. Boles also noted a few things went against IndyCar this year with the absence of Prema and Andretti Global pulling its fourth entry after Formula Two added a round in Montreal forcing Colton Herta out of that seat.

There is a good chance we would have had bumping if Prema had remained afloat and Formula Two did not need to reschedule a round. For the last 20 years, IndyCar has played limbo with bumping. We will have three or four years where there is none of it. We will have three or four years where it will be there. This was the first time since 2022 we did not have bumping. Prior to 2022, there was bumping in three of the previous four years. It has been more common than not since 2018, but it is scarier when there is not bumping than when there is.

We have already touched upon bumping, and at a later time we can dive deeper in what could be done to increase car entry. At the moment, this is an off year. History suggests bumping will be back. It is ensuring that it is a yearly thing that is the hard part.

5. In the qualifying preview, we considered who will benefit from the qualifying draw and who has their work cut out for them. Early qualifiers should be feeling good.

Scott Dixon, Rinus VeeKay and Scott McLaughlin, three drivers that have been toward the top of the time sheet on a consistent basis should be happy going out first, fifth and sixth respectively. Christian Lundgaard has greater hope of making the Fast 12 going out second.

The late draws for Kyle Kirkwood (23rd), Takuma Sato (26th), Christian Rasmussen (27th), Jack Harvey (30th) and Álex Palou (31st), likely are not helping their confidence tonight.

If there is any hope for late qualifiers in 2017, it is best to look back to 2017 when each car had only one attempt. The Fast Nine participants in 2017 had equal representation from each third of the qualifying line. Three drivers went out in the first 11 cars (Scott Dixon, Tony Kanaan and Will Power), three drivers went out in the second 11 cars (Fernando Alonso, Alexander Rossi and Marco Andretti) and three cars went out in the last 11 cars (Takuma Sato, Ed Carpenter and J.R. Hildebrand)

If you expand that to the next three cars, Ed Jones was tenth after going out sixth. Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton took the next two spots after going out 19th and 18th respectively.

A difference between 2017 and 2026 is that in 2017, everyone went out on a green track. There was no practice beforehand. The track was getting more rubber on each run. That session also didn't start until 4:00 p.m. and went until after 7:00 p.m. This session will be held at noon and after a brief practice session, how much that changes the track remains to be seen.

It will not be as cut-and-dry as the Fast 12 will all come in the first 16 qualifiers. A few cars will do better because of a better draw. A few cars will be a few spots down the order because of the timing. It will be fine.

It will come down to one run for the Fast 12. There is no room for error, and that an error on Sunday could setback hopes of glory on race day. Even without bumping, the pressure is still on.