INDIANAPOLIS — A rookie driver for a brand new team has won the pole for the Indianapolis 500.
Robert Shwartzman, a 25-year-old with dual nationality in Israel and Russia, became the first Indy 500 rookie to qualify on the pole since Teo Fabi in 1983. Shwartzman drives for Prema Racing, an Italian team which races in the Formula 2 series in Europe and made its IndyCar debut this season.
Shwartzman was mobbed by a sea of red-clad team members as soon as his pole-winning run became official.
“Honestly, it feels like I’m dreaming. I just had it in my dreams when I was going how would it feel to do such a good job in quali,” he said. “It’s the Indy 500. It’s the main race of the year. Honestly it feels unbelievable.”
Shwartzman had been pursuing a career in Formula 1 and was part of the Ferrari development program as well as its reserve driver from 2021 until the end of last season — when Prema nabbed him for its two-car team.
He was the fourth of six drivers to make their qualifying attempt and took the pole from Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan. But he still had to wait for Pato O’Ward of McLaren and Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing to make their runs, and he nervously watched from pit lane.
O’Ward went first and landed in the third spot and Rosenqvist dropped to fifth, sandwiched in the second row between Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Álex Palou. It was a strange finishing order as the Ganassi cars were expected to battle each other for the top starting spot in “The Great American Race” that will be run next Sunday.
“Rookie on pole with Shwartzman — how wild does that get? New team. I didn’t see that coming at all,” said Dixon, the 2008 winner.
The pole was wide open for the taking first when Team Penske was disqualified from qualifying for an illegal modification on the cars of two-time defending Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden and Will Power, and Scott McLaughlin destroyed his car in a Sunday morning crash during practice.
The three Penske drivers all started on the front row last year, but will be 10th, 11th and 12th in the fourth row together next weekend. That put the odds in Ganassi’s favor, but they had a surprising drop in speed from Saturday to Sunday.
So then Sato, in his first race in nearly a year, sat atop the scoring pylon until Shwartzman’s shocking run.
“I don’t even know what to say. The car felt amazing,” Shwartzman said, “Coming here for my first oval race, I couldn’t even expect to be in this position. Big thanks to everyone. Big thanks to the fans cheering for me. It’s unbelievable.”
Source: espn.com