How Indianapolis 500 Field Is Set: Qualifying Process Explained

The Indianapolis 500 qualifying process is a little different than any other race.

It isn’t one lap. It isn’t two laps. It isn’t three laps.

It’s four laps — 10 miles — around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And the cars are trimmed out with additional boost for incredible speeds.

With only 33 cars entered for the race, there will be no bumping (where the slowest cars do not qualify for the race) and all cars make the field.

But there certainly is prestige in where a driver starts, especially the closer to the front. This is how they get there: 

Drivers will get to practice Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, with drivers getting the extra boost Friday to prepare for qualifying. There will be a draw for qualifying order after practice Friday.

On Saturday, each driver can do the four-lap run in the order from the qualifying draw. A driver does not have to post a time but typically the driver goes out and posts a speed.

Once all the cars have had a chance to qualify, there will be two lines for qualifying:

--A priority line for any drivers who have not qualified or withdrawn their qualifying time. 

--A secondary line for any driver who has not withdrawn the qualifying time.

Those in the priority line get to go out before anyone in the secondary line. If a driver who has not withdrawn an earlier time is on a pace slower than that earlier time, INDYCAR can force them to end the run — so that no one can just do a slow run to prevent another driver from getting on track before qualifying ends at 5:50 p.m. ET on Saturday.

The top 15 drivers from Saturday advance to Sunday to determine their order in the lineup. The drivers 16th-33rd will start the Indianapolis 500 in that order. If there were more than 33 cars, the drivers 31st and worse would have to re-qualify Sunday to determine the final three spots. 

The qualifying Saturday will air across three FOX networks — on FS2 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m., on FS1 from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. and on FOX from 4 p.m.-6 p.m.

The Sunday qualifying show begins at 4 p.m. ET on FOX and will consist of three qualifying sessions.

The first session will be drivers 10th-15th, and they will get one four-lap run. The top three advance to the next round while the slowest three will fill spots 13th-15th on the Indy 500 grid.

Then each of the remaining 12 drivers (the top-nine from Saturday and the three who advanced from Sunday) will get one four-lap run. The top-six advance to the Fast Six while those seventh-12th will start the Indianapolis 500 in those positions.

The Fast Six will then battle for the pole with each getting one four-lap qualifying run. The first two rows will be set by the order from that final session.

Between each session Sunday, the drivers will get to follow the pace car at 100 mph to cool the engines between sessions.

Here are the 33 drivers who are expected to compete in the Indy 500:

The 25 full-time drivers (with car number): 2-Josef Newgarden, 3-Scott McLaughlin, 4-Caio Collet, 5-Pato O’Ward, 6-Nolan Siegel, 7-Christian Lundgaard, 8-Kyffin Simpson, 9-Scott Dixon, 10-Alex Palou, 12-David Malukas, 14-Santino Ferrucci, 15-Graham Rahal, 18-Romain Grosjean, 19-Dennis Hauger, 20-Alexander Rossi, 21-Christian Rasmussen, 26-Will Power, 27-Kyle Kirkwood, 28-Marcus Ericsson, 45-Louis Foster, 47-Mick Schumacher, 60-Marcus Armstrong, 66-Felix Rosenqvist, 76-Rinus VeeKay and 77-Sting Ray Robb. 

The eight drivers doing solely the Indy 500: 06-Helio Castroneves, 11-Katherine Legge, 23-Conor Daly, 24-Jack Harvey, 31-Ryan Hunter-Reay, 33-Ed Carpenter, 51-Jacob Abel, and 75-Takuma Sato.