Alex Palou with the flag of his native Spain during the Indianapolis 500 front-row photo shoot Monday. (Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment photo)

By Thomas Hughes, SWN Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS (May 18, 2026) – After Saturday rain shifted Sunday fortunes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the starting grid for the Indianapolis 500 is officially set following Armed Forces Qualifying Day presented by PPG.

Below are three takeaways from the qualifying weekend ahead of Sunday’s 110th edition of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

1. He’s inevitable.

Do I even need to include the “he” for who it is to become clear who won the pole for the Indy 500? For the sake of prose — and for readers unfamiliar to the NTT IndyCar Series — it’s Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, the four-time NTT IndyCar Series title winner and a three-time winner this season.

Palou won the pole, his second time doing so in the ‘500’ and the 15th overall of his career. He barely squeezed into the Top 12 Round, making the cut with a 231.155 mph four-lap average that stood 11th.

In the round of 12, though, he finished with a 231.665 average, good for second.

“We barely made it into the Fast 12 — but I think that kind of helped us,” Palou said. “Just struggling a little bit on those conditions kind of made us work a lot and made us put our car for those conditions instead of this morning, which I believe they were better. And the car on Fast 6 was incredible.”

Palou’s 232.248 mph pole-clinching clip over four laps in the Fast Six, though, was more than a quarter of a mile per hour better than his next-closest opponent, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi (231.990 mph).

It made Palou the first defending winner of the race to claim pole the following year since Helio Castroneves did so in 2010.

“We put everything that we thought we had,” Palou said. “Once you prove it, then you can try to go for more. I don’t know if we would have gone faster, if there was, like, another Fast Six — but we went very, very aggressive to try and get the pole.”

In an eerily similar manner to Long Beach, Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist felt like the man to beat. He quite literally was in the first round of qualifying (232.599 mph) and the Firestone Fast 12 (232.065), sitting as the top dog entering the shootout to determine the starting order for the top six entrants.

But Rosenqvist’s first lap clocked in at 231.7 mph and his second at 231.374. His third iteration resulted in a 231.219 mph rate and his four-lap average settled in at 231.275, which ended up fourth on the starting grid – not even on the front row.

For the second time this month, Rosenqvist ended up playing second fiddle to the Spaniard. 

The Spaniard not only beat him to the top spot in qualifying, but also claimed IndyCar’s $100,000 bonus in the process.

No. 2: The Firestone Fast Six featured a welcome array of teams.

There was no double-dipping in the Firestone Fast Six; all six occupants represented different teams. Polesitter Palou and ECR’s Rossi have already been mentioned, but in addition to those two, Team Penske’s David Malukas finished on the front row.

“We wanted to be on this front row,” Malukas said. “To be honest, in this race everybody always says, ‘You can get the win from wherever you start.’ Last year, we qualified seventh, and I mean, we were fighting for the win very early on throughout the rest of the race, but it feels good.”

Fourth belonged to Rosenqvist, whose car showed front-row speed throughout much of qualifying before falling just short in the final shootout.

Behind him, A.J. Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci qualified fifth, while Pato O'Ward gave Arrow McLaren a place in the Fast Six with a sixth-place starting spot for next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

It was parity at its finest, and offers hope that race day could – as it often does – provide more of the same.

No. 3: The typically pressure-filled “Bump Day” was gone, and with it, an aura of mystique disappeared.

Thirty-third-placed cars typically do not perform well on Indy 500 race day, despite what Malukas said. The worst teams that are fighting to make it into the ‘500’ typically are not among the race’s omnipresent factors in late May.

There were intriguing storylines near the tail end of the field, though. A.J. Foyt’s Katherine Legge qualified 26th and will become the first woman to attempt the Double, driving the No. 11 for A.J. Foyt Racing in the Indianapolis 500 and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600.

Behind her, Rahal Letterman Lannigan newcomer Mick Schumacher and his teammate Graham Rahal, Dale Coyne Racing rookie Dennis Hauger and Abel Motorsports’ namesake Jacob Abel – the lone car to not qualify last year – rounded out the top 30.

Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb (226.572) was the last car that logged an official speed, while the times of A.J. Foyt Racing’s Caio Collet and Dreyer Reinbold Racing’s Jack Harvey were thrown out due to failing post-qualifying technical inspection.

Both teams utilized unapproved hardware that modified the Energy Management System covers. Collet’s No. 4 outfit initially was set to receive three Indy 500 qualification points, and both teams have lost their pit positions.

Pivoting back to the mid-20s, several drivers placed lower than anticipated. Andretti Global’s Marcus Ericsson, the 2022 winner finished qualifications In 17th, while two-time ‘500’ winner, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, will start 23rd Sunday. 

Ericsson’s teammate Kyle Kirkwood, who sits second in the championship (210 points) with a 27-point deficit to Palou (237 points), will start 25th after posting a 229.607-mph four-lap average.

Suffice it to say, while on a normal year those starting deep might not be expected contenders, this year’s lineup features some that could lay claim to the BorgWarner Trophy – if they can survive and work their way up through the field over 200 laps.

The 110th running of the Indianapolis 500 is set to get underway on Sunday, May 24, at 10 a.m. ET. The race will air live on FOX, the IndyCar Radio Network, and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation, channel 218.