{"id":51841,"date":"2025-05-17T18:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T23:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=51841"},"modified":"2025-05-18T15:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T20:13:17","slug":"kyle-larson-qualifies-for-the-2025-indianapolis-500","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/17\/kyle-larson-qualifies-for-the-2025-indianapolis-500\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson qualifies for the 2025 Indianapolis 500 \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kyle Larson – Indianapolis 500 Qualification. Photo by John Cote<\/p><\/div>\n

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By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

In one of the most celebrated days on the racing calendar, 34 cars took to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday for the first day of qualifying for the May 25 Indianapolis 500.<\/p>\n

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Kyle Larson turned in a solid performance with a pair of four-lap qualifying attempts earning him a 21st place starting position on the 33-car grid.<\/p>\n

While that showing doesn\u2019t advance Larson\u2019s No. 17 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet into Sunday\u2019s Top 12 Qualifying session to determine the polesitter and the first four rows of the race, it does ensure the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will have a chance at making history for the second consecutive year.<\/p>\n

A week from Sunday, the 32-year old Californian will compete in the Indianapolis 500 then fly immediately to Charlotte Motor Speedway where he will race in the NASCAR Cup Series\u2019 Coca-Cola 600 \u2013 only the fifth driver ever to run racing\u2019s celebrated Memorial Day \u201cDouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late John Andretti, Robby Gordon, three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and former series champ Kurt Busch join Larson on that short list with Stewart\u2019s 2001 finishes of sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte best among them all.<\/p>\n

Larson and his Arrow McLaren team have certainly put in the work toward success this week. He spun out and had contact with the wall during \u201cFast Friday\u201d practice in anticipation of qualifying. Larson was okay physically and the team was able to make repairs to his car in time for him to return to track as the session ended for a shake-down.<\/p>\n

He went out early in Saturday\u2019s day-long qualifying session, but it was his second attempt mid-afternoon that boosted his position and safely secured his presence on the grid. He went from 27th in speed on his first qualifying run to 16th best with three hours remaining in opening day qualifying \u2013 ultimately that speed bettered in the remaining time by five cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re P21 so we\u2019re in the race,” said a smiling Larson, who started fifth in last year\u2019s Indy 500.  \u201cAfter the first run I was a little nervous we\u2019d be one of the guys battling for the final spots. Obviously, we would have loved to have been in the Fast 12 again but overall, a good day, we got two runs in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fairly comfortable, just slightly less comfortable than what I felt last year in qualifying. I just got a little bit of a free moment into 2 on the last lap but other than that I felt pretty balanced. I was happy with that. Obviously, with the balance it comes with a little bit lack of speed, but I didn\u2019t crash and that was a plus.”<\/p>\n

Larson, who now heads back to North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway for Sunday night\u2019s NASCAR All Star Race in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, certainly didn\u2019t seem overly concerned with this seventh-row position on the grid for this year\u2019s 500.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure it will be a bit crazy as the race typically is back there,” he said. \u201cI had a bad restart early last year and fell back to near that position and we were able to fight our way back forward. Just execute some good laps and hopefully we\u2019ll have a good result.”<\/p>\n

Reigning championship leader Chip Ganassi Racing\u2019s Alex Palou \u2013 who ran the fastest single lap of the week – set the fastest four-lap average speed of the opening day of qualifying a mark of 233.043 mph in the No. 10 CGR Honda. The effort was only a slight tick better than Team Penske\u2019s Scott McLaughlin (233.013 mph), last year\u2019s Indy 500 polesitter.<\/p>\n

Also advancing to second round of qualifying were two-time defending Indy 500 winner, McLaughlin\u2019s Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, Larson\u2019s Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O\u2019Ward and the 2008 race-winner, CGR\u2019s Scott Dixon. Prema Racing\u2019s Robert Shwartzman was sixth fastest on the day and is the only rookie to advance to the Round of 12.<\/p>\n

Meyer Shank Racing\u2019s Felix Rosenquist, two-time Indy winner, Rahal Letterman Lanigan\u2019s Takumo Sato and A.J. Foyt Racing\u2019s David Malukus also advanced with a pair of former Indy 500 winners in Penske\u2019s Will Power and Andretti\u2019s Marcus Erricsson along with  Arrow McLaren\u2019s Christian Lundgaard rounding out the top-12.<\/p>\n

These dozen drivers will run again Sunday with the top-six advancing to Firestone Fast Six to determine the most famous pole position of the season.<\/p>\n

The importance of the achievement was evident in qualifying. The action started nearly immediately Saturday with Meyer Shank Racing\u2019s Marcus Armstrong in a big crash during the morning practice followed shortly by another incident involving a perennial championship contender Andretti Global\u2019s Colton Herta, who hit the wall and flipped his car during an early qualifying attempt.<\/p>\n

Both teams were able to make repairs throughout the day and Armstrong and Herta each made qualifying attempts in the closing hour.<\/p>\n

Herta, a former front-row Indy 500 starter, rallied to a 29th place qualifying effort with a remarkable run \u2013 ironically bumping his teammate, former Indy 500 polesitter Marco Andretti, into the Last Chance Qualifier on Sunday. Four cars \u2013 Andretti, Armstrong, Rinus Veekay and Jacob Abel – will vie for the final three positions on the last row of the grid at 5:15 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s Top 12 qualifying and Last Chance Qualifying will be broadcast on FOX Sports (4-6 p.m. ET).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service In one of the most celebrated days on the racing calendar, 34 cars took to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday for the first day of qualifying for the May 25 Indianapolis 500. Reigning NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Kyle Larson turned in a solid performance with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":51844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[230,421,125,225,16,6],"class_list":["post-51841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indycar","category-nascar","tag-indianapolis-500","tag-indianapolis-motor-speedway","tag-indy-500","tag-kyle-larson","tag-nascar","tag-nhra"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Kyle-Larson-Indianapolis-500-Qualification-Photo-By_-John-Cote_Ref-Image-Without-Watermark_m130558.jpg?fit=900%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-du9","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51841"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51845,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51841\/revisions\/51845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}