A year after locking out the front row, none of the three Team Penske cars were able to make a run at the pole position for the 2025 Indianapolis 500. And the man starting first is an IndyCar Series rookie.
Robert Shwartzman was a stunning pole winner Sunday after he posted the fastest four laps during the top-six shootout. Shwartzman, a former Formula 1 reserve driver, posted a four-lap average of 232.790 MPH to best Takuma Sato for the top spot.
Sato, a two-time Indy 500 winner, will start second. Pato O’Ward will start third.
Shwartzman is the first rookie to start on pole in the Indianapolis 500 in 43 years. It’s a shock. His Prema Racing team is in its first season in the IndyCar Series and has been an absolute mess so far in 2025. Shwartzman is 24th in the standings and teammate Callum Ilott is 26th. There are 27 full-time drivers in the IndyCar Series.
“Honestly,. I can’t believe it, I was closing my eyes like this is a dream. It can’t be true,” Shwartzman said after he officially won the pole.
The Indianapolis 500 is Shwartzman’s first race on an oval. He didn’t compete at all in the opening day of practice because his car wasn’t ready.
Shwartzman, 25, was a reserve driver for Ferrari’s F1 team for the past four seasons before moving to the IndyCar Series. He finished second in F2, the second-tier Formula Series, in 2021 and won the Formula 3 title in 2019.
His presence at the front of the field could lead to a skittish few laps for the drivers around him given Shwartzman’s lack of oval experience. The veteran drivers starting around him will be looking to gain some quick track position — and also be wary of Shwartzman making a mistake. When asked about his expectations for the race after he won the pole, the rookie was wary to put any lofty goals out on the table.
Simply finishing the race would be a good result, especially given the rash of crashes so far during the buildup to the 500. Three cars have gone airborne in crashes so far in practice and qualifying and there have been other incidents as well.
Penske’s problems
Josef Newgarden, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power all posted times in the top 12 during Saturday’s qualifying session. That advanced them to the second round of qualifying Sunday to chase after the pole. But McLaughlin crashed hard in Sunday morning’s practice session while Newgarden’s and Power’s cars failed pre-qualifying inspection and were prevented from making a qualifying attempt.
The No. 2 and 12 cars fail pre-qualifying inspection 👀
Both @Team_Penske entries will not be given their guaranteed Top 12 Qualifying attempt. pic.twitter.com/pAh1bHGzVN
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 18, 2025
That left just nine cars to race for the top six Sunday.
The Penske cars will start the race in 10th, 11th and 12th because of their Sunday issues. In 2024, Power started on the pole while McLaughlin started second and Newgarden was third.
Newgarden is the two-time defending champion of the Indianapolis 500 after he passed O’Ward on the final lap in 2024. It was the 19th Indy 500 win for Team Penske owner Roger Penske, the man who also owns Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series.
2025 Indianapolis 500 starting lineup
Jacob Abel failed to qualify for the 500 after he couldn’t beat Dale Coyne Racing teammate Rinus VeeKay for the final spot in the field. Both VeeKay and Abel pulled their qualifying times late in the last-row qualifying session Sunday and ran slower times. But VeeKay was faster than his rookie teammate.
Kyle Larson will start 21st as he attempts to truly complete the double in 2025. Larson tried to run both the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in 2024, but the rain-delayed Indy 500 prevented that from happening.
Below is the complete starting lineup for the 500.
1. Robert Shwartzman
2. Takuma Sato
3. Pato O’Ward
4. Scott Dixon
5. Felix Rosenqvist
6. Alex Palou
7. David Malukas
8. Christian Lundgaard
9. Marcus Ericsson
10. Scott McLaughlin
11. Josef Newgarden
12. Will Power
13. Conor Daly
14. Alexander Rossi
15. Kyffin Simpson
16. Ed Carpenter
17. Santino Ferrucci
18. Devlin DeFrancesco
19. Sting Ray Robb
20. Christian Rasmussen
21. Kyle Larson
22. Louis Foster
23. Callum Ilott
24. Helio Castroneves
25. Kyle Kirkwood
26. Nolan Siegel
27. Ryan Hunter-Reay
28. Jack Harvey
29. Colton Herta
30. Graham Rahal
31. Marco Andretti
32. Marcus Armstrong
33. Rinus VeeKay
