2025 Indianapolis 500: After Scott McLaughlin's crash and inspection issues, all three Penske cars are unable to try for pole
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.
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 on Sunday to chase after the pole. But McLaughlin crashed hard in Sunday morning's practice session while Newgarden 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 on Sunday. The pole position and positions Nos. 2-5 are decided in a final round qualifying session later in the afternoon.
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 Pato 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.
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