At first glance, the 2015 Indianapolis 500 qualifying format is a bit confusing. OK, it’s still confusing after a second or third look as well.
To simplify it a little, let’s take a look at the top 9 positions first.
- To place in the front three rows (pole position through 9th place) cars must qualify on both Saturday and Sunday, AND be in the top 9 on Saturday.
- Cars in the top 9 going into Sunday will start no worse than 9th place.
- Positions 1-9 get one qualifying attempt on Sunday to determine their starting position.
- Failure to have a valid qualifying run on Sunday would place you at the end of the top 9 (unless, of course, you make some change that would normally place you at the back of the field).
On to the 10th through 33rd positions, it gets a little more confusing. Since we currently have 34 car/driver combinations, we’ll assume that we’ll have a full field, with one car being bumped.
In this scenario, positions 10-30 on Saturday are locked into the field, at no worse than 30th. Final starting positions will be based on the results of Sunday qualifications
Positions 31-33 can qualify and bump each other on Sunday. To qualify in these spots you must either have qualified on Saturday in 31-33, been bumped on Saturday, or declare your intent to qualify by 7pm on Saturday.
And that’s the less confusing breakdown of qualifications. If there’s rain, which is in the forecast both days, that’s where things get even more interesting. I’m not going to bother going into that, as it came across to me as that they’d play it by ear if that were the case.
Bottom line, you want to be in the Fast Nine as of Saturday.
Image & PDF Source: INDYCAR
