Photo Credit: Adam Lovelace
On Friday, it was revealed by IndyCar they had updated the 2016 IndyCar Series Rule book to account for any car that is entered into the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil at Indianapolis Motor Speedway unable to make an attempt on Saturday., which is the first day of the two scheduled days of qualifications.
Per the Rule 8.4.3.4.4 where there is 33 entries for the Indianapolis 500, if any car fails to complete its guaranteed qualifying attempt on the first day of qualifications because of a mechanical issue or an on-track incident, and does not make the second attempt, then it will be listed at the back of the field after Saturday qualifying as well as placed in Group 1 on the second-day of qualifying.
If there are multiple cars that cannot complete their guaranteed qualifying attempt on Saturday due to these reasons, they will be ordered to the back of the field for Group 1 qualifying based on the entrants points. If there are multiple cars with no entrant points and they do not complete their guaranteed attempt on Saturday, then they will be ordered to qualify by a blind draw on Sunday.
The first-day of qualifying runs from 11 a.m.-5:50 p.m. ET on Saturday. The cars can make multiple attempts through out the day during the allotted time frame. However, only the first time through the qualifying line which was determined after practice on Friday May 20 is guaranteed.
At the end of qualifying on Saturday, the fastest nine cars based on their four-lap qualification attempts will advance on to Sunday’s Fast Nine Shootout which will award the Verizon P1 pole winner as well as the rest of the starting positions in the first three rows for the Indy 500 on May 29. The remaining 24 cars from Saturday will move on to Group 1 qualifying on Sunday and will determine the 10-33 starting positions.
Qualifying times from Saturday will be erased for Sunday qualifying. The group 1 qualifying will run from 2:45-4:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. Each of the cars in the group will make one four-lap attempt in the order of slowest to fastest based off their time on Saturday. The Fast Nine Shootout will take place from 5-5:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. Each of the nine cars will make a four-lap attempt in the order of slowest to fastest based off their Saturday times. Whoever the top qualifier of the Fast Nine is will win the Verizon P1 Award and will start on the pole position for the 100th Running of the Indy 500..
Qualifying will air Saturday on ESPN 3 (11a.m.- 3 p.m. ET) and ABC (4-6 p.m. ET) and Sunday on ESPN3 (2:45-4:45 p.m. ET) and ABC 4-6 p.m. ET)
