By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
Marco Andretti will have to fight through Last Chance Qualifying if he is going to make the field for the 109th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
A 38-year-old from Nazareth, Pennsylvania, Andretti made four attempts throughout the opening day of qualifying but none of the outings had enough pace to break into the top 30 that locks in the field. The closest he came with roughly 13 minutes left as he narrowly missed bumping Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) by 0.004; Andretti had a 229.859mph four-lap average to Rahal’s 229.863.
Although Andretti’s No. 98 Andretti Global Honda was pushed out into Lane 1 on pit road in the final minute for another last-gasp attempt, time ran out as Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly was out on track trying to break into the Fast 12.
Just shy of enough for Marco Andretti. #Indy500 | @INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/uc4QTtzY7W
— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 17, 2025
Now, Andretti will go up against the Dale Coyne Racing duo of Rinus VeeKay and rookie Jacob Abel, along with Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong, who is in a backup car after crashing in practice on Saturday morning.
“Yeah, it was a bummer,” Andretti told INDYCAR Radio. “I think we would have got it done. I just needed a little bit of the front to hang on and we were just going to trim the rear to help that happen without touching the front wing, and we didn’t get the opportunity to try.”
Even through the struggles, Andretti, the pole-sitter of the 2020 edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” remains confident in his chances to make the race.
“We just have to execute because we beat them all day today,” said Andretti, runner-up as a rookie in the 2006 Indy 500. “We just need to be smart and don’t do anything stupid or fancy. Just be smart.”
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