IndyCar: 2019 Indianapolis 500 qualifying format revealed

The qualifying format for the biggest race of the 2019 IndyCar season, the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, has been altered from past seasons and revealed.

The qualifying format for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500, which is the sixth race on the 17-race 2019 IndyCar schedule, is set to be different than it has been in past years for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

The starting grid for this year’s running of the 200-lap race around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana is still set to be determined by four-lap average speeds of the 33 drivers who qualify for the field, but the setup of the sessions to gather these speeds has been slightly altered.

Qualifying for this race is scheduled to take place over a two-day period like usual. This year, it is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 18 and Sunday, May 19.

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On Saturday, May 18, all of the race’s entrants are guaranteed one four-lap qualifying attempt, and they will be allowed to make additional qualifying attempts to better their average speeds if time permits. They may do so by waiting in the regular line and not withdrawing their previous speeds or by going to the front of the line and withdrawing their previous speeds.

The drivers who end up finishing this qualifying session, which is scheduled to last from 11:00 a.m. ET through 5:50 p.m. ET on that day, in the top nine will be locked into the Fast Nine Shootout on Sunday, May 19. The drivers who finish that session from 10th through 30th place will be locked into their respective starting positions for the race from 10th through 30th.

From 12:15 p.m. ET through 1:15 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 19, all of the drivers who did not finish Saturday’s qualifying session in the top 30 will make one attempt to qualify for the race on the 11th and final row on the starting grid. The top three of these drivers will lock in their starting positions from 31st through 33rd place, respectively, will the others will fail to qualify for the race.

To wrap up the weekend, the Fast Nine Shootout is scheduled to take place from 1:15 p.m. ET through 2:15 p.m. ET. The drivers who finished Saturday’s qualifying session in the top nine will make one more qualifying attempt in the Fast Nine Shootout, and each driver’s average speed from this shootout will be used to set the first three rows of the race’s starting grid.

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The qualifying session for the 103rd running on the Indianapolis 500 that is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 18 is set to be broadcast live from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on NBC Sports Gold from 11:00 p.m. ET through 6:00 p.m. ET and on NBC Sports Network from 5:00 p.m. ET through 6:00 p.m. ET while the qualifying sessions for the race that are scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 19 are set to be broadcast live on NBC from 12:00 p.m. ET through 3:00 p.m. ET, so be sure not to tune in to all of them. The race itself is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 26, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET, so be sure to tune in to this as well.