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IndyCar: 2021 Indy 500 – Bump Day qualifying order

By Asher Fair

Will Power, Team Penske, IndyCar, Indy 500
Will Power, Team Penske, IndyCar, Indy 500 /
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The qualifying order for Sunday’s Bump Day qualifying session for the 105th running of the Indy 500 is set following Saturday’s session.

Saturday’s qualifying session for the 105th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway broke the 35-driver field up into three groups.

The top nine drivers are set to battle for the pole position in tomorrow’s Fast Nine Shootout, the drivers who qualified from 10th through 30th place are locked into their positions, and the bottom five drivers are set to participate in the Bump Day qualifying session to determine which three drivers will start on the 11th and final row of the grid and which two won’t get to compete.

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This session provided quite a few surprises ahead of next Sunday’s 200-lap “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval in Speedway, Indiana.

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Due to a technicality based on when he set his four-lap average speed of 229.228 miles per hour, Team Penske’s Will Power failed to lock into the top 30, despite the fact that his speed was actually quicker than the four-lap average speed of 30th place qualifier Dalton Kellett of A.J. Foyt Enterprises (228.343 miles per hour).

When Power set that speed, it was not good enough for the top 30, so it was not officially classified as a speed. Kellett sat in 30th place at that point with a four-lap average speed of 229.250 miles per hour.

So the driver who had qualified inside the top nine for 11 consecutive Indy 500 races prior to last year is at risk of not making it into this year’s running of the race.

He is set to be joined by Dreyer & Reinbold Racing’s Sage Karam, A.J. Foyt Enterprises’ Charlie Kimball, Top Gun Racing’s RC Enerson, and pseudo-teammate Simona de Silvestro of Paretta Autosport in the battle for the final three spots on the starting grid.

These five drivers are each guaranteed at least one four-lap qualifying attempt in this session, and the only limitation on number of attempts is the fact that it is a 75-minute session. However, whenever additional runs are made, all previous speeds will be waived off.

Here is the full order for initial Bump Day qualifying runs for the 2021 Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

NOTE: This order is based on the initial draw order for Saturday’s qualifying session.

Rank – Driver, Car, Team, Engine
1 – Sage Karam – #24, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Chevrolet
2 – Will Power – #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet
3 – RC Enerson – #75, Top Gun Racing, Chevrolet
4 – Simona de Silvestro – #16, Paretta Autosport, Chevrolet
5 – Charlie Kimball – #11, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet

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Tune in to NBC Sports Network for the live broadcast of the Bump Day qualifying session from Indianapolis Motor Speedway beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET tomorrow afternoon (1:15 p.m. ET to 2:30 p.m. ET), and be sure to switch over to NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Fast Nine Shootout (3:00 p.m. ET to 3:45 p.m. ET). NBC is set to broadcast the race itself live beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 30.