The 2025 IndyCar season may only be two races old, but many eyes have already begun to look ahead to race number six: the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Team Penske's Josef Newgarden is looking to become the first driver in the history of the Indy 500 to win it in three consecutive years, having won it in 2023 and 2024 with only the third and fourth last-lap passes for the win in the 108-year history of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing".
Before the Indy 500, the NTT IndyCar Series still must race on the streets of Long Beach, California, at Barber Motorsports Park, and at the Indy road course. But after that, full focus is set to turn to the biggest event on the calendar.
The 200-lap race at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Speedway, Indiana oval is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 25, but there is roughly two weeks of build-up to set the stage.
And the full schedule is now available on the Indy website.
The first day of practice is scheduled to be Tuesday, May 13, with the Rookie Orientation Program and Refresher Tests set for 12:15 p.m. ET to 2:15 p.m. ET. Note that those who must partake in one or the other are eligible to fulfill the requirement in the upcoming Open Test on Wednesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 24.
Then from 2:15 p.m. ET to 6:00 p.m. ET, the track is set to be open to the entire entry list, which currently consists of 34 cars but could still technically grow to 35.
On Wednesday, May 14 and Thursday, May 15, full field practice is scheduled to take place from 12:00 p.m. ET to 6:00 p.m. ET. The same is true on Friday, May 16 for "Fast Friday", when teams are slated to shift from race setups to qualifying setups in preparation for qualifying weekend.
At 6:15 p.m. ET that evening, the random qualifying draw is set to determine Saturday's initial qualifying order.
On the morning of Saturday, May 17, practice is set to be open to the entire field from 8:30 a.m. ET to 9:30 a.m. ET. Qualifying is then scheduled to take place from 11:00 a.m. ET to 5:50 p.m. ET. Each driver is guaranteed an initial run. After that, if they want another run, they must either get in line and not risk their previous times, or skip the line in the "fast lane" while foregoing all previous speeds.
The top 12 drivers on Saturday advance to Sunday's Top 12 Shootout, while the drivers who finish from 13th to 30th place are locked into their starting positions. All other drivers must partake in the Last Row Shootout on Sunday.
That brings us to Sunday, May 18. From 1:00 p.m. ET to 2:00 p.m. ET, practice is scheduled to take place for the top 12 qualifiers from Saturday's qualifying session, and from 2:00 p.m. ET to 3:00 p.m. ET, practice is scheduled to take place for the drivers who did not finish Saturday's session inside the top 30.
From 4:05 p.m. ET to 5:05 p.m. ET, the Top 12 Shootout is scheduled to take place, and the top six are set to advance to the Firestone Fast Six from 6:25 p.m. ET to 6:55 p.m. ET. But before the Fast Six, the Last Row Shootout, also known as "Last Chance Qualifying", or, quite simply, "Bump Day", is scheduled to take place from 5:15 p.m. ET to 6:15 p.m. ET.
Anybody not in the top 33 once Bump Day concludes will have failed to qualify for the race, and with more than 33 cars on the entry list, at least one driver is already guaranteed to miss the race.
But race preparation does not stop with qualifying. The 33 drivers who successfully qualify for the race are allowed to take part in an additional practice session on Monday, May 19 from 1:00 p.m. ET to 3:00 p.m. ET. This marks the final on-track action until Carb Day, which is scheduled for Friday, May 23. From 11:00 a.m. ET to 1:00 p.m. ET, the final practice session of the week is scheduled to take place.
After that, the only thing left as far as on-track activity is concerned before the race is the Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge, which is scheduled to take place that afternoon from 2:30 p.m. ET to 4:00 p.m. ET.
Note that all times and dates are subject to change due to other factors such as weather, and as we see every year, going an entire month of May without weather impacting something at Indy is extremely unlikely.