During Indy 500 qualifying, if a driver is not tracking to improve upon his previous time, IndyCar race control has the right to waive off their run, provided that that driver has not relinquished his previous qualifying time and therefore isn't risking anything by returning to the race track.
We saw this on a number of occasions this afternoon. But when Meyer Shank Racing's Felix Rosenqvist, already effectively locked into the Top 12 Shootout in eighth place, returned to the track and went about a mile and a half slower on his first lap, they inexplicably did not waive him off.
He had no chance to improve at that point, unless he pulled out three consecutive laps that were the best laps anybody had run the entire day. It wasn't going to happen.
IndyCar still let him run two more laps around the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval before calling him off the track.
IndyCar totally screws Marco Andretti
A few attempts later, Juncos Hollinger Racing's Conor Daly went out onto the race track, and by the time his run was complete, a run which saw him actually improve from 21st to 13th place, the gun had gone off, and qualifying was over.
Andretti Global's Marco Andretti, who was next in line to go out, did not get the chance to make another attempt to bump out Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal after coming just 0.004 miles per hour shy over a four-lap run in his previous attempt.
Had IndyCar race control not been mid-nap during Rosenqvist's run, the story would have been different.
Sure, there is no guarantee that Andretti would have been in. He certainly had his chances throughout the afternoon, and he was slow. Subjectively, he should probably contemplate retirement after next weekend, because he hasn't been remotely competitive in years.
But race control's boneheaded decision, and blatant inconsistency, resulted in him being denied another opportunity which, on paper, should have been his.
You could even argue that the attempt Team Penske's Will Power made late in the session should have been waived off earlier, though that was nowhere near as egregious as their decision to let Rosenqvist keep riding around at a pace that was roughly six rows slower than where he was already provisionally qualified.
Rahal, of course, was quite relieved, as he avoided the Last Row Shootout for the first time since 2021 (there was no Bump Day in 2022).
Full qualifying results can be found here, and the Bump Day group can be found here.
Race control have not done themselves any favors over the years in regard to consistency, and that has especially been true at the "Racing Capital of the World". But it appears that they thoroughly enjoy making terrible decisions and becoming the main story.
Indy 500 qualifying is scheduled to continue tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. ET, with Fox set to provide live coverage from Speedway, Indiana. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss it!