The pole position and other 14 more spots for the 107th Indy 500 will be set Sunday during five hours of TV qualifying coverage from Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Peacock and NBC.
Fast 12 qualifying will occur at 2 p.m. ET on Peacock with six cars advancing to the Fast Six round for the pole position.
Qualifying will move to NBC from 4-6 p.m. ET, starting with the Last Chance Qualifying with four cars bidding for the final three spots on the last row. That will be followed by pole qualifying. Sunday’s coverage will begin with practice at 11:30 a.m. on Peacock.
INDY 500 PRIMER: How to watch the month of May on NBC Sports
QUALIFYING FORMAT: Click here for a graphical representation of how the field is set
There are 34 cars on the entry list for the race, which means that at least one driver won’t qualify at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the May 28 race (11 a.m. ET, NBC and Peacock, with exclusive prerace coverage starting at 9 a.m.)
The field of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing will feature nine former winners: Four-time winner Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, ’21), two-time winners Juan Pablo Montoya (2000, 2015) and Takuma Sato (2017, 2020), plus winners Scott Dixon (2008), Tony Kanaan (2013), Alexander Rossi (2016), Will Power (2018), Simon Pagenaud (2019) and Marcus Ericsson (2022).
NBC will have four hours of Indy 500 qualifying this weekend from 2:30-4:30 p.m. ET Saturday and 4-6 p.m. ET Sunday. Peacock exclusively will stream five hours of qualifying Saturday from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. ET and 4:30-6 p.m. ET as well as from 2-3 p.m. ET on Sunday.
With an increased 100 horsepower from an added turbo boost starting on the “Fast Friday” practice, qualifying speeds will be more than 230 mph across a four-lap average (10 miles around the 2.5-mile track). NBC Sports’ Tim Layden wrote an essay about the importance and uniqueness of Indy 500 qualifying that will air Saturday.
The pole position and first four rows of the starting grid will be decided Sunday during Top 12 and Fast Six qualifying. A Last Chance Qualifying session will determine the final three spots.
NBC Sports’ broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Leigh Diffey and analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe will call the weekend’s action. Marty Snider, Kevin Lee, Steve Letarte, Dillon Welch and Dave Burns will provide reports from the pits.
Here are some details about qualifying weekend for the 107th Indy 500:
DEFENDING POLE WINNER: Scott Dixon, who is trying to become the first driver to win three consecutive pole positions. With five career pole positions at the Indy 500, the six-time series champion can tie Rick Mears’ record of six.
QUALIFYING FORMAT: Drivers complete four laps around the 2.5-mile oval, and the best average speed wins the pole position
QUALIFYING RECORD, ONE LAP: Arie Luyendyk, 237.498 mph (37.895 seconds), May 12 1996
QUALIFYING RECORD, FOUR-LAP AVERAGE: Arie Luyendyk, 236.986 mph (2 minutes, 31.908 seconds
TURBO BOOST: Available only for the “Fast Friday” practice and qualifying Saturday and Sunday, IndyCar teams will have roughly 100 more horsepower at their disposal with the turbo boost increased for the Chevrolet and Honda engines. That will produce average speeds of around 235 mph across four laps.
POLE FAVORITES? The list still starts and ends with Chip Ganassi Racing, which claimed four of the top six starting spots last year.
“We feel strong,” defending race winner Marcus Ericsson said. “We feel better than last year, and last year we were pretty good. We worked hard in the winter already to improve on a strong package. Testing is testing, it’s hard to make conclusions. But of course, we feel we’re going to be fighting up front. From what we’ve seen so far, we should be up there.
“We don’t want to underestimate our competition because there’s a lot of good teams that work really hard to improve. We can’t underestimate that challenge going into this weekend and the next one.”
Here’s the full broadcast grid for the rest of Indy 500 qualifying practice and the May 28 race (all times are ET):
| Date | Event | Platform(s) | Time (ET) |
| Fri., May 19 | Indy 500 Practice | Peacock | Noon-6 p.m. |
| Sat., May 20 | Indy 500 Practice | Peacock | 8:30-9:30 a.m. |
| Indy 500 Full Field Qualifying | Peacock | 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. | |
| Indy 500 Full Field Qualifying | NBC, Peacock | 2:30-4:30 p.m. | |
| Indy 500 Full Field Qualifying | Peacock | 4:30-5:50 p.m. | |
| Sun., May 21 | Indy 500 Fast 12 Practice | Peacock | 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. |
| Indy 500 Fast 12 Qualifying | Peacock | 2-3 p.m. | |
| Indy 500 Qualifying | NBC, Peacock | 4-6 p.m. | |
| Mon., May 22 | Indy 500 Practice | Peacock | 1-3 p.m. |
| Fri., May 26 | Indy 500 Carb Day Final Practice | Peacock | 11 a.m.-1 p.m. |
| Pit Stop Competition | Peacock | 2:30-4 p.m. | |
| Sat., May 27 | Indy 500 Parade | Peacock | Noon-2 p.m. |
| Sun., May 28 | Indy 500 Pre-Race | Peacock | 9-11 a.m. |
| Indy 500 Pre-Race | NBC, Peacock, Universo | 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | |
| 107th Indianapolis 500 | NBC, Peacock, Universo | 12:30-4 p.m. | |
| Mon., May 29 | Indy 500 Victory Celebration | Peacock | 8-11 p.m. |
