Everyone will be chasing Alex Palou in the Indianapolis 500. Again.
The defending Indy 500 champion won the pole for the May 24 race on Sunday after posting the fastest lap in both the second and third rounds of qualifying. After rain washed out qualifying on Saturday, every driver got one qualifying attempt in the first round. The top 12 advanced to the second round, and the top six from the second round moved on to the final round.
Palou’s average speed on his final four-lap run was 232.248 MPH. He’ll start ahead of Alexander Rossi and David Malukas on the front row.
The 32 drivers behind Palou will be in a familiar position when the green flag waves. Palou is the three-time defending series champion and is currently 27 points ahead of Kyle Kirkwood through the first six races of 2026. It will be a surprise if Palou does not win his fourth consecutive title.
No driver has won four straight IndyCar Series titles since the league was formed in 1996 in the great American open-wheel split.
If Palou can win the Indy 500 in 2026, he’ll be the second consecutive driver to go back-to-back. Josef Newgarden won the 2023 and 2024 Indy 500s and he’ll need to drive through the field if he wants to win a third 500.
Newgarden was far behind his Team Penske teammates in qualifying and will start 24th.
Four-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves will start 15th as he continues to search for a record-breaking fifth win. Castroneves tied A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears when he won his fourth Indy 500 in 2021. Castroneves’ win came 12 years after his third Indianapolis 500 victory as he’s raced full-time in the IndyCar Series just once since the 2017 season.
With 33 drivers attempting the race, no one failed to qualify. That, along with the abbreviated qualifying format, led to a minimally dramatic Sunday, as drivers didn’t need to push the limits.
Here’s the full starting lineup for the 110th race.
2026 Indianapolis 500 starting lineup
1. Alex Palou
2. Alexander Rossi
3. David Malukas
4. Felix Rosenqvist
5. Santino Ferrucci
6. Pato O’Ward
7. Kyffin Simpson
8. Conor Daly
9. Scott McLaughlin
10. Caio Collet
11. Scott Dixon
12. Rinus VeeKay
13. Takuma Sato
14. Ed Carpenter
15. Helio Castroneves
16. Christian Rasmussen
17. Marcus Armstrong
18. Marcus Ericsson
19. Christian Lundgaard
20. Will Power
21. Nolan Siegel
22. Louis Foster
23. Ryan Hunter-Reay
24. Josef Newgarden
25. Romain Grosjean
26. Kyle Kirkwood
27. Katherine Legge
28. Mick Schumacher
29. Jack Harvey
30. Graham Rahal
31. Dennis Hauger
32. Jacob Abel
33. Sting Ray Robb