Palou, Veekay, Rosenqvist on Indy 500 front row; Team Rahal heartbreak (full stats below)

Team owner Bobby Rahal's son, Graham, fails to make the field for the 107th Running of the Greatest Spectacle In Racing

Alex Palou, in his lame-duck season with Chip Ganassi Racing before moving to Team McLaren next year, will start next Sunday's 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on the pole after Sunday's Fast Six final qualifying.

Palou, who set a record with the fastest four-lap pole qualifying effort in Indy 500 history, will take the green flag with Rinus Veekay and Felix Rosenqvist alongside him on the front row.

Scott Dixon congratulates Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Alex Palou for capturing the pole position for next Sunday's 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy Honda

Row 2 will feature surprising AJ Foyt Racing driver Santino Ferrucci, Pato O'Ward and former Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon. 

At the opposite end of the spectrum was incredible heartbreak for Rahal Letterman and Lanigan Racing. While the team put three of its four drivers into the show, its lead driver -- Graham Rahal, son of team owner Bobby Rahal -- will not be in the race, having been bumped on a last-second run by, ironically enough, fellow RLL teammate Jack Harvey.

An emotional Graham Rahal hugs his daughter after he failed to qualify for next Sunday's 107th Running of the Indianapolis 500, the first time the younger Rahal has failed to qualify for the big race. Photo courtesy IndyCar

The three RLL drivers that did make the race are Katherine Legge (30th), Christian Lundgaard (31st) and Harvey (33rd).

Equally ironic is that the younger Rahal missed making the 500 30 years after his father missed the 1993 race -- right after winning the CART championship the year before. The elder Rahal did win the 1986 Indy 500.

Other highlights from qualifying weekend:

* Row 3 features Indy 500 winners Alexander Rossi (2016), Takuma Sato (2017 and 2020) and making the last start in the 500 of his long career, Brazilian driver Tony Kanaan.

* Defending Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson will start 10th, alongside another A.J. Foyt racer, rookie Benjamin Pedersen, and Team Penske driver Will Power.

* Having the worst collective team performance was Andretti Autosport. The five drivers being fielded for the team were Kyle Kirkwood (will start 15th), Romain Grosjean (19th), Colton Herta (21st), Marco Andretti (24th) and Devlin DeFrancesco (26th). 

* Legge is the only female driver in the 33-driver field, racing for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing in a one-off appearance strictly for the 500.

* Team Penske had just one driver in the top 12, Will Power. Scott McLaughlin will start from the 14th position, and Josef Newgarden will start 17th.

* While speculation began immediately after Graham Rahal failed to qualify for the race that perhaps the team may try to buy a ride in next Sunday's from another driver who is qualified -- Legge's name has already been mentioned, along with RC Enerson, among others -- it's unlikely it will happen.

* Helio Castroneves, who won the 2021 race to become the fourth driver to win the 500 four different times, still has high hopes of winning a record fifth win in the 500 this year. Castroneves has his work cut out for him: he qualified 20th, while Meyer Shank Racing teammate Simon Pagenaud qualified 22nd.