Arrow McLaren, Ganassi strong, Rahal cars struggling on first day of Indy 500 qualifying

INDIANAPOLIS – The first day of qualifying for the 2023 Indy 500 was a story of two teams headed in diametrically opposed directions at roughly 230 mph.

Arrow McLaren will have all four of its Dallara-Chevrolets competing for the pole position Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, while Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing will have three of its four drivers (its trio of full-season NTT IndyCar Series entries) in danger of missing the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Arrow McLaren’s Felix Rosenqvist turned the third-fastest four-lap average (233.947 mph) in IMS history Saturday to lead the Fast 12 drivers who will square off for the pole position. The Swede will be joined by teammates Alexander Rossi (second), Tony Kanaan (sixth) and Pato O’Ward (eighth).

HOW TO WATCH INDY 500 QUALIFYING: Full weekend schedule, details

INDY 500 PRIMER: How watch the month of May on NBC Sports

It was an outstanding showing for Arrow McLaren, which added a third full-time car this season for Rossi and expanded to a fourth Indy 500-only entry with Kanaan.

“”I think the team is really maturing,” said Rosenqvist, who already a pole position this season. “We’re still a fairly new team as the current structure, but you really feel a difference. When I joined the team, there were a lot of young guys on the team now becoming pretty experienced, being up front for many years, still not a championship, but we’re up there lurking all the time now.

“You really feel that the confidence is growing in the team, I think both on the engineering side, driving side. Now especially with Tony and Alex joining, it’s just a good environment. We’re having fun. I feel like we’re able to attack. When we have tough days, we’re pretty good at bouncing back quickly which