Scott McLaughlin delivered the fastest-ever four-lap pole run in Indianapolis 500 history and Team Penske scored a 1-2-3 in qualifying, as NASCAR crossover star Kyle Larson also impressed by fighting for pole.

The drama is always intense in the pole fight as the fastest driver from the earlier Top 12 session goes last, and McLaughlin definitely saved the best for last, as he delivered an outrageous 234.526mph first lap that shouldn’t have been possible in such hot conditions.

His average speed over the four runs was 234.220mph, the only driver in the 234mph range on average, and his margin back to second wasn't even close in the end.

It’s McLaughlin’s second oval pole after securing his first at Gateway last year, and by far his best start at the Indy 500 as his previous best was 14th in three attempts.

It also repeats Penske’s feat of locking out the front row at the Indy 500 from 1988 and marks its 19th pole ahead of what could be its 20th win if it manages that feat next week.

This was Chevrolet's 13th Indy 500 pole - its first since 2019 amid a period of Honda dominance - and comes amid a frantic effort to correct a serious mechanical issue over night.

Chevrolet ran dynos around the world according to GM's vice president for performance and motorsports Jim Campbell, after seven separate instances of losing power through a fuel-related issue known as a plenum event. No similar issues occurred across the whole of Sunday's action.

McLaughlin - who just four years ago was driving touring cars and had barely driven a single-seater - cost Penske team-mate and all-time best IndyCar qualifier Will Power the chance to score his first Indy 500 pole, ahead of defending winner Josef Newgarden - who secured third place despite being without his strategist and race engineer this month.

Alexander Rossi had taken offence to Penske talking about the potential for locking out the front row on Saturday already, but wasn’t quite able to breach the top three for McLaren. The 2016 winner was the only non-Penske driver to deliver a 234mph lap.

Larson, meanwhile, took fifth in a sensational first Indy 500 qualifying session.

Driving for McLaren at the Indy 500, Larson is widely regarded by those familiar with him as one of the best drivers in the world as a NASCAR Cup champion and regular short-oval race winner.

But it’s fair to say the Indy 500 is one of his biggest tests yet and might end up being the bridge to more people in the single-seater world and outside of North America having a better idea of what he is capable of.

Even though he’s clearly been given a very good car by Chevrolet-powered McLaren, Larson has still had to work on the weight-jacker and anti-roll-bars in the cockpit and chase the balance of the car - and he showed how well he has done that by going fifth quickest in the Fast 12 session, and scored the same result in the Fast Six.

Larson promptly left after his qualifying lap to go and compete for $1million in NASCAR's All Star Race - which has been delayed slightly just for him - in North Wilkesboro three hours or so after Indy 500 qualifying.

Santino Ferrucci, a podium finisher last year, rounded out the top six for AJ Foyt Racing. He had taken offence to the Penske drivers playing down the technical partnership it has with Foyt and its role in Penske’s performance.

Rinus VeeKay was the fastest driver to miss out on the Fast Six session, and will start seventh after his heroic Saturday performance where he crashed and was 28th until his final run bumped him into the Fast 12 for Sunday.

Pato O’Ward of McLaren and his ex-team-mate Felix Rosenqvist, now at Meyer Shank Racing, were eighth and ninth, ahead of Takuma Sato - who is back at Rahal Letterman Lanigan for the first time since 2021. The two-time Indy 500 winner has practiced almost exclusively on qualifying set-up all week and it paid off.

Kyle Kirkwood was the top Andretti car in 11th, ahead of another shock improver on Saturday, 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay - who went from outside the top 20 to inside the top 10 briefly with a late effort for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.

Ericsson's Bump Day drama

Last year's runner-up and 2022 race winner Marcus Ericsson spent a good portion of Last Chance ‘Bump Day’ qualifying facing the very real prospect that he might not qualify.

Katherine Legge’s first run was fastest for a struggling Dale Coyne team, effectively guaranteeing her qualification, but despite that impressive run Legge - whose car did look particularly recalcitrant - summed up the nature of Bump Day by saying: “I feel sick, shakey and I want to cry.”

Behind her, the three remaining drivers - Graham Rahal, last year's surprise driver to be bumped, Ericsson, and rookie Nolan Siegel - all faced worries of not qualifying through the session.

Ericsson crashed on Thursday after dipping his front-left wheel into the no-go kerb on the inside of Turn 4, and his time at Indianapolis has been a nightmare ever since.

Robbed of a car that has been worked on, tweaked and caressed to be perfect at Indy for months and instead driving a back-up car struggling for speed, it looked like his first attempt would be enough to get him in the race.

However, he backed off entering Turn 1 on his fourth lap, as his team shouted “keep going” on the radio. Ericsson had ended his qualifying a lap early by accident.