Sato “very happy to be back on the front row” after career-best Indy 500 qualifying

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Takuma Sato has been racing in the Indianapolis 500 for 16 years. 

His first Indianapolis 500 was in 2010, when he was a rookie with KV Racing Technology. He qualified 31st after narrowly making it through Bump Day, and went on to finish 20th in the race.

2025 marks Sato’s 16th Indianapolis 500. In between 2010 and now he’s become a two-time 500 champion, winning 2017 and 2020. Both of those wins came after he qualified in the top five.

This past Saturday he finished ninth in qualifying, securing him a spot in the Fast 12 and a chance at pole position on Sunday.

On the second day of qualifying Sato squeezed into the top six and was the first driver out on track to set his final four-lap average of the day. The 232.478 mph that he achieved was only topped by one driver - PREMA Racing rookie Robert Shwartzman.

The storylines of Shwartzman’s historic rookie pole as well as Team Penske’s dramatic disqualifications stole the show, and Sato’s best ever Indianapolis 500 qualifying result has gone largely unrecognised. 

Getting into the top six

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Despite qualifying second and beating out active IndyCar drivers like Pato O’Ward and Álex Palou, Sato was just grateful for the work his team did to get him into the top six

.

“For our sake, I think no matter what the result was today, I think getting the top six was our goal,” he told the media after qualifying. “Once we locked into the top six, I think we should be very proud of the team.

“I'm very happy for the team who put my car, the 75 car on the front row, which is an amazing result because I think we were kind of a roller coaster situation. Not just today, but through yesterday and probably the last two weeks. As everybody knows, the team had to build a brand new car after we had a moment in the open test.

“We showed good speed, but I wasn't able to produce a good lap through the practice. In the quarterfinal, finally the car was perfection. Very, very impressive. Very happy for my engineer, Eddie Jones, who should be retired five years ago, but I keep pulling him back from Ireland.

“Myself and the entire engineering team and 75 crews, you know it's amazing, the people, just their dedication and meticulous job. I understand every team applied the same rule, but I think they did a phenomenal job. They are really great, deserve to be celebrated for the front row, and of course, I'm very, very happy to be back in the front row.”

Working with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Sato is racing as a one-off entry for the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team alongside his full-time teammates Graham Rahal, Devlin DeFrancesco and Louis Foster.

Despite being the only driver on the team not in IndyCar full-time, Sato significantly outperformed the rest of the RLL drivers on Saturday. DeFrancesco, the next fastest driver, placed 18th in qualifying. He was ahead of rookie teammate Foster who qualified 22nd. Rahal in 30th narrowly avoided Last Chance Qualifying on Sunday (all three drivers will start two places higher for the race following Josef Newgarden and Will Power’s disqualification).

Speaking about the relative speed of his teammates, Sato commented: “Well, there is lots of small things and details and working together. I think for the overall team, Graham explained it. I think material-wise and build quality for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing over the course of the few years, I think we've seen the best.

“I think you can pinpoint it. In fact, I think No. 30 car, Devlin is really driving beautifully. He had a little bad issue, but in terms of speed actually he was quicker than me.

“Taking into account all the team has obviously access to my data and setup and et cetera, but working extremely well together. We're working together, the engineering group, and that's the key to squeezing out speed, which I'm enjoying with that part of the team. I think we already observed that Rahal team are definitely faster than last year.

“I'm happy this 75 car did a phenomenal job, so I'm very happy.”

Racing as a one-off entry

Credit: Dominic Loyer

Sato might not have been the fastest of all the drivers on Sunday, but he was the fastest in more than one category. Not only was he the fastest driver in his team but he was also the fastest of the seven one-off entries for the Indy 500. Whereas most of the field has been spending months already in an IndyCar and racing in the series, Sato and several other drivers have had less time to get up to speed in the car.

Some of these one-off drivers are coming from other series, like Kyle Larson popping in from the middle of a full-time NASCAR schedule, but this is the only race that Sato will compete in all year.

“Yeah, I think let's put it this way, it's not easy,” Sato said about coming into the Indianapolis 500 as a one-off entry. “I think it's always difficult regardless. You are driving this car every two weeks, but still, this place, it fights you, and squeezing out for the 99.9% is always difficult, or challenging, shall we say.

“But to me, to get out of the car 11 months, close to 12 months, jump in the car and go 230 miles per hour, you feel the speed for sure.

“But I think the refresher program actually helped me a lot. So just get through the speed, you know, extra two sets of tires, make me a little more confident or comfortable in the environment to get up to speed.

“Then at least we have a full five days before the qualifying depending on the weather, of course. That's compared to the usual weekend, let's say Friday, Saturday, two practice sessions, straight to go to qualify. If you are out the of the car for 11 months, you don't have a chance. Here I think you can gradually catch up.

“Having said that, it's never easy, but I think there is a good time to catch up.”

The green flag will fly for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 at 12:45pm EST on Sunday, where Sato will start from second place beside Shwartzman and O’Ward. Sato has years of experience on both of those drivers and will be starting (one place) higher than he ever has before. Still, it'll be a long and tough race and anything could happen.