Indy 500 Lineup 2023: Starting Grid and Breakdown of Sunday's Thrilling Event

The 2023 Indianapolis 500 field is loaded with previous winners and drivers who have had plenty of success on the IndyCar Series circuit.

Nine of the 33 qualifiers for Sunday's race previously won the race, but only one of them starts in the first two rows.

Álex Palou will lead the field to the green flag at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Spaniard is looking to become the seventh straight foreign winner of the event.

The last American Indy 500 winner was Alexander Rossi in 2016. Rossi and Santino Ferrucci are the two highest-starting Americans on the grid.

Chevrolet is also looking to end an Indy 500 drought. Honda powered the last three winners and won five of the last seven Indy 500s.

Indy 500 Starting Lineup

Row 1: Álex Palou, Rinus VeeKay, Felix Rosenqvist

Row 2: Santino Ferrucci, Pato O'Ward, Scott Dixon

Row 3: Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato, Tony Kanaan

Row 4: Marcus Ericsson, Benjamin Pedersen, Will Power

Row 5: Ed Carpenter, Scott McLaughlin, Kyle Kirkwood

Row 6: Conor Daly, Josef Newgarden, Ryan Hunter-Reay

Row 7: Romain Grosjean, Hélio Castroneves, Colton Herta

Row 8: Simon Pagenaud, David Malukas, Marco Andretti

Row 9: Devlin DeFrancesco, Agustin Canapino, Callum Ilott

Row 10: RC Enerson, Katherine Legge, Christian Lundgaard

Row 11: Sting Ray Robb, Jack Harvey, Graham Rahal

Breakdown

Palou and Rinus VeeKay are starting on the front row for the second straight year.

A year ago, Palou went off second and VeeKay was third behind Scott Dixon. None of those drivers cashed in on their high starting position, so that is not the golden ticket to Victory Lane.

Marcus Ericsson won from fifth on the grid in 2022, and Hélio Castroneves captured the checkered flag from eighth in 2021.

In fact, a top-three starter has not finished inside the top five in the last two Indy 500s. Takuma Sato won the 2020 race from third on the grid.

The wealth of experience throughout the first three rows could make for some excellent racing from the start.

Dixon is the highest-starting former champion in sixth. The entire third row is made up of Indy 500 winners, as is two-thirds of the fourth row.

Palou could be poised to join that collection of Indy 500 champions. He is coming off a win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, and he leads the IndyCar Series points standings after five races.

Palou finished inside the top five in four races this season. Pato O'Ward is the only other driver with a quartet of top-five finishes in 2023.

O'Ward recorded his best Indy 500 finish last season, finishing in second.

Felix Rosenqvist and Ferrucci also placed their cars in the top 10 last year. Those results suggest that the drivers at the front of the field could become first-time winners.

Ferrucci was the top American in qualifying. He and Rossi appear to have the best chances to become the first champion from the United States since Rossi won in his rookie race of 2016.

Ferrucci is one of four Chevrolet drivers that qualified on the first two rows. VeeKay, Rosenqvist and O'Ward are the other three. Chevrolet has not won the Indy 500 since 2019, when Simon Pagenaud took his Penske car to Victory Lane.

A non-Penske Chevrolet has not won since 2013, so Ferrucci and Rossi could break two droughts at one time if either of them cross the finish line in first place.

If the last three Indy 500s are any indicator of what's to come on Sunday, the early leaders may not be in the mix for the victory. The last three champions led less than 30 laps, and if that trend continues, we could be in for plenty of lead changes in the final 25-50 laps.