The massive hype is over for another year as former Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso failed to qualify for the 2019 Indianapolis 500 in his McLaren.
Ironically, Alonso’s big money, overly hyped McLaren team was bumped from the field by a mere .02 miles per hour by 23-year-old Kyle Kaiser from obscure Juncos Racing, who lost their two primary sponsors before opening day and spent most of qualifying week in an unmarked white car.
Kaiser and Juncos Racing were joined in the race by James Hinchcliffe and Sage Karam, who also defeated Alonso and McLaren and secured spots in the field in the “Last Row Shootout.”
After Alonso crashed on Wednesday during practice, overconfident McLaren took two days to get a car ready for qualifying and still could not defeat Kaiser’s Juncos Racing team, who was able to recover quickly when Kaiser crashed Friday and get Kaiser to qualify [with a sponsored car after potential sponsor suitors magically appeared after his qualification].
Alonso, however, will be a spectator and McLaren has announced that they would not be buying their way into the race by attempting to buy out another driver and therefore ending Alonso’s 2019 shot at completing his personal quest to win motorsports’ version of the Triple Crown [Monaco Grand Prix in Formula One, 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Indy 500].