Robert Shwartzman Is One Of Us, Celebrated Stunning Indy 500 Pole At McDonald's

I'm always fired up for the Indianapolis 500, but this year's race is already cooking thanks to a weekend full of unbelievable storylines, but the biggest one in my book was by far Prema Racing's Robert Shwartzman shocking the entire world by putting his No. 83 Chevrolet on pole for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

Prema Racing is IndyCar's newest team, but it has decades of success in Europe in series like F2 and F3. There's obviously a learning curve when you join a new series, and the team has been working through that.

However, the Indianapolis 500 is its first ever race on an oval — a completely different animal to road and street circuits — and the team even missed a day of practice because it struggled setting up its cars.

On top of that, Shwartzman has never raced on an oval either.

That's why going into qualifying, many thought a Prema car — maybe the more experienced Callum Illott, but more likely Shwartzman — could be the car that gets bumped out of the 33-car field for the race.

Nope. Instead, the 25-year-old out of Israel, who was a runner-up in F2 back in 2021, threw down one of the best qualifying performances ever.

Unreal.

So, how did he celebrate? McD's, baby!

"I went to McDonald's," he said, thanks to there not being too many open options late at night after his media obligations were wrapped up. 

"I ordered a McChicken, chicken nuggets, and a bit of fries," he continued. "I had no food since I don’t know when, came back home straight away, just ate it because I was so hungry, jumped in the shower, and went straight to bed. That was around 12:20 am, I think, and then 6:30 am woke up, so around six hours of sleep."

I love it, or should I say, I'm lovin' it?

Shwartzman has earned himself a lot of new fans, but the hard part is going to come on Sunday. He'll lead the field to green, but the drivers joining him on the front row could make life tough for him.

Starting beside him in P2 is two-time Indy 500 winner and one of the best to ever do it, Takuma Sato, then in P3 is Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward who is going to be hungry for a 500 win after coming close a couple of times over the last few years.

And that's something to watch for just the first couple of corners! 

I'm telling you, this year's race is going to be a good one.