INDIANAPOLIS – Dale Coyne compared the last chance qualifying round for the 108th Indianapolis 500 to “great theater.” The owner of Dale Coyne Racing was in a unique situation heading into the event, as both drivers competing under his banner made up half the field competing for the final three spots for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

The Coyne drivers experienced polar opposite emotions by the time the hour of qualifying had finished. Nolan Siegel, a 19-year-old California native, crashed his No. 18 Honda for the second time in three days on his second qualifying attempt, whereas Katherine Legge, the only woman competing for a shot at the Indianapolis 500, posted the fastest time in the field.

While Coyne was not surprised to see Legge’s car secure the fastest time of the last chance round, he said he has been telling Siegel, an NXT IndyCar Series contender, to “be cool and have fun with it” during his time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“That’s just the way it goes,” Coyne said. “He’s never raced with this much pressure.”

Despite public and behind the scenes support from his team and other drivers fighting to qualify, earning the respect of his peers isn’t enough to take away the sting of missing out on the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

“I wish we could have shown that we deserve to be in the 500,” Siegel said. “The whole event has been difficult, but we've had a difficult couple of days. … As a team, we did everything we possibly could.”

Siegel posted a 229.566 mph four-lap average lap speed in his first attempt during last chance qualifying, a mile per hour faster than any average lap speed he showcased during the first day of qualifying Saturday.

On his first try of the last chance qualifying round, Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global looked poised to top Siegel’s average lap speed after posting a 230.654 average through his first three laps. However, Ericsson shockingly pulled off the throttle after hearing “white flag, white flag,” following his third lap during his first qualifying attempt.

His pit crew urged him to finish the lap despite knowing he had no chance to put up an average he would be pleased with, and he finished the final lap with at 195.411. His four-lap average ended at 220.702 mph.

“I thought I had done the run, it was my mistake,” Ericsson said. “... It made it quite tough for the next 45 minutes after that. … It’s one thing if you don’t have the speed and you can’t make it, but when you have the speed and you have a run that’s good enough and have a complete error, if I didn’t get into this race I probably should just fly home to Sweden and retire.”

Legge nearly crashed during her warm up lap before her first last chance qualifying attempt, then almost wrecked again during the third lap of that round, yet she still finished with a 230.092 mph four-lap average speed.

“I feel shaky,” Legge told NBC Sports about 20 minutes later.  “… The last lap was just too much.”

Then it was time for Graham Rahal, who joined Legge in last chance qualifying for the second year in a row. However, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver hoped to avoid his 2023 result: Elimination from the field. He ended his first attempt with an average four-lap speed of 229.974 mph.

Rahal not only expressed concern about track conditions over his headset, letting his crew know he was sliding around too much, but he also wasn’t happy with his car’s inability to pull past fifth gear.

“We went to bed last night scratching our heads … there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered and still do,” Rahal said. “We changed some componentry last night, and we expected to go better (but) we went slower today again.”

Rahal said he and his team still don’t know what needs to change to get back the speed he had during practice, and said he doesn’t think they will be able to until mid-week. After the first round of last chance qualifying, the 2022 Indianapolis 500 winning Ericsson was on the outside looking in, as Legge (31), Rahal (32) and Siegel (33) were in for the time being.

Coyne wasn’t surprised about Legge’s finish, citing his confidence in her No. 51 Honda.

Legge said she didn’t want to go back out for a second qualifying attempt, and she didn’t have to as her first round average speed held as the best of the group. But Ericsson did.

The Swede set the tone on lap one with a 230.672 mph average lap speed, but his speed dropped substantially in the second lap, posting a 230.057 mph average. Yet he was still ahead of Siegel, as the 19-year-old waited in pit lane.

On Lap 3, his average speed dropped to 229.737 mph. Finally on Lap 4, Ericsson posted a 229.644 mph lap speed, officially clinching his qualification for the 108th Indianapolis 500 by leapfrogging Rahal.

Ericsson felt like his mental state was good heading into the first round, but admitted the past few days have been rough since his May 16 crash.

“This place sure brings a lot of pressure for me for some reason, but (we) made it work today,” Ericsson said. “ … I know my way around here, I know how to race here, so we’ll see what happens on race day.”

Siegel fired out of his pit immediately in an attempt to surpass Rahal and claim the 33rd – and final – spot in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing in the final minutes of qualifying. His 229.288 mph average lap speed on his first time around the oval wasn’t enough to begin with, then the California native’s day got even worse.

As he rounded Turn 1, Siegel bumped against the outside wall then spun completely around in the middle of the track before crashed against the wall a second time to destroy the wing on the back of his No. 18 Honda.

While taking the time to praise Siegel and offer him some support, Rahal said instead of a feeling of relief washing over him after making the cut, all that was going through his head was, “Don’t do this again.”

“It's not much better being 33rd, but at least we're in the field and we're gonna go racing,” Rahal said.

Legge, Ericsson and Rahal officially makeup the back row of the 108th Indianapolis 500, set for Sunday, May 26, with the green flag waving at 12:45 p.m.

Contact Kyle Smedley with comments via email at kmsmedley213@gmail.com or on X @KyleSmedley_.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Wild laps, mistakes, frustration for Indy 500's last three drivers