INDIANAPOLIS – Fernando Alonso is watching his spot in the 2019 Indianapolis 500 disappear on Sunday, and he’s surrounded by media, and he’s not happy about this. Not happy at all. He has been doing a slow burn for almost 24 hours now, since his first attempts at qualifying on Saturday were a disaster, since his McLaren team worked on his car overnight, since he went back on the track earlier Sunday and left a trail of sparks because his car was, impossibly, sitting too low.

A few minutes ago he had climbed out of his car and into a nightmare, reporters and cameras pressing in, and his spot in the 2019 Indy 500 going, going … but not gone. Not yet. But he can see what’s happening.

Six drivers are competing for the final three spots – the Last Row Shootout, this is called – and after four drivers have gone, Alonso is third behind Sage Karam and James Hinchcliffe. Alonso is on the precipice, 33rd of 33 cars in the field, with two drivers left: Patricio O’Ward and Kyle Kaiser.

Alonso’s lips are pursed but IndyCar has rules, and he’s class guy and a team player – he’s trying, he’s really trying – but he’s straining to see if his spot in the Indy 500 is gone, and he doesn’t know. And now it’s time to do a quick television interview near the finish line.

“I’m not even able to look because we have like 50 of you (media members) here in front,” he tells the television reporter. “If only you will tell me.”

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Alonso keeps talking, but O’Ward’s car is hurtling toward the area, drowning out whatever Alonso is saying. O’Ward is gone. Now Alonso’s voice can be heard.

“… I understand it’s a big deal,” he says of the drama, his plight, this man considered among the most talented drivers in the world hoping to hang on as the 33rd fastest driver of 2019 Indy 500 qualifying. “There is a lot of attention, we understand that, but hopefully we can do better.”

He’s not talking about the race car.

Now the interview is over and O’Ward is still going around the track and Alonso turns to the fans crowding in. One hands him an Indy 500 ticket and a Sharpie. Alonso takes both, signs his name, and returns them. Another fan, this one in an orange Fernando Alonso hat, asks for a selfie. Alonso obliges. This is why fans love him. The guy gets it, OK? But this is hard.

And this whole effort has been beneath Alonso. Not his driving, not necessarily, but for sure the preparation around him, which turned strange Sunday morning when Alonso’s team turned the IMS paddock into a place of commerce according to The Indianapolis Star‘s Jim Ayello, purchasing dampers for their car from Andretti Autosport.

Alonso’s entry into the 2019 Indy 500, his first time back since he finished 24th in his debut in 2017, was announced seven months ago, but it seems his team didn’t take it as seriously as they might have. The results on Saturday and earlier Sunday speak for themselves, but people in Alonso’s camp were telling reporters quietly, not for attribution, “We didn’t come prepared.”

(Later, Alonso will say the team went into the weekend with a race strategy that needed work.)

That includes the makeup of his team, experienced at IMS but not exactly an all-star crew befitting an all-star driver. Remember, after working on Alonso’s car all night, his crew sent a car onto the track Sunday morning that was sitting too low, scraping the pavement, shooting sparks. They pulled the car from the track, made adjustments, and sent it back onto the track.

More sparks.

The incompetence has been breathtaking, as is what happened during the rain delay Sunday.

In one garage at IMS, James Hinchcliffe’s garage, it is quiet. His car is ready even if it was a road-course car basically 24 hours earlier. Hinch’s crew reinvented the team’s backup car overnight after he crashed his main car Saturday, and now they are standing in a circle outside the garage, enjoying the sun. One of them is eating a slice of pizza.

Around the corner is Alonso’s garage. Much different scene at 3:25 p.m., roughly an hour before showtime. With a crowd of about 50 fans staring, one crew member is lying on his back under the front of the car, working feverishly. Two are toward the rear, where the sparks were shooting. A fourth is on the side of the car, holding a wrench and asking a question:

“How long do we have?”

The first crew member, the one near the front, looks at his watch and says something. Here comes a fifth crew member. And a sixth. The area around Alonso’s car is an anthill of activity, and here comes a seventh guy from behind a wall. Now an eighth.

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Less than an hour later the car is towed to the track, where Alonso races four times around at an average speed of 227.353 mph. Karam goes next, then O’Ward, and now Kaiser. The second-year driver from Juncos Racing is crossing the bricks for the fourth and final time of his four-lap qualifying effort, and the entire scene is surreal:

Rain has delayed Sunday’s qualifying for more than four hours, and a once-robust crowd is gone. The grandstands at Indianapolis Motor Speedway are almost empty. Above the finish line, above the bricks, there are about 300 fans. I’ve seen bigger crowds at JV basketball games, but then, this is Indiana.

But that’s the Indianapolis 500, for heaven’s sake, and Fernando Alonso is one of the most famous drivers in the world, and wait – the results are in. Kaiser has finished in 227.372 mph, third of the six drivers in the Last Row Shootout. Alonso is 34th. He’s out.

Alonso has been watching on a hand-held TV monitor near the fans, near the media, and he is whisked away to a waiting golf cart. He is trying to smile, but not quite pulling it off.

Moments later he walks onto an elevator at the media center, where he is determined to speak to reporters as quickly as possible. There are six of us on the elevator, and Alonso is letting down his guard. He takes off his sunglasses and glares. He is scratching at his neck, then going under his fire suit with his fingers, clawing at his chest. Someone is suggesting he head back to the track. He doesn’t need to do an interview now.

“Everyone will think we’re hiding,” he says, and the elevator continues to rise. “Everyone’s following us. They’re not even following the first nine.”

It’s mostly true. The biggest story Sunday during 2019 Indianapolis 500 qualifying was the failure of Fernando Alonso to qualify,not Simon Pagenaud’s pole or the continued Indianapolis 500 qualifying dominance of Ed Carpenter, starting on the front row at the Indy 500 again, second this year, ahead of two Ed Carpenter Racing teammates: Spencer Pigot (third) and Ed Jones (fourth).

Alonso is waiting to speak to the media, but there has been a change of plans. He is told he has an hour to wait. He can stay here, an IMS official is saying, or he can take a golf cart back to his …

Fernando Alonso doesn’t wait for the rest of that sentence. He’s heading to the elevator, heading back down. His descent continues. So will the 103rd Indianapolis 500. Without him.

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/gregg.doyel.