Dixon tops first Indy 500 qualifying, Power risks missing cut

Scott Dixon set the fastest time in Saturday’s Indianapolis 500 qualifying and leads nine cars that will fight for pole on Sunday, while 2018 winner Will Power risks missing the race for Team Penske and will have to qualify in the ‘Last Chance’ session after a bizarre ending to Saturday’s action.

In terms of the format, positions 10-30 have been set today and those drivers are through to the Indy 500.

The fastest nine drivers will fight for pole in a fresh session tomorrow, after ‘bumping’ has occurred where the drivers 31-35 from today will have to qualify for three spots remaining in the field. Two cars will fail to qualify from that group as the 33-car field is set.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dixon earned the coveted first qualifying run in the order via a random draw, and he wasn’t bested from that very first run just after noon ET.

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‘Fast Nine’
1 Dixon 231.828mph
2 Herta 231.648mph
3 Kanaan 231.639mph
4 Carpenter 231.616mph
5 VeeKay 231.483mph
6 Castroneves 231.164mph
7 Palou 231.145mph
8 Ryan Hunter-Reay 231.139mph
9 Marcus Ericsson 231.104

‘Last Chance’
Karam
Power
Kimball
De Silvestro
Enerson

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Once every driver had a qualifying run there were still almost three hours remaining for improvements, but increasing temperatures meant the first runs had optimal conditions in most cases.

Because of this, only one driver, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, managed an improvement that put him in the top nine. The Indianapolis road course winner from earlier this month jumped from 12th to fifth.

Colton Herta for Andretti Autosport was one of the latest cars to qualify in the first runs but delivered on his ‘Fast Friday’ pace, as he and third-placed Tony Kanaan both set faster second laps than Dixon but failed to better the four-lap average Dixon had.

Behind Ganassi’s Kanaan – replacing Jimmie Johnson for the ovals – Ed Carpenter reminded all those watching on TV that fans were back in the venue when he recorded the fastest first lap of a run for his eponymous team, and ensured he was the top Chevrolet runner with the fourth-best four-lap average. That outcome earned a huge cheer from the stands.

Helio Castroneves made sure his first Indy 500 in over 20 years with a team other than Penske started well by putting the Andretti-supported Meyer Shank Racing entry in sixth, ahead of the third Ganassi car of Alex Palou.

Palou later crashed massively at Turn 2 after he lost the rear end and connected with the SAFER barrier side-on, but got out of the car under his own effort and the team confirmed his chassis could be repaired for him to take his place in the Fast Nine.

In fact, all four of Ganassi’s cars made the Fast Nine as Marcus Ericsson delivered the final spot in the pole shootout for what could be his best 500 start.

Sandwiched between Palou and Ericsson was Ryan Hunter-Reay, whose early run banked a ‘Fast Nine’ entry after a difficult week of practice for the Andretti driver.

It meant the Fast Nine had seven Honda-powered cars via Ganassi, Andretti and Meyer Shank, while the Carpenter team’s Chevrolets were the only two of the stable to make it.

Alexander Rossi narrowly missed out and the 2016 winner will start 10th in another Andretti car, ahead of late improver Ed Jones for Dale Coyne Racing.

Last year’s rookie of the year Pato O’Ward was the first Arrow McLaren SP car in 12th, followed by Pietro Fittipaldi – subbing for Romain Grosjean, who won’t do ovals this year, at Dale Coyne Racing – in 13th.

O’Ward’s team-mate Felix Rosenqvist took 14th with a late improvement and 2020 winner Takuma Sato was 15th despite trying to improve.

It was a rough day for Penske as its best driver was rookie Scott McLaughlin, who initially qualified 12th and was bumped back to 17th with late improvements. Josef Newgarden was 21st and Simon Pagenaud 26th.

The fourth car, Power’s, was arguably the story of the day as he will have to take part in ‘Last Chance’ qualifying on Sunday, where he will have to be one of the three fastest cars in a five-car session or he won’t make the race.

He tried for a late improvement and did better his four-lap average but it wasn’t enough to secure a spot in the top 30.

Dalton Kellett, who was in 30th position and was set to go straight to the 500, was queuing up in the ‘fast lane’ where cars get out on track before the separate ‘normal lane’, but those in the fast lane forfeit their lap.

However, because Power had forfeited his previous lap, and his new one wasn’t good enough for the top 30 at the time because Kellett hadn’t gone yet, his time disappeared.

So a quirk of fate meant Power did score a faster lap but it didn’t count to beat Kellett.

“You need to be a scientist to work this out,” said Power after the session.

In a perfect summary of the situation, he showed a misunderstanding of the rules for the ‘Last Chance’ qualifying session, as he’s never quite been at this end of the order, and suggested he’d only have one run to make the field on Sunday rather than having the chance of multiple attempts in the ‘bump day’ session.

Behind Power, Simona de Silvestro, Charlie Kimball, Sage Karam and RC Enerson will fight to make the race.

De Silvestro, driving for the Paretta Autosports team aimed at promoting women in motorsport – is Penske affiliated, while Karam and Enerson are one car teams with Kimball driving for the four-car AJ Foyt operation.

Qualifying Results