Scott Dixon has taken pole for the 106th Indianapolis 500, beating out a bevy of his Chip Ganassi team-mates to earn the top spot.
Dixon had been fast all week leading up to qualifying, and he was able to continue that run on Sunday’s knockout qualifying sessions.
The top 12 qualifiers went out for a single, four-lap attempt first, with the fastest six earning a right to make a final run to fight for pole.
Of the six that advanced, an incredible four were Chip Ganassi Hondas, making for a strong showing at the home of IndyCar.
Dixon was the final car on track, and lapped the track four times at an average speed of 234.046 MPH, which is a new qualifying record for the four-lap format.
This year’s pole is the second consecutive Indy 500 pole for the veteran, his fifth all time, and gives him a good shot to earn his second win in the great race next weekend.
Dixon beat out the reigning series champion Alex Palou to the top spot, with the latter watching the big screens from pit lane in anticipation to find out if he would be starting from first or second.
Rinus VeeKay earned a spot on the outside of the front row, matching his starting position from last year.
The popular Dutchman went on to lead 32 laps of that race, and will be hoping he can lead at least that much for his third time in the famous race.
VeeKay’s team-mate and team owner Ed Carpenter earned the fourth best spot, followed by another set of Ganassi drivers in Marcus Ericsson and Tony Kanaan.
The two Arrow McLaren SP drivers Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist earned the sixth and seventh spots, with each having higher ambitions coming into the day.
Romain Grosjean earned the seventh starting spot for his inaugural Indy 500, and will line up directly in front of another Indy 500 rookie by the name of Jimmie Johnson who qualified 12th.
In between those two inexperienced veterans is a pair of true IndyCar veterans Takuma Sato and Will Power, who will take the inside two spots on the fourth row.
With the field set, drivers have a noticeably less busy schedule for the next few days. There is a two-hour practice session scheduled for Monday, and one more of equal length scheduled for Friday.
Then, it’s all eyes on the track next Sunday, May 29th when the 33 cars take the green flag for one of the biggest races in all of motorsport.
| # | Driver | Average Speed (MPH) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Dixon | 234.046 |
| 2 | Alex Palou | 233.499 |
| 3 | Rinus VeeKay | 233.385 |
| 4 | Ed Carpenter | 233.080 |
| 5 | Marcus Ericsson | 232.764 |
| 6 | Tony Kanaan | 232.372 |
| 7 | Pato O’Ward | 232.705 |
| 8 | Felix Rosenqvist | 232.182 |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | 231.999 |
| 10 | Takuma Sato | 231.670 |
| 11 | Will Power | 231.534 |
| 12 | Jimmie Johnson | 231.264 |
| 13 | David Malukas | 231.607 |
| 14 | Josef Newgarden | 231.580 |
| 15 | Santino Ferrucci | 231.508 |
| 16 | Simon Pagenaud | 231.275 |
| 17 | JR Hildebrand | 231.112 |
| 18 | Conor Daly | 230.999 |
| 19 | Callum Ilott | 230.961 |
| 20 | Alexander Rossi | 230.812 |
| 21 | Graham Rahal | 230.766 |
| 22 | Sage Karam | 230.464 |
| 23 | Marco Andretti | 230.345 |
| 24 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 230.326 |
| 25 | Colton Herta | 230.235 |
| 26 | Scott McLaughlin | 230.154 |
| 27 | Helio Castroneves | 229.630 |
| 28 | Kyle Kirkwood | 229.406 |
| 29 | Dalton Kellett | 228.916 |
| 30 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 228.622 |
| 31 | Christian Lundgaard | 227.053 |
| 32 | Jack Harvey | 226.851 |
| 33 | Stefan Wilson | no attempt |
