Scott Dixon earns pole for 99th Indianapolis 500
Scott Dixon, Will Power, and Simon Pagenaud make up the front row.
Photo by: Jay Alley
INDIANAPOLIS - The top 30 spots have been set for the 2015 running of the Indianapolis 500. Scott Dixon has earned his second pole position in the event with a four-lap average of 226.760mph. Team Penske teammates Will Power (226.350mph) and Simon Pagenaud (226.145mph) make up the rest of the front row.
Dixon comments
It means a lot," said the pole-sitter. "I think with all the preparation that goes into qualifying alone we still have the race to come next week. I’m just so proud of everybody at Team Target whether it’s the engineers and everybody that has worked so hard to get the speed out of this car. It was definitely a tough day. I’m stoked. Just extremely happy that we are on the pole I wasn’t sure we went so early that it was going to stick.”
"I think the Team Target guys did a hell of a job to get the combination together. The worked hard. You work and your mindset is on one combination a for a whole week, even the lead up to it on low boost. Then a low configuration and a high boost, then it changes. You just have to take your best guess at it and you got a small feeling in a session and you really know how it is going to be."
Best of the rest
Dixon was also the only driver to top 227mph in one of his four laps. The top five are all Penske or Ganassi Chevrolets, with Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves rounding out the final two spots.
Andretti Autosport's Justin Wilson was the highest qualifying Honda in sixth. Sebastien Bourdais, Marco Andretti, Josef Newgarden, and J.R. Hildebrand make up the rest of the top ten.
Graham Rahal, who will start 17th, said that he suffered gearbox issues during his run while in fifth and sixth gear.
Bumping
Jack Hawksworth, Stefano Coletti, Bryan Clauson, and Buddy Lazier were the slowest four cars and got one more chance to fight their way into the 500 with one going home, Lazier ended up coming 1mph short of Clauson, a 220.153mph lap to a 221.358mph.
Full qualifying results:
Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Speed (mph) |
1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 226.760 |
2 | 1 | Will Power | Team Penske | 226.350 |
3 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 226.145 |
4 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 225.503 |
5 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | 225.502 |
6 | 25 | Justin Wilson | Andretti Autosport | 225.279 |
7 | 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | KV Racing Technology | 225.193 |
8 | 27 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | 225.189 |
9 | 21 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | 225.187 |
10 | 6 | J. R. Hildebrand | CFH Racing | 225.099 |
11 | 26 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | 225.042 |
12 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | CFH Racing | 224.883 |
13 | 32 | Oriol Servia | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 224.777 |
14 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | 224.743 |
15 | 2 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | 224.657 |
16 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 224.573 |
17 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 224.290 |
18 | 18 | Carlos Huertas | Dale Coyne Racing | 224.233 |
19 | 29 | Simona de Silvestro | Andretti Autosport | 223.838 |
20 | 7 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 223.790 |
21 | 19 | Tristan Vautier* | Dale Coyne Racing | 223.747 |
22 | 48 | Alex Tagliani | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | 223.722 |
23 | 8 | Sage Karam | Chip Ganassi Racing | 223.595 |
24 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 223.519 |
25 | 43 | Conor Daly | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 223.482 |
26 | 24 | Townsend Bell | Dreyer & Reinbold Kingdom Racing | 223.447 |
27 | 14 | Takuma Sato | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | 223.226 |
28 | 63 | Pippa Mann | Dale Coyne Racing | 223.104 |
29 | 98 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | 222.916 |
30 | 17 | Sebastian Saavedra | Chip Ganassi Racing | 222.898 |
31 | 41 | Jack Hawksworth | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | 223.738 |
32 | 4 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | 222.001 |
33 | 88 | Bryan Clauson | Jonathan Byrd's Racing | 221.358 |
DNQ | 91 | Buddy Lazier | Lazier Partners Racing | 220.153 |
* The #19 car will be raced by James Davison.
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