No One Close to Carpenter

Indianapolis, IN — Indianapolis’ own Ed Carpenter will start the 102nd running of The Indianapolis 500 from the pole position, after besting all other qualifiers by nearly a full mile per hour.  This makes the third Indy 500 pole for Carpenter, having topped the speed charts in 2013 and 2014 as well. The driver/team owner said, “I don’t want to just be considered a guy that can win polls here.”  Adding that he’s glad to be running up front, given the new Dallara car the series is running this year, “This new car, it does race a little different than the other cars. And clean air maybe is a little more important than it has been in the past.  So definitely feel fortunate to be in this position when it comes down to next week.”

Carpenter’s Chevrolet posted a 4-lap average around the famed oval of 229.618 mph — faster than Team Penske’s Simon

Pagenaud’s second place qualifying speed of 228.761 mph.  Pagenaud teammates, Will Power and Josef Newgarden, will start in third and fourth positions respectively. Veteran Sebastien Bourdais finds himself in the middle of the second row driving the best-qualifying Honda-powered car.  Rounding out the front three rows are two more Ed Carpenter Racing cars, driven by Spencer Pigot and Danica Patrick, followed by returning 3-time champion Helio Castroneves, and 2008 winner Scott Dixon.

The best of the rest (positions 10-33), are cars owned by living legend A.J. Foyt.  The Foyt machines found speed they didn’t have Saturday. His veteran driver, Tony Kanaan, who himself has tasted the milk in Victory Lane, was able to improve on his Bump Day performance greatly.  The 2013 Indy winner registered a qualifying speed of 227.664 mph to start in tenth place. The Foyt rookie that Kanaan has taken under his wing, Matheus Leist, was close behind — slower by less than a tenth of a mile per hour.

Apart from qualifying order, much of the talk around the track Sunday still centered around full-time IndyCar Series driver James Hinchcliffe, and whether his team would find him a ride for the race.  Yet there were no developments on that front as of the posting of this story.

Here’s the full field rundown for The 102nd Indianapolis 500, which you’ll hear Sunday, May 27, on 103.9,WRBI…