Pagenaud, Polesitter; Alonso Out

Speedway, Ind. — Hoosier Ed Carpenter came close to winning his fourth pole position start in The Indianapolis 500. But in the end it was Frenchman, Simon Pagenaud, who bested his four-lap average speed by just three-thousandths of a mile per hour. Pagenaud carried his momentum from winning this month’s IndyCar Grand Prix into this weekend, to score his 11th career pole and the 266th for Team Penske. Carpenter starts in the middle of row one, with his team’s other two cars — driven by Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones — starting third and fourth, respectively.

The motorsports world was shocked to see two-time Formula One World Champion, Fernando Alonso, bumped from the field Sunday. The McLaren driver, and winner of both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona, was bested by the qualifying run of Kyle Kaiser — driving for the small Juncos Racing team. This year’s qualifying format saw Saturday’s slowest six cars vying for the last three qualifying spots on Sunday. Others failing to make the field were Patricio O’Ward and Max Chilton.

The 33-car field is the closest in Indy 500 history, with under two seconds separating the total qualifying time of the pole sitter from that of the slowest car in the field. The complete starting order for next Sunday’s 103rd running of The Indianapolis 500 is as follows. Catch every lap LIVE on 103.9 FM, WRBI.