Scott Dixon recaps eventful day of Indy 500 qualifying

INDIANAPOLIS – The last time Scott Dixon won the pole for the Indianapolis 500, he also won the race. The three-time Verizon IndyCar Series champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner is hopeful history repeats itself after winning the pole Sunday in one of the strangest days in Indy 500 qualifying history.

In the morning practice session, Dixon laid claim as the man to beat for the pole by turning a lap at 233.001 miles per hour with the radical Chevrolet Aero Kit Parts used for qualifying trim. But at 8:15 a.m., two-time defending Indy 500 pole winner Ed Carpenter crashed in the Turn 2 wall and became the third driver to go airborne and flip in Indy 500 practice this week. Carpenter’s Chevrolet actually got into the fence, damaging the fence and posts which led to a lengthy repair.

During that time, INDYCAR officials decided in the interest of safety to have the teams qualify with their race day setups, requiring more downforce than the trimmed out qualifying setups that feature low downforce and low drag. Also, boost levels were reduced, cutting 50 horsepower from each of the cars that had been given the extra boost this past Friday.

Dixon’s Target/Chip Ganassi Racing team complied with the rules change but they weren’t happy about it. They believed it was a decision that didn’t need to be made until after qualifications and that Dixon’s chances at winning the pole were reduced to nothing more than a “Crap Shoot.”

Dixon adapted to the conditions perfectly with a four-lap average of 226.760 miles per hour in a Chevrolet including a first lap of 227.041 mph. He had both the fastest single-lap and four-lap average and broke Team Penske’s streak of eight consecutive poles in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

“I was definitely a little shocked with the first number when I saw it,” Dixon admitted. “I thought the steering wheel (speedometer) was broken but broken in a good way. It's a tough week, no matter which way you look at it, the curveballs that you get with the weather, but you understand that's part of the month of May. It's very tough, the conditions are tough, and especially when you're trimming out.

“Huge credit to Chevrolet. They've done an amazing job with these body kits. The low downforce, high boost, our car was extremely fast this morning in that configuration and then having to switch to the other configuration brings uncertainty because you only get ‑‑ we had a 30‑minute session to try and work out what the competition had and what we needed to improve on, which makes it very tough.”

Defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power qualified second quick, falling short of capturing the first three segments of a “May Sweep.” Power won the pole and race in last weekend’s Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis and wanted to add the pole and victory in the Indianapolis 500 to that collection.

Power’s four-lap average was 226.350 mph. That puts him the middle of Row 1. Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud starts on the outside of Row 1 with a four-lap average of 226.145 mph giving Chevrolet a sweep of the Front Row for the 99th Indianapolis 500.

“For me the effort for qualifying and how it was for pole, Team Target just did an amazing job,” Dixon said. “The whole Chip Ganassi organization did a phenomenal job, I think, to obviously set their sights on a different way to try and go for the pole that they had to for later this afternoon.

“I’m excited we're on the pole for the 99th running of the Indy 500. We've got a lot of work to do and a lot of laps before we can try and have a crack at the race win.”

After three Chevrolet drivers were involved in airborne crashes during the week of practice at Indy, including three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves on Wednesday, Josef Newgarden on Thursday and Carpenter on Sunday, Dixon understood and accepted why a change had to be made.

“Safety is obviously a big part of the sport, and it's a big part of motor racing in general,” he said. “I think if you look at oval racing as some of the most dangerous, you know, looking at data, the other week we were going into Turn 3 on Friday over 240 miles an hour. The speeds are definitely up, and I think when you have manufacturers spending money on trying to make the cars go faster with horsepower and aero kits, that's going to create these bigger speeds.

“It's always in the back of your mind, but we've actually had such a smooth week. The car has been very good. It didn't start great but we worked on it, and even this morning when we were in high boost/low drag configuration, the car felt great. I think with the crashes we've seen, they've all been in very different scenarios, very different situations. Two were in low boost, one was a flat tire, one was very close in traffic.

“We don't want to see cars getting in the air, and there's only a few tools that you have in the toolbox to use, and IndyCar, whether it's the right or wrong situation, for safety, it's kind of all they had. I think we saw today obviously the speeds came down. With the speeds down obviously I think the safety is going to get better anyway.”

Dixon was part of the Ganassi team discussion involving INDYCAR’s changes and knew that it wasn’t a popular call within the team. But Dixon redeemed Ganassi’s efforts by winning the pole with a much more conservative Race Day setup.

“You want to hedge all your bets for the race,” Dixon said. “The race for the pole is definitely prestigious. It's something for drivers you're very excited about, but it's not winning the Indianapolis 500. I think when the decisions were made, yes, everybody piped up and chipped in with their own points, but in reality, there's nothing you could do about it, so there was no reason to sort of moan about it. We just got on and put our heads down and tried to find the best configuration to go out there and have a decent run. We started way off in our first 30‑minute practice. I think I even did the first three laps at speed. So the team worked very hard, and Chris and the whole engineering team did a phenomenal job.

“The hard part in this situation is that you've got two very different ‑‑ you've got Chevy and Honda with two very different cars, and maintaining a set of rules for everyone is tough to do. It's always a job I'd never want, that part. I'm good with that.”

Dixon’s three IndyCar Series championships have been separated by five years each. The last time he won the Indy 500 Pole he also won the race for the only time in his career in 2008.

“If we could replicate 2008, that would be fantastic,” Dixon admitted. “That's the goal. It's very hard to pull that off. You know, unfortunately there's 32 other very good competitors out there and a lot of stacked teams, a lot of teams that this week we've been running with in traffic and they're very, very good.

“I think the tow and the draft this year is bigger than any other year, so it's not going to be one of those years. When I won in 2008 you could break the tow after three seconds and drive away if you had good speed, and that's not going to be the case this time. It's going to be flat‑out. We need to try and stay near the front and give ourselves a good shot come the last 10 laps.”

All 33 cars qualified on Sunday after rain washed out Saturday’s first round of qualifications. Dixon’s teammate, Tony Kanaan, was the fourth fastest and starts on the inside of Turn 2 with a four-lap average of 225.503 mph in a Chevrolet. Three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves is in the middle of that row with a four-lap average of 225.502 mph. Justin Wilson of Andretti Autosport had the fastest Honda, qualifying sixth at 225.279 mph for the outside of Row 2.

Carpenter was able to battle back from his morning crash as his team prepared another car in just two hours. He qualified 12th at 224.883 mph for four laps – the outside of Row 4.

Bryan Clauson of nearby Noblesville, Indiana, is the 33rd and final starter as 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier was unable to bump him out of the field.

Dixon was the best to adapt to the dramatically changing conditions and he will start the world’s biggest race on the pole in next Sunday’s 99th Indianapolis 500.

**

Be sure to catch Bruce Martin's Honda IndyCar Report on RACEDAY on FOX Sports Radio every Sunday from 6-8 a.m. ET.