Chip Ganassi’s Scott Dixon edged out Colton Herta to end a four-year drought of pole positions to secure top spot for the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500, while Will Power survived contact with the wall in the last-row shootout.
Dixon ran last out of the Fast Nine and his fastest time of 231.685mph narrowly beat the 21-year old Herta by just 0.030mph across the four-lap average.
The Kiwi’s last pole position came at the same event in 2017. However he has started from pole on the grid on three previous occasions after that, but only because the standings decided the order for three rained off sessions.
Rinus VeeKay will join Dixon and Herta on the front-row despite a sideways moment on the final lap of his run, but it was good enough to better his first start of fourth at last years’ event.
Heading up the second row of the grid is veteran Ed Carpenter who continues to show he loses no speed with age. He will share the row with the Ganassi duo of Tony Kanaan and Alex Palou.
Ryan Hunter-Reay had a very fast first lap but suffered a big drop off across the remainder of the run which was good enough for seventh. The Texan will be joined on the third-row by Helio Castroneves and Marcus Ericsson.
At the back of the field, Team Penske’s Will Power successfully survived the last-row shootout to qualify 32nd despite sizeable contact with the SAFER barrier of Turn 2 on the final lap of his run.
There was damage to the toe-link on No.12 5G-Chevrolet, but the team would not attempt to make repairs because it would force the team to retract the time.
Sage Karam would also make his way into the race and start 31st on the grid for the fourth time in eight appearances at the Brickyard.
Paretta Autosport would also make it into the field of 33 at the first time of asking with Simona de Silvestro to take up the final spot on the grid in 33rd place.
A.J Foyt’s Charlie Kimball and Top Gun Racing’s R.C Enerson would be bumped from qualifying and take no further part in proceedings.
The 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 is set to take place on May 30 with the green set to drop at 12:20 EDT.
| # | Driver | Time (four laps) | Speed (MPH) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Dixon | 2:35.3837 | 231.685 |
| 2 | Colton Herta | 2:35.4034 | 231.655 |
| 3 | Rinus VeeKay | 2:35.5000 | 231.511 |
| 4 | Ed Carpenter | 2:35.5047 | 231.504 |
| 5 | Tony Kanaan | 2:35.8229 | 231.032 |
| 6 | Alex Palou | 2:36.1039 | 230.616 |
| 7 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 2:36.1827 | 230.499 |
| 8 | Helio Castroneves | 2:36.2804 | 230.355 |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | 2:36.3054 | 230.318 |
| 10 | Alexander Rossi | 2:35.8132 | 231.046 |
| 11 | Ed Jones | 2:35.8148 | 231.044 |
| 12 | Pato O’Ward | 2:35.9360 | 230.864 |
| 13 | Pietro Fittipaldi | 2:35.9481 | 230.846 |
| 14 | Felix Rosenqvist | 2:36.0168 | 230.744 |
| 15 | Takuma Sato | 2:36.0417 | 230.708 |
| 16 | James Hinchcliffe | 2:36.1395 | 230.563 |
| 17 | Scott McLaughlin | 2:36.1435 | 230.557 |
| 18 | Graham Rahal | 2:36.1680 | 230.521 |
| 19 | Conor Daly | 2:36.2314 | 230.427 |
| 20 | Jack Harvey | 2:36.3922 | 230.191 |
| 21 | Josef Newgarden | 2:36.4735 | 230.071 |
| 22 | JR Hildebrand | 2:36.5354 | 229.98 |
| 23 | Santino Ferrucci | 2:36.5563 | 229.949 |
| 24 | Juan Pablo Montoya | 2:36.5961 | 229.891 |
| 25 | Marco Andretti | 2:36.6089 | 229.872 |
| 26 | Simon Pagenaud | 2:36.6732 | 229.778 |
| 27 | Sebastien Bourdais | 2:36.6964 | 229.744 |
| 28 | Stefan Wilson | 2:36.7166 | 229.714 |
| 29 | Max Chilton | 2:36.9195 | 229.417 |
| 30 | Dalton Kellett | 2:37.6717 | 228.323 |
| 31 | Sage Karam | 2:37.0978 | 229.156 |
| 32 | Will Power | 2:37.2905 | 228.876 |
| 33 | Simona de Silvestro | 2:37.6504 | 228.353 |
| Eliminated | Charlie Kimball | 2:38.1831 | 227.584 |
| Eliminated | RC Enerson | 2:38.7212 | 226.813 |
