With the 100th anniversary of the running of the Indianapolis 500 this could be Scott Dixon’s best chance for his second win at the brickyard. the Indianapolis Speedway. Now that the thirty-three car field has been decided, the qualification process has thrown up a real mixture of results. This all bodes well for Target Chip Ganassi Racing as Dixon starts on the front row after qualifying second fastest.
Rival Team Penske has had their worst ever qualifying at Indy with current IZOD IndyCar Series leader Will Power starting fifth. Helio Castroneves starts from sixteenth while Ryan Briscoe is way back in twenty-seventh. With no cars on the front row, this could be a first for the team.
There are four woman drivers in the field, but all four including experienced Danica Patrick are in the last four rows.
Patrick drives for Andretti Autosport who tried to qualify four cars, all on Bump Day.
Bump Day is the day after qualifying where the last nine grid spots are fought over (grids 24 to 33). Drivers go out and set their time/speed for qualifying. If there are more than nine drivers fighting for the nine spots available then as they set their time they can ‘bump’ slower drivers right out of Indianapolis 500 grid.
Andretti drivers Ryan Hunter Reay and Mike Conway failed to make the show with Marco Andretti starting 28th, Danica Patrick 26th. John Andretti had already qualified the day before in 17th.
Potentially the winner could come from anyone in the first three rows. There are four former winners amongst the first nine on the grid – Dixon, Dan Wheldon, Buddy Rice and Dario Franchitti. Dixon has the advantage as he starts on the front row, his best chance of winning since he first won in 2008.
Grid positions (Three cars per row; eleven rows; thirty-three starters.)
1 Alex Tagliani Avg Speed 227.472
2 Scott Dixon Avg Speed 227.340
3 Oriol Servia Avg Speed 227.168
4 Townsend Bell Avg Speed 226.887
5 Will Power Avg Speed 226.773
6 Dan Wheldon
7 Buddy Rice
8 Ed Carpenter
9 Dario Franchitti
10 Takuma Sato
11 Vitor Meira
12 JR Hildebrand
13 James Hinchcliffe
14 Bertrand Baguette
15 Davey Hamilton
16 Helio Castroneves
17 John Andretti
18 E.J. Viso
19 Bruno Junqueira
20 Justin Wilson
21 Jay Howard
22 Tomas Scheckter
23 Tony Kanaan
24 Simona de Silvestro
25 Paul Tracy
26 Danica Patrick
27 Ryan Briscoe
28 Marco Andretti
29 Charlie Kimball
30 Graham Rahal
31 Alex Lloyd
32 Pippa Mann
33 Ana Beatriz
