Helio Castroneves secured his 4th Indianapolis 500 pole. A stunning performance with an average speed of 227.971mph saw the Brazilian driver secure three of the top four positions for Team Penske. The dual was interesting until the very end as Ganassi’s Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon were the last two cars on track for Pole Day but failed to unseat Castroneves.
The 2010 rule changes had the top 9 drivers battle it our for pole with 15 points and $175,000 for the fastest driver.
1. Helio Castroneves Penske 226.775mph
2. Will Power Penske 226.412mph
3. Alex Tagliani Fazzt 226.392mph
4. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 226.156mph
5. Scott Dixon Ganassi 225.795mph
6. Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman 225.617mph
7. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas 225.423mph
8. Ryan Briscoe Penske 225.365mph
9. Ed Carpenter Panther/Vision 225.168mph
10. Townsend Bell Ganassi/Schmidt 225.097mph
11. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 225.050mph
12. Raphael Matos de Ferran Dragon 225.029mph
13. Mario Moraes KV 224.888mph
14. Davey Hamilton de Ferran Dragon 224.852mph
15. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 224.583mph
16. Marco Andretti Andretti 224.575mph
17. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 224.548mph
18. Dan Wheldon Panther 224.465mph
19. EJ Viso KV 224.380mph
20. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold 224.261mph
21. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 224.243mph
22. Simona de Silvestro HVM 224.228mph
23. Danica Patrick Andretti 224.219mph
24. Bertrand Baguette Conquest 224.189mphDid not qualify:
Jay Howard Sarah Fisher
AJ Foyt IV Foyt
Mario Romancini Conquest
Vitor Meira Foyt
John Andretti Andretti
Paul Tracy KV
Sebastian Saavedra Herta
Milka Duno Dale Coyne
Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne
Tony Kanaan Andretti
Sarah Fisher Sarah Fisher
Takuma Sato KV
The teams that failed to qualify will now face the famous Bump Day when the final three rows of the grid will be set. I’ve always liked Castroneves from his early days at our local team (St. Louis, MO) Hogan Racing and it’s great to see him do well. I am, however, a Dario Franchitti fan and would have loved to see him pull it out at the end with his new engine. Such was not the case. Do the Can the Target cars of Chip Ganassi give Team Penske a good fight? Who is your dark horse for the 500?
