RacingNation.com
Home / IndyCar Series / Dixon Wins Pole For 92nd Indianapolis 500

Dixon Wins Pole For 92nd Indianapolis 500

Speedway, IN – May 10, 2008 – After several days of complete washouts and shortened practice days, sunny and seasonable temperatures greeted fans for ‘Pole Day.’ Opening practice incurred a short delay to finish drying the track after overnight rain. However, the track opened for practice at 9:46 am. It seem fitting that the first two cars on the track were the Team Penske cars of Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe. In the past, Team Penske has dominated Pole Day for the prestigious Indianapolis 500. The two Penske drivers led practice for group one before Andretti-Green driver, Danica Patrick led the charts. Shortly thereafter, Marco Andretti who’s been quick all month held quick time. For the remainder of the session Briscoe, Patrick and Scott Dixon all topped each other with quick time. All was for naught as Marco cut a lap at 228.318 mph to lead group one.

Group two saw Dan Wheldon and Tomas Scheckter top the charts with Wheldon fastest of the group, however just shy of Andretti’s overall top lap. Wheldon ended up second quick with a lap of 227.223 mph. After both groups the top 5 in speed were, Andretti – 228.318 mph, Wheldon – 227.223 mph, Briscoe – 227.163 mph, Scheckter – 227.015 mph and Scott Dixon – 226.398 mph.

In a surprise move this morning, veteran driver John Andretti replaced rookie, Jay Howard in the Roth Racing #24 and was up to over 220 mph in the first practice. Margaret Roth, President of Roth Racing stated, “As a result of the days lost due to weather, and losing our chief engineer (David Cripps) days before the start of this month, we found ourselves behind the 8-ball. John brings with him a wealth of experience, which can help us build two competitive cars for the ‘500.’ Jay will be back at Milwaukee. He has our full support. He’s a great driver.”

Qualifying rules for Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Positions one through 11 in the 33-car field are available to the fastest 11 qualifiers that day. Once the 11 spots are full, bumping will occur for the rest of the day to determine the pole and the fastest 11 qualifiers for that day.

Each car, primary or backup, will have three attempts per day to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. If a car is bumped on any day of qualifications, that entrant can re-enter the qualification line and attempt to re-qualify based on the number of attempts remaining for that car. Entrants also can still withdraw qualified cars from the field at their choice, but that car still will be allowed to make qualifying attempts based on the number of attempts it has remaining for the day. The car does not have to be removed from competition, as in previous formats.

Qualifying started on time at high noon as Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe was the first qualifier. Briscoe’s four-lap average was respectable 224.822 mph. Target Chip Ganassi driver, Scott Dixon was able to bump Briscoe from the top spot (225.178 mph four-lap average). Shortly thereafter, fan favorite Danica Patrick outdid Dixon with a four-lap average of 225.197 mph. Vision Racing’s A.J. Foyt IV had an adrenalin rush when he drafted high in turn three and did a quarter spin in the north short chute, corrected it and went into the pits. 2002 Pole winner, Bruno Junquiera perhaps liked what Foyt did and performed the same stunt in turn one. No contact was made and Junquiera continued to the pits. Junquiera was on lap one of his attempt, so he is down to two attempts.

2005 Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon showed he was a serious contender for the pole when he cut a 226.140 mph lap first time on the clock. Wheldon’s four-lap average of 225.840 mph was good for top spot as sunny skies and temperatures started to rise a bit at the Speedway.

Mario Moreaes, Graham Rahal, Hideki Mutoh, Ryan Hunter-Reay all completed four-lap qualifications runs in the 219-223 mph range. Darren Manning in the ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing entry waved off after a 222.954 mph first lap. Oriol Servia, Vitor Meira, Davey Hamilton, Will Power all completed their four-lap qualifying runs. Tony Kanaan successfully made the field in the Andretti-Green Team 7-Eleven entry with a four-lap average of 224.794 mph. Townsend Bell and Justin Wilson unsuccessfully tried to crack into the top-11. Ed Carpenter qualified in the top-11 with a nice four lap average of 223.835 mph. Moraes, Power, Servia, Hunter-Reay and Hamilton were bumped from top-11.

Hideki Mutoh’s time was disallowed when the car failed post-qualifying technical inspection. It was reported that the crew failed to replace a dummy battery for the in-car camera that wasn’t being used, thus was under by 3.5 pounds.

With the temperatures in Indianapolis at 68 degrees, slight overcast, just after 3 pm local time, Team Penske driver, Helio Castroneves ran three tight laps for a four-lap average of 225.733 mph. “We don’t know why we slowed down. I don’t know. This is what’s it’s all about: Racing to be on the top, and we didn’t get it.” A bit later teammate Ryan Briscoe bumped Wheldon off the pole with a four-lap average of 226.080 mph. Taking revenge for bumping his teammate off the pole, Scott Dixon went out and bumped Briscoe from the top spot with a four-lap average of 226.366 mph.

At 4:32 local time, Marco Andretti’s car was presented for inspection in preparation for an attempt. Andretti didn’t reached the speed he wanted as he only increased his position from eighth to seventh.

At 5:15, Hideki Mutoh, who earlier had his run disallowed ran a smooth average of 223.867 mph to bumping Rahal from the field.

The next qualifier, Ryan Hunter-Reay didn’t fare as well. Looking for speed, the Rahal-Letterman team perhaps took out a bit too much wing as Reay lost traction in turn one, making hard impact with his left-rear against the SAFER barrier. The car ended up in turn two with heavy damage to the Ethanol sponsored Dallara-Honda. Reay appeared to step out of his car without injury.

After a short clean-up and repairs to the SAFER barrier, rookie, Graham Rahal went out to attempt to get back in the top-11. After three laps just over Scheckter’s time, he was waved off. Rahal really wanted to get back on the track and showed his frustration after the car was pulled from the qualifying line, “They (crew) should had told me before I got my helmet on. They waited until I got ready and they were like ‘Oh well, by the way we don’t have tires’ They said they didn’t think we were going to make it, so we didn’t bring tires, and that is my point. You need to be prepared. I see everyone pulling and I’m thinking, ‘Oh man, I’m next!’ I’m jumping in the car and they tell me they don’t have tires so we’re not going to run. Come on. It make me mad because I really feel like we could have made it. I’m frustrated.”

With 20 minutes left in qualifying, things really heated up when Wheldon cut a 226.368 lap for fast time, however slowed a bit on his final three laps for a four-lap average of 226.110 moving up to second place. Thus with fifteen minutes to go, Target Chip Ganassi has the top two spots with Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe outside the front row. Wheldon was disappointed with himself, but overall happy for his team, “I left a little bit on the table, the car was on edge, but you know we get paid a lot of money, we need to have it more on edge.”

Scheckter followed Wheldon failing to improve his position, even was a bit slower to remain in the 11th position. Will Power tried and failed to crack the top-11 with ten minutes to go as Justin Wilson tried to bump Scheckter. As the gun went off at 6:00pm Darren Manning and several others were in line but didn’t appear to have a realistic chance of cracking the top-11.

Thus, Scott Dixon will be on the pole for the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 25th. It is Dixon’s first pole and Ganassi’s first since 2003 (Bruno Junquiera) and third overall (1993, Arie Luyendyk). “It’s unbelievable. What a day,” Dixon exclaimed. “We put a solid run in. As a team we dominated. It’s nice to get the pole. To be on the front row is what we are going for and the pole is even better. But I’ll take the race win over the pole any day.” Dixon wins the PEAK Motor Oil Pole Award presented by AutoZone and it’s $100,000 prize. Wheldon also qualified second in 2004. This is the fourth year in a row that Team Penske placed a car on the front row. Danica Patrick has qualified in the top-10 in all of her Indy 500’s (4). In the post-session press conference, Dixon added, “It means a lot. “It’s not just for me, though. I think a lot of it, and I think (team owner) Chip (Ganassi) and probably (team managing director) Mike (Hull) and (chief mechanic) Ricky (Davis) have touched on it already, but it’s the hard work that goes into it. Indy, for our team, I think our development and working toward this race started well early in the winter. I think Chip and Mike and all the guys in the team are adamant on putting up a strong fight for this year’s ‘500.’ ”

Team owner Chip Ganassi was estatic and relieved by his 1-2 sweep today, “Yeah, but I just can’t tell you how hard the guys work in the offseason. This is what it pays off at. You know, the hours and hours of testing and of, you know, of making a plan and having the courage to stay with the plan. You know, there are a lot of people, and I’m sure Ricky and Mike will tell you, but it takes everybody on this entire team, and sure, they all work for these two guys over here, but it’s a lot of hard work on a lot of people’s parts. Boy, I’m glad today is over with.”

There were 32 attempts/warm-ups today. The ‘500’ will have a “Commonwealth Front Row” withf Dixon (New Zealand), Wheldon (England) and Briscoe (Australia). Second row consists of Castroneves, Patrick and Kanaan. Positions 7-11 are Marco Andretti, Vitor Meira, Mutoh, Carpenter and Scheckter. Hopefully if there is window and/or the rain holds off, positions 12-22 will be filled tomorrow.

Popular NHRA Funny Car driver Ron Capps was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today. Capps toured the Speedway while he was in Indianapolis for the wedding of his assistant crew chief, Ronnie Thompson. Capps compares NHRA Funny Car qualifying to qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. “Each NHRA race weekend, the final qualifying session is like trying to get into the Indy 500 on ‘Bump Day.’ We don’t have a ‘Pole Day.’ The fields are so tight and so close, sometimes you don’t know if you’re in until that last pair goes down the quarter-mile. I give the IndyCar Series drivers a lot of credit for enduring all those challenges this month. It should be a terrific Indy 500 on May 25. I’ll be watching.”

Share Button