New Zealand’s Dixon gambles, earns provisional pole
Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS — Strategy became almost as important as speed Saturday as Scott Dixon withdrew an earlier qualifying run and took the provisional pole with just over two hours remaining on the first of four days of time trials for the Indianapolis 500.
Dixon, driving for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, took advantage of Indy’s unique qualifying format, which allows each entry up to three tries each day. His team canceled out a four-lap average of 225. 178 mph, and the New Zealander made the gamble pay off with four laps above 226 for an average of 226. 366.
That came only moments after Ryan Briscoe, the first driver to qualify Saturday, withdrew his earlier speed of 224. 833 and put his Team Penske entry on top with a run of 226. 080.
“I don’t think [the track ] has changed a whole lot,” Briscoe said. “We were being conservative on the earlier run, and so was Dixon.” Penske teammate Helio Castroneves, who had his car pulled out of the qualifying line earlier in the day, made his first attempt minutes before Briscoe and came up short at 225. 733, just shy of Ganassi’s Dan Wheldon, who had held the provisional pole at 225. 840 after the initial flurry of qualifying.
After a rain-interrupted opening week of practice for the May 25 race, there was a long line of cars ready to go when the opening time trials began at noon with the top 11 positions in the 33-car field up for grabs.
Danica Patrick, just two weeks past making motor sports history as the first woman to win an Indy-Car race, set the early pace with a four-lap run averaging 225. 197 mph on the famed 2. 5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.
That drew a huge cheer from the crowd of about 40, 000 at the sprawling speedway, the biggest spectator turnout for pole day in more than a decade.
Patrick set off a national “DanicaMania” in 2005 when she qualified fourth, the best starting position for a woman at Indy.
But Wheldon, the 2005 Indy winner, spoiled her storybook moment Saturday when he came out about 20 minutes later and pushed Patrick to the middle of the tentative front row.
Patrick, who was doing an interview in the media center during Wheldon’s run, just shook her head and smiled ruefully when Wheldon’s speed was announced.
If her team was willing to gamble, Patrick still had a chance at the pole and was running laps above 226 in practice after Dixon, Briscoe and Castroneves qualified.
Other early qualifiers included Andretti Green’s Tony Kanaan at 224. 794, Vitor Meira of Panther Racing at 224. 345, Marco Andretti of Andretti Green at 224. 162, Ed Carpenter of Vision Racing at 223. 835, Tomas Scheckter of Luczo Dragon Racing at 223. 779 and rookie Graham Rahal of Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing at 223. 355.
The 19-year-old Rahal, son of 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal, was the fastest of the drivers transitioning from the defunct Champ Car World Series into the recently unified IRL Indy-Car Series.
Any of those qualified drivers were in danger of being bumped out of the tentative lineup by cars completing faster qualifying runs later Saturday.
By the time the initial qualifying line ended and the track was opened for practice, five drivers had qualified and then been bumped.
That included rookies Mario Moraes, Will Power and Oriol Servia, all transitioning from Champ Car, as well as veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay. Indianapolis 500 partial lineup Saturday Qualifying Positions 1-11; Positions 12-22 today; Positions 23-33 May 17. Car numbers in parentheses; r-rookie; all engines Honda. At Indianapolis Motor Speedway ROW 1 1. (9 ) Scott Dixon, Dallara, 226. 366 mph 2. (10 ) Dan Wheldon, Dallara, 226. 110 3. (6 ) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara, 226. 080 ROW 2 4. (3 ) Helio Castroneves, Dallara, 225. 733 5. (7 ) Danica Patrick, Dallara, 225. 197 6. (11 ) Tony Kanaan, Dallara, 224. 794 ROW 3 7. (26 ) Marco Andretti, Dallara, 224. 417 8. (4 T ) Vitor Meira, Dallara, 224. 346 9. (27 ) r-Hideki Mutoh, Dallara, 223. 887 ROW 4 10. (20 ) Ed Carpenter, Dallara, 223. 835 11. (12 ) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara, 223. 496
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
