Hinchcliffe earned the pole with a four-lap average of 230.760 miles per hour.
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Newgarden will start second after qualifying at 230.700, and the difference between Hinchcliffe and Newgarden was the fourth-closest between first and second in Indys 100-year history.
Canada’s James Hinchcliffe turned in a fearless performance on Sunday when he grabbed pole for the Indianapolis 500, one year after being critically injured in a crash during practice at the famed Brickyard.
“I didn’t think anything could be better than five years ago”, said Schmidt, who won the pole with Canadian Alex Tagliani in 2011.
James Hinchcliffe will be on the pole when the 100th Indianapolis 500 starts on Sunday.
After four full days of on-track running consuming 8,162 laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, one thing is certain: the battle for pole position in the historic 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil is wide open.
“I don’t think anyone can describe almost losing your life at a track, then going back there to go 240 m.p.h. into a corner”, Hunter-Reay, one of the many drivers to congratulate Hinchcliffe, told The Associated Press. Bell was barely ahead of Power (231.339) and Andretti drivers Ryan Hunter-Reay (231.284) and Marco Andretti (231.255).
In addition, it also ended Team Penske’s string of seven consecutive pole positions in all Verizon IndyCar Series races and is Honda’s first in series competition since the second race of the Houston doubleheader in June 2014, 31 races ago and again with Schmidt Peterson. It starts from the top, but goes to all the crew guys who build and run these cars. But that’s what it takes to win the pole here. Though his auto spun 5 1/2 times, he was quickly checked, released and cleared to drive by the infield medical center.
Defending race victor Juan Pablo Montoya will start 17th after a freakish sequence in which he ran over a trash bag during his qualifying attempt.
Hinchcliffe said that the Schmidt Peterson team, not yet considered one of the juggernauts, was the real victor yesterday.
The Australian took the outside spot on Row Two alongside a pair of Andretti Autosport drivers Bell and Colombian Carlos Munoz.
It was the second time Sam Schmidt has been on the catbird seat at Indy but the first for co-owner Rick Peterson and it capped a magnificent day in which Mikhail Aleshin secured the seventh starting spot and Oriol Servia lines up 10th on May 29.
BAND OF BROTHERS: Indy rookie Stefan Wilson, of England, will start 30th.
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To let the other drivers know how serious he was about landing the big prize, Hinchcliffe set the fastest time in Saturday’s final practice for Sunday’s time trials. He’s driving in honor of his late brother, Justin, who was killed last August after being hit in the head with debris during a race at Pocono.
