He’s on the pole for the 100th running.
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“I mean, what a difference a year makes, right?”. No, Hinchcliffe would return from that awful time and actually win the pole, his first-ever IndyCar Series pole, by driving on the ragged edge and spitting in the face of fear.
“I don’t know about that”, Hinchcliffe said.
He ended up creating one of the best stories in the history of racing, as he picked up the first pole of his career.
Hinchcliffe’s team co-owner, Sam Schmidt, a former racer paralyzed in a 2000 crash, looked on as his crew nervously stared down the frontstretch.
“We went back in and made the auto a little bit better”, the Canadian said. Though the team has yet to win an Indianapolis 500, partner team Bryan Herta Autosport would go on to win with Dan Wheldon that year. 30 of the 33 auto entries officially qualified for the race yesterday and the remaining three qualified early this afternoon.
Simon Pagenaud was another of the day’s big winners. With no previous time from Saturday, Mann was scheduled to be the first qualifier of the day, and took to the track on schedule at 2:45PM. The top two spots both went to Honda drivers, though four of the next seven spots went to Chevy drivers.
Hinchcliffe’s emotional return to Indianapolis started out in successful fashion last week when he qualified and finished third in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis on the IMS road course. And I really appreciated that people wanted to hear the story, wanted to tell the story for me. He wasn’t keeping as close to the white line in the turns as numerous other drivers were.
James Hinchcliffe, of Canada, celebrates after winning the pole during qualifications for the Indianapolis 500 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 22, 2016.
Hinchcliffe, himself a victim of similar circumstances in the past, understood Newgarden’s feelings. Top end through the last speed trap: North of 150. That put him into eighth and temporarily into the Fast Nine. Lazier’s last four starts in this race have come from the 32nd, 32nd, 33rd and 32nd positions. Around Turn 3 he came, his lines ideal, his speed never wavering, dancing on the edge of reason, and then down the straightaway, flooring it.
The mighty Team Penske got three drivers into the fast nine, but not Juan-Pablo Montoya, who won last year’s 500. His average speed of 229.669 put him fourth provisionally on the grid for the race.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, the 2014 Indianapolis 500 champion, rounds out the front row in the No. 28 DHL Honda for Andretti Autosport.
Hinchcliffe won it in dramatic fashion, too, on the final run of the nine-car pole shootout. His first lap of the day was his warmup lap, as neither of the Sam Schmidt drivers took to the track for practice today.
Power bumped Oriol Servia from the fast nine and the Spaniard failed in a bid to break back into the elite lineup. Munoz average in his No. 26 Honda was 230.287. His third lap was slower than the one before it, but was good enough to keep him on the pole.
Montoya slowed to 210.972 miles per hour on that lap and 191.546 miles per hour on the fourth before bringing the Team Penske vehicle to pit road. The only crash during Sunday’s qualifying came when Alex Tagliani lost control on Turn 4 of his warm-up lap, hit the entrance to pit row and spun several times. “Obviously, I can’t turn a wrench, but my god, the things that happened today”. “I just managed to go out on track and that was my only chance to get up there. It’s really unfortunate”, said Tagliani after being cleared from the medical center.
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Scott Dixon’s vehicle saw some issues early in the day as well.
