Ed Carpenter once again displayed his prowess on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, leading first-day qualifying for the 101st Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil.
The team owner/driver posted a four-lap qualifying run at 230.468 mph in the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet to lead 31 drivers who completed attempts
Carpenter and the next eight fastest qualifiers from Saturday advance to Sunday’s Fast Nine Shootout that will determine the Verizon P1 Award pole sitter for the epic race on May 28.
“It feels like 2013 right now,” said Carpenter, who won the Indianapolis 500 pole in 2013 and ‘14. “I wasn’t expecting that. I thought I could run a 230 (lap), but not four of them. Thanks to Chevrolet for giving me a good bullet and for making the best aero out here right now.”
“We’ll see what we can do in the shootout tomorrow, but I’m really excited for 500 miles. I’m here to win the race.”
–@edcarpenter20 pic.twitter.com/eTPov82noU— Ed Carpenter Racing (@ECRIndy) May 21, 2017
Joining Carpenter in the Fast Nine Shootout will be Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon, JR Hildebrand, reigning Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, Will Power, Fernando Alonso, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti.
Sato benefited from being the last of six Andretti Autosport drivers to qualify
He took his teammates’ input and put four laps together at an average speed of 230.382 mph in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda. The 40-year-old veteran’s run missed out on top honors by less than six-hundredths of a second.
“It was great, the car was working good,” Sato said. “Usually lapping through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for qualifying, I’m not enjoying. But the car was very, very stable. I was starting to really enjoy after Turn 1 and the green-flag lap. Very free off the corner, so I think the car was really good. Tremendous support from all the team effort.”
Dixon, the 2008 Indy 500 winner, was eighth in line to qualify
He put together four laps at 230.333 mph despite sunshine bathing the track. Later attempts took place under cloudy skies.
“I think we were in the tougher kind of conditions,” Dixon said. “The track temp was definitely very high when we did our attempt, the sun was out. There is still tomorrow, of course, so doing the best we can on Sunday is what really matters.”
Qualifying was delayed five hours after heavy rain saturated the 2.5-mile oval at the time the session was slated to begin
Rookie Ed Jones was among the early qualifiers after qualifying started and impressed with a four-lap run at 229.717 mph in the No. 18 Boy Scouts of America Honda for Dale Coyne Racing. Jones remained in the fast nine until Hildebrand, the next-to-last qualifier, completed a run at 230.205 mph in the No. 21 Preferred Freezer Service Chevrolet that put the Ed Carpenter Racing driver in the fourth spot.
Jones slipped to 10th on the qualifying chart, meaning he will be the final driver to make an attempt in Group 1 qualifying Sunday to determine race starting positions 10-33. All times from first-day qualifying are erased and drivers in Group 1 will each make a single attempt in reverse order of where they qualified today.
Four-time Indy car champion Sebastien Bourdais was involved in the lone incident of qualifying
He lost control of his No. 18 GEICO Honda, which made hard contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2. Bourdais had completed the fastest two laps of qualifying until the incident on the third lap. The Dale Coyne Racing driver was transported to IU Health Methodist Hospital where. Later Dr. Geoffrey Billows, INDYCAR medical director, announced he had multiple fractures to his pelvis and a fracture to his right hip.
“Sebastien is in good hands here at IU Methodist Hospital with the staff and now we just wait for him to recover,” said team owner Dale Coyne.
Bourdais was scheduled to undergo surgery on the pelvis last night.
