Scott Dixon has won the Indy 500 pole position, Dan Wheldon will start 2nd, Ryan Briscoe 3rd...

 IndyCar PHOTO BY RON MCQUEENEY

(5:20) With 40 minutes remaining in qualifying, Hideki Mutoh took to the track trying to regain the starting spot lost in the tech line, his first lap was 223.9, plenty fast enough to bump Rahal. Mutoh ran  4-lap average of 223.887, not only safe, but now 9th, he now has a cushion. Mutoh's run bumped Graham Rahal. Ryan Hunter-Reay, bumped from the grid earlier, came back out and crashed very hard on his 2nd lap, he is out of the car and appears to be OK. This plays into the hands of the latest bubble car, that of Tomas Scheckter. The TV people are doing their usual bad job about updating the "Q" line, with all the ex-racers they are paying, you would think someone would tell them where to point the camera. The SAFER was damaged in the Hunter-Reay crash, and was repaired. Graham Rahal was next out, and was waved off after three laps. Dan Wheldon came out next, trying to recapture the pole from Scott Dixon, his TCGR teammate. Wheldon was fast enough early, but lost ground by the lap, Dixon remained on the pole and Wheldon moved to 2nd, with a 226.110 average. Tomas Scheckter was the next in line, with options, either pull out of line and risk being bumped, or run, eat up some clock time and perhaps run fast enough to escape being on the bubble. Rather than not run, the Scheckter bubble time was withdrawn and he was out running for not only a new starting spot, but a shot at the pole. Forget the pole, Scheckter might not have been quick enough to even stay in the first 11. Scheckter ran an 4-lap average speed that was slower than what he gave up, a 223.496, and he was still on the bubble. In retrospect, in making the run Scheckter ate up valuable "Q" time and nobody had the speed or time to bump him. Will Power again attempted to qualify and was waved off after 2 laps at 22.107. Justin Wilson came up too slow. EJ Viso was next over the scale and the car was removed from the line. Rahal was ready to run again, but the team wasn't, they didn't have the new tires needed on the car to make the run. Apparently the team thought they wouldn't get another run. Here is the gun, Pole Day qualifying has ended...
 
It's a wrap, no charts, no commentary, just positions and average speeds, an O/IRR virtual pylon in cyberspace...
 
1. #9, Scott Dixon, 226.366, 2 attempts
2.. #10, Dan Wheldon, 226.110, 2 attempts
3.. #6, Ryan Briscoe, 226.080, 2 attempts
4. #3, Helio Castroneves, 225.733
5. #7, Danica Patrick, 225.197
6. #11, Tony Kanaan, 224.794
7. #26, Marco Andretti, 224.162, 2 attempts
8. #4T, Vitor Meira, 224.346
9. #27, Hideki Mutoh, 223.887
10. #20, Ed Carpenter, 223.835
11. #8, Tomas Scheckter, 223.779
 
(5:15) As it is getting close to crunch time, with only 45 minutes left in qualifying, I thought I would post pest speeds on the day from the also-rans, there's some good stuff here, the bump is 223.3 anyone with a 224 is a player, and Hideki Mutoh has just headed out to qualify again.

Pos

Driver

 

Best Time

Best Speed

Best Lap

 

 

Last Lap

 

9

Hideki Mutoh (27)

 

39.8087

226.081

11

 

 

33

 

12

Townsend Bell (99)

 

40.1240

224.305

13

 

 

36

 

13

Justin Wilson (02)

 

40.1566

224.123

20

 

 

41

 

14

Sarah Fisher (67)

 

40.1608

224.099

5

 

 

28

 

15

Graham Rahal (06)

 

40.1726

224.033

36

 

 

37

 

16

A.J. Foyt IV (2)

 

40.2410

223.652

13

 

 

33

 

17

Ryan Hunter-Reay (17)

 

40.2485

223.611

58

 

 

61

 

18

Buddy Rice (15)

 

40.2507

223.599

25

 

 

29

 

19

Darren Manning (14)

 

40.2595

223.550

15

 

 

37

 

21

Oriol Servia (5)

 

40.2792

223.440

15

 

 

47

 

22

Will Power (8)

 

40.3401

223.103

38

 

 

46

 

23

Bruno Junqueira (18)

 

40.4694

222.390

30

 

 

31

 

24

Marty Roth (25)

 

40.5828

221.769

7

 

 

56

 

25

Milka Duno (23)

 

40.5891

221.734

37

 

 

39

 

26

EJ Viso (33)

 

40.6286

221.519

6

 

 

29

 

27

Max Papis (44)

 

40.6582

221.358

16

 

 

40

 

28

Mario Moraes (19)

 

40.7683

220.760

16

 

 

67

 

29

Enrique Bernoldi (36)

 

40.7895

220.645

36

 

 

50

 

30

John Andretti (24)

 

40.7906

220.639

8

 

 

33

 

31

Mario Dominguez (96)

 

40.7984

220.597

50

 

 

60

 

32

Jaime Camara (36T)

 

40.9963

219.532

22

 

 

68

 
(4:35) Now it is Marco Andretti's turn, the was car withdrawn and Marco went out and made a marginal gain. Marco posted a speed of 224.413-mph, which moved him up to 7th on the temporary grid. Meanwhile Graham Rahal lingers back on the bump, unaffected by all the games being played for starting positions above his. Rahal has virtually no chance of making the top-11 with his speed today UNLESS those playing pole-games dominate the "Q" line in the final hour and those that would displace him can't get to make a run. If I was running the AGR program I would find 224-mph for Mutoh and get him in the show, before he becomes collateral damage too.

***
(3:35)The qualified car Ryan Briscoe has been withdrawn from the fields and Briscoe will no make a 2nd attempt for the pole position. As with Helio Castroneves, Briscoe has recently practice above 226.5-mph. Briscoe's first two laps were above 226-mph, his 3rd a little under it and he finishes up with a 228.080 mph average to temporarily capture the pole position.

Not to be outdone, TCGR has withdrawn the speed of Scott Dixon and he is now on the speedway running well above 226.5-mph. Dixon has now the latest driver to occupy the pole position, but this time he ha really raised the bar to well above 226-mph, a 4-lap average of 226.336-mph
 
(3:00) Helio Castroneves is now making his first "Q" attempt of the day after running several practice laps above 226-mph recently. Castroneves came up a little short of Wheldon's provisional pole speed and now is qualified in 2nd position...

***
(2:50 p.m., an update) The "Q" run of Hideki Mutoh has been disallowed as the car has failed post-qualifying tech inspection. Mutoh's car came up a little more than 4 pounds underweight. Davey Hamilton is now on the bump...

(1:55 p.m.) At a time when the other teams with pole contending drivers were pulling their cars out of line left and right, Chip Ganassi and Dan Wheldon felt they might as well roll the dice and they came up at least a temporary winner. Right now two possible pole contenders have yet to run, Helio Castroneves and AJ Foyt IV, who had a spin on his warm up lap, there is no qualifying attempt against the Foyt IV car yet. Meanwhile the track is under a practice session green flag, as some of these teams search for enough speed to give them reason to withdraw their qualifying speed and make another run for the pole. There are also 12 other drivers besides Castroneves and Foyt IV that have yet to make a "Q" and also Bruno Junqueira, who had a warm up lap spin as well...
 
(5-10-08, 11:50 a.m.) Marco Andretti caught what must have been a perfect tow to post the fastest speed and only 228-mph lap of pole day practice. "Q" runs are moments away on ESPN2, here is the latest updated qualifying order and best speeds... Note that John Andretti has replaced Jay Howard in the Roth Racing #24 for Indy only.

***
(11:15 a.m.) Here is the final pre-qualifying chart, showing 4 drivers above 227-mph, missing from that "club" are a couple of the usually fast. Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan, are they sandbagging or did they fail to latch onto the "tow truck?" Best in class, meaning the drivers and teams of the former CCWS is Justin Wilson, just close enough to get a whiff of a possible pole day qualifying spot. The one-off of the day so far is Sarah Fisher, a surprising 14th on the chart and above 224-mph... I'm going to refresh and bring forward my "Q"-line order and get ready for the first "Q" attempt of the day, now scheduled to be made by John Andretti, but I expect that unless the team is hungry for TV time the team will pass. The car has no signage on it, if they rush to get that done, John will run.

Pos

Driver

 

Best Time

Best Speed

Best Lap

 

 

Last Lap

 

1

Marco Andretti (26)

 

39.4187

228.318

10

 

 

10

 

2

Dan Wheldon (10)

 

39.6086

227.223

11

 

 

19