And so we come to the last weekend in May, Memorial Day in the US, and the self-styled Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500. And even if Formula One, NASCAR, and a few other organizations may demur, this year will mark the 101st running of the Speedway Classic, which suggests that it must have something going for it.
The cars have changed, the track surface has changed, the surroundings have changed, but the great 2-1/2 mile banked oval remains. However, one thing that has changed radically is the aqualifying procedure. To bring it more or less into line with the rest of the races in the series, it has been quite radically changed. Since the result is extremely complicated, let's let the official Indycar explanation carry the load:
Indianapolis 500 Qualifying 101
SATURDAY QUALIFYING
• All entries are guaranteed one attempt to qualify between 11 a.m. and 5:50 p.m.
• The fastest 33 cars will make up the provisional field for the 98th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race based on the fastest four-lap average time.
• Once the qualifying session ends, the top 30 cars are locked in to the field.
• However, all 33 cars must re-qualify on Sunday to determine final starting positions.
• The fastest nine cars advance to a shootout on Sunday to determine the Verizon P1 Award.
Qualifying Lines:
• There will be two qualifying lines at the end of pit lane:
o Line 1: Cars that are unqualified or have withdrawn their previous qualifying times. Priority will be given to this lane.
o Line 2: Cars that have already qualified but want another attempt and have not withdrawn their previous qualifying times.
• Multiple attempts are permitted without withdrawing a time by entering Line 2.
• Teams can withdraw their time and enter Line 1, which will have priority over cars already in the field.
• Teams that make multiple attempts can only improve their times if they have not withdrawn their time to enter Line 2, meaning, even if a driver records a slower four-lap average, that driver's previous (faster) time will stand.
Qualifying Points, Saturday:
1st - 33 points
2nd - 32 points
3rd - 31 points
4th - 30 points
5th - 29 points
6th - 28 points
7th - 27 points
8th - 26 points
9th - 25 points
10th - 24 points
11th - 23 points
12th - 22 points
13th - 21 points
14th - 20 points
15th - 19 points
16th - 18 points
17th - 17 points
18th - 16 points
19th - 15 points
20th - 14 points
21st - 13 points
22nd - 12 points
23rd - 11 points
24th - 10 points
25th - 9 points
26th - 8 points
27th - 7 points
28th - 6 points
29th - 5 points
30th - 4 points
31st - 3 points
32nd - 2 points
33rd - 1 point
SUNDAY QUALIFYING
Group 1:
• All Saturday times are erased and positions 10-30 will re-qualify to determine starting position.
• Order will be the reverse of Saturday's rankings.
• Lineup will be determined based on fastest four-lap averages.
• In the event that there are only 33 cars entered, this group will determine positions 10-33.
Group 2 (Only used in the event there are more than 33 cars):
• All Saturday times are erased and positions 31-33, and any entry that has yet to make one attempt to qualify, will re-qualify to determine the 11th row of the race.
Group 3:
• The top nine cars will run in reverse order based on Saturday's times.
• All cars will make one attempt.
• At the end of the session, the cars are ranked 1-9 based on their four-lap average during the segment.
Qualifying Points, Sunday:
1st - 9 points
2nd - 8 points
3rd - 7 points
4th - 6 points
5th - 5 points
6th - 4 points
7th - 3 points
8th - 2 points
9th - 1 point
Note: The Indianapolis 500 will award double points for race results, but the qualifying points and any bonus points awarded for leading a lap (1 point) or most laps (2 points) will not be doubled.
Whew.
So, how did it all shake out? Here's the starting order.
Verizon IndyCar Series
98th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race
INDIANAPOLIS - Results of qualifying Sunday for the 98th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Rank, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and four-lap average speed in parentheses:
1. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 02:35.7992 (231.067)
2. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 02:35.9528 (230.839)
3. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.0488 (230.697)
4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.0812 (230.649)
5. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.1049 (230.614)
6. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.1526 (230.544)
7. (34) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4224 (230.146)
8. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.5946 (229.893)
9. (21) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.3938 (228.726)
10. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 02:35.8396 (231.007)
11. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 02:35.8930 (230.928)
12. (26) Kurt Busch, Dallara-Honda, 02:35.9913 (230.782)
13. (98) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.1779 (230.506)
14. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.3480 (230.256)
15. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4881 (230.049)
16. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.5750 (229.922)
17. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.6259 (229.847)
18. (16) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.6905 (229.752)
19. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.7132 (229.719)
20. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.7756 (229.628)
21. (18) Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.0328 (229.251)
22. (63) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.0521 (229.223)
23. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.0671 (229.201)
24. (68) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.1038 (229.148)
25. (6) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.1990 (229.009)
26. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.2376 (228.953)
27. (5) Jacques Villeneuve, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.2400 (228.949)
28. (33) James Davison, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.2977 (228.865
29. (41) Martin Plowman, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.3333 (228.814)
30. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.4028 (228.713)
31. (22) Sage Karam, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.5931 (228.436)
32. (17) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.8335 (228.088)
33. (91) Buddy Lazier, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.9501 (227.920)