Ed Carpenter won the pole (228.762 MPH) for the 97th Indianapolis 500 but he isn't settling. The pole means something to the Hoosier native but look into his eyes and you can tell he wants more. Winning the pole is nice but no one dreams of being the pole-sitter for the Indianapolis 500, they dream of greater success come the final Sunday in May. Carpenter said in the post qualifying press conference he wants to lead his team by example and remind them of why they are at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.
Will Power was Carpenter's final challenger but he fell to sixth. The Colombian rookie Carlos Muñoz starts second. The last Colombian to start second, Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. How did that turn out?
Marco Andretti starts on the front row, his first career front row start for the Indianapolis 500. His teammate EJ Viso starts fourth with rookie AJ Allmendinger starting fifth, the best Penske. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top nine.
Those who failed to make the Fast Nine include JR Hildebrand, Alex Tagliani, Tony Kanaan and Oriol Serviá. Justin Wilson and Sébastien Bourdais start fourteenth and fifteenth while Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti joining points leader Takuma Sato on row six. Charlie Kimball is on row seven with James Jakes and Simon Pagenaud. Townsend Bell bumped his way back into the top twenty-four late and starts twenty-second, ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Simona de Silvestro.
Those who have to qualify tomorrow are Josef Newgarden, Graham Rahal, Buddy Lazier, Pippa Mann, Ana Beatriz, Michel Jourdain Jr., Conor Daly, Sebastián Saavedra, Tristan Vautier and Katherine Legge, who was confirm to the third Schmidt Peterson entry. The number of the third Schmidt entry has changed from #99 to #81.
Weather forecast for bump day calls for partly cloudy conditions with a high of 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Chance of precipitation is 20%, with winds SSE at 5 to 10 MPH.
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