TWO-TIME FORMULA ONE CHAMPION ALONSO’S PRESENCE PROVIDES BIG STAR-VALUE
EXCITING DAYS AHEAD
Defending champion Alexander Rossi was the fastest car in Andretti Autosport’s six-pack. He’ll start third after posting a 231.487.
Japan’s Takuma Sato, Rossi’s teammate, will start fourth. He is best remembered for trying to make a dangerous first turn pass for the lead on the final lap at the 2012 race. Instead, he touched wheels with Dario Franchitti and wound up crashing.
Intriguing story
JR Hildebrand, Carpenter’s teammate, will start sixth, the outside of Row 2. He was the 2011 runner-up crashing on the final turn of the last lap.
The third row is comprised of Tony Kanaan, the 2013 Indy winner” Marco Andretti, the 2006 runner-up” and Will Power, the 2015 runner-up.
But the most intriguing story might be the quest of Fernando Alonso, who is skipping Monaco to run his first oval race. He qualified fifth with an average of 231.300 after only eight days on the track and just hours after an unscheduled engine change.
“He’s proving why he’s one of the best in the world right now,” Rossi said.
Roger Penske has won the 500 a record 16 times. Helio Castroneves has three of them. Both face an uphill battle to reach victory lane at the Brickyard.
After winning the first five poles this season, only Power advanced to Sunday’s nine-car pole shoot-out — and he wound up ninth at 230.200. Nobody else in the five-car stable will start higher than two-time winner Juan Pablo Montoya at No. 18, the outside of Row 6.
Meanwhile, Castroneves is making his eighth attempt to join the four-time winners club, and he’ll have to do it from the worst starting spot of his 500 career:” 19th.
“Of course you always want to start more near the front and you want to say you are on the pole or on the front row,” Castroneves said. “But it means a lot more to say that you are an Indianapolis 500 winner. That is our focus and that is what all of Team Penske is here to do.”