Hinchcliffe hits top speed (230 mph) in Indy qualifying

INDIANAPOLIS — James Hinchcliffe never fretted about posting the best four-lap average in qualifying at Indianapolis on Saturday. All he wanted was a chance to win the pole Sunday.

The Canadian driver who nearly died last year from a life-threatening leg injury sustained during practice for the 500, survived two challenges in the final 25 minutes and barely held onto the top seed with a speed of 230.946 mph. Ryan Hunter-Reay was second at 230.805 on the next-to-last run in the session. Team Penske’s Will Power came in third at 230.736.

“Our first run, that was the hardest qualifying attempt I’d ever done at the speedway here,” Hinchcliffe said. “When you kind of take a step back and let yourself think about it a little bit, it does feel good.”

To complete his comeback with a pole-winning run for the May 29 centennial race, Hinchcliffe must do it all over Sunday.

The nine fastest drivers from Saturday will compete in a late afternoon pole shootout, and if it resembles anything like the first day of qualifications, fans could be in for a real treat.

The lead changed twice in the final 40 minutes, nearly changed two more times in the last 25 minutes and included Russia’s Mikhail Aleshin bumping his way into the shootout on the final run of the day. Hinchcliffe and Aleshin are teammates with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Not enough? Hunter-Reay made the top nine with a daring run that knocked out teammate Marco Andretti, the son of Andretti Autosport’s team owner, Michael, just moments after Andretti had bumped out Hunter-Reay.

The biggest problem might have been the weather.

Rain delayed practice by more than 4½ hours, and when the cars finally made it onto the 2.5-mile oval, the conditions were totally different. When the sun came out, the track temperature warmed up and the wind gusts began, and drivers found themselves fighting to stay on the track.

“I was really holding on from Lap 1 to Lap 2 and it was worse on Lap 3. I thought, ‘I wish this was the last one,’” said Scott Dixon, the four-time series champ and 2015 Indy pole winner who drives for Target Chip Ganassi.