JOHNSON WILL RACE FOR POLE AT THE INDY 500

Jimmie Johnson felt comfortable from his very first laps of Indianapolis 500 preparation.

The seven-time NASCAR champion knows his way around The Brickyard — he won at Indianapolis Motor Speedway four times in a stock car — so not even a brush with the wall in an Indy car could rattle him.

The 46-year-old advanced into today’s shootout for the pole with some of the fastest laps ever turned at Indy. His single-lap speed of 233.961 mph in Saturday morning practice was the 14th-fastest lap ever turned at the track. Hours later, he posted a four-lap qualifying average of 232.398 mph to lock himself into his first Indy 500.

Johnson was the sixth-fastest qualifier and today has a shot at winning the Indy 500 pole. The fastest 12 in the 33-car field have two shootouts today and the “Fast Six” will set the first two rows for the May 29 race.

Can he actually win the pole?

“I got a shot,” said Johnson, “I don’t know what the odds are, but I’ll send it for sure.”

This journey into the Indy 500 is like nothing Johnson has ever experienced in a career spanning more than two decades.

“There’s really not a comparison, this is so much more intense,” he said. “Plus, you have to run four laps, there’s not just one. But there is much more on the driver here than what happens in Daytona 500 qualifying.”

Johnson qualified just behind two of his Chip Ganassi Racing teammates as all five of the Honda-powered drivers advanced into today. Reigning series champion Alex Palou was fourth fastest and Tony Kanaan was fifth. Marcus Ericsson was eighth and Scott Dixon was 10th.

Really, all the Ganassi drivers were fast.

All-star pit crew

The NASCAR All-stars during qualifying Saturday night were the pit crew members for Kyle Busch, who earned the pole for the annual $1 million non-points exhibition race.

Busch won the final round of an unusual elimination bracket involving the pit crews doing a four-tire pit stop when he beat Ryan Blaney to the finish line.

All 20 drivers locked into tonight’s 24-car All-star race field went through a normal one-lap qualifying. The top eight then went into an elimination bracket, when two cars at a time were staged in temporary side-byside stalls at the end of pit road. The drivers had to wait for a signal before charging forward for a four-tire pit stop, then raced a lap around the 11⁄2-mile track.

Busch had an easy lap in the semifinal round when head-to-head against reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, who won his last two All-star starts.

Notable

Cup regular Tyler Reddick led the final 31 laps of the NASCAR Xfinity race at Texas to give second-year team Big Machine Racing its first victory. It also ended a threerace streak in which three different JR Motorsports drivers took the checkered flag. Reddick finished 1.8 seconds ahead of William Byron, who was driving for JR Motorsports.

Charles Leclerc won pole position for today’s Spanish Grand Prix after the Formula One leader recovered from spinning to a stop with a last-gasp lap to snatch the top spot from Max Verstappen.