USA TODAY International Edition
Pagenaud wins pole; Alonso misses field
INDIANAPOLIS – Kyle Kaiser and Juncos Racing are in. Fernando Alonso and McLaren Indy are out.
On a wild, emotion-filled, rainsoaked Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, David conquered Goliath, James Hinchcliffe earned redemption and Simon Pagenaud seized the pole as the field for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 was set.
Ed Carpenter’s and Roger Penske’s cars went toe-to-toe for the pole as Penske’s Pagenaud continured his magical month of May, backing up his IndyCar Grand Prix victory with a sprint to the Indy 500 pole. Pagenaud put together a four-lap qualifying average of 229.992 mph to edge three-time polesitter Carpenter (229.889).
On the final attempt of the day, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Spencer Pigot, the provisional pole-sitter from the first day of qualifying, couldn’t muster enough speed to overcome the Frenchman or his owner/teammate but was able to lock up the final spot on the front row.
“I knew if there was going to be one guy who was going to get on the pole, it was Simon,” said Penske, who won his 500-record 18th pole. “These past few weeks, he’s been terrific. Now it’s time to get the big one.”
Rookie Carlton Herta will start fifth in the 33-car field.
Drivers and fans were on edge all day, waiting more than four hours for the rain to cease, the track to dry and racing to resume. But when it finally did about 4:30 p.m. ET, the drama that was to come proved more than worth the wait.
With the do-or-die Last Row Shootout leading off, Hinchcliffe got a chance to put the heartbreak of last year behind him and find a little redemption. That’s precisely what he did, blistering around the track at 227.543 mph and delivering the fourth and final Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car into the field.
“Relief is the biggest emotion right now,” Hinchcliffe said following an emotional 24 hours.
Hinchcliffe’s time in the Last Row Shootout was only surpassed by Dreyer and Reinbold’s Sage Karam, whose 227.740 mph four-lap average put him on the inside of the final row and was the death knell to Team Carlin’s Max Chilton, who was bumped from the 500.
The big shock came when Kyle Kaiser, of tiny Juncos Racing, usurped twotime Formula One champion Alonso and McLaren on the final lap of his qualifying run.
Kaiser, who crashed during a midweek practice, posted a four-lap average of 227.732 mph, which was just twothousands of a second faster than Alonso’s 227.353 mph. Jubilation filled the speedway as team owner Ricardo Juncos was reduced to tears. His team worked for nearly 43 hours straight to build Kaiser another car to qualify with.
On the other end of the spectrum were Alonso, Team Carlin’s Max Chilton and Pato O’Ward. All three of them had their hearts broken Sunday after failing to qualify.
McLaren sporting director Gil de Ferran was heartsick following the devastation of being bumped. After confirming that McLaren has no intention of buying its way back into the field — “We wanted to earn it” — de Ferran called Sunday the toughest day of his professional career.