Carpenter Wins Pole At Indianapolis

Ed Carpenter made history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, today, becoming just the 11th driver to win back-to-back Indianapolis 500 poles.

Carpenter joins legends Ralph DePalma '20/'21, Rex Mays '35/'36, Eddie Sachs '60/'61, Parnelli Jones '62/'63, Mario Andretti '66/'67, A.J. Foyt '74/'75, Tom Sneva '77/'78, Rick Mears '88/'89, Scott Brayton '95, '96 and Helio Castroneves '09/'10 with two poles in two years.

"It's exciting. But after going through this last year and not winning the race I've been so much more determined," explained Carpenter. "I think the whole team has to really figure out what we need to do next Sunday and that remains true."

Carpenter ran a 4-lap average of 231.067 mph, earning the American the $100,000 check and Verizon P1 Award.

The most impressive run of the day, however, didn't come from the Verizon P1 Award winner, rather, the P2 starter, James Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe, who suffered a concussion in the widely publicized incident at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis, didn't take his first lap on the 2.5-mile circuit until 5:57 on Thursday, just 3-minutes before the checkered. With the majority of Friday rained out, Hinchcliffe turned just 17 total laps before his qualification run Saturday.

As Hinch explained in his post-qualifying media availability, this time last week he wasn't allowed to use a cell phone. A week later and he's in the middle of Row 1 at Indianapolis.

"I'll get over this real quick because in the grand scheme of things, this has still been an awesome day; it's been an awesome couple of days since being cleared to drive," said Hinchcliffe. "I'm just so thankful that it all worked out."

The fastest field in history (229.382 mph), your 2014 Indianapolis 500 starting grid:

1-Ed Carpenter - 231.067 mph
2-James Hinchcliffe - 230.839 mph
3-Will Power - 230.697 mph
4-Helio Castroneves - 230.649 mph
5-Simon Pagenaud - 230.614 mph
6-Marco Andretti - 230.544 mph
7-Carlos Munoz - 230.146 mph
8-Josef Newgarden - 229.893 mph
9-JR Hildebrand - 228.726 mph
10-Juan Pablo Montoya - 231.007 mph
11-Scott Dixon - 230.928 mph
12-Kurt Busch - 230.782 mph
13-Jack Hawksworth - 230.506 mph
14-Justin Wilson - 230.256 mph
15-Mikhail Aleshin - 230.049 mph
16-Tony Kanaan - 229.922 mph
17-Sebastien Bourdais - 229.847 mph
18-Oriol Servia - 229.752 mph
19-Ryan Hunter-Reay - 229.719 mph
20-Graham Rahal -229.628 mph
21-Carlos Huertas - 229.251 mph
22-Pippa Mann - 229.223 mph
23-Takum Sato - 229.041 mph
24-Alex Tagliani - 229.148 mph
25-Townsend Bell - 229.009 mph
26-Charlie Kimball - 228.953 mph
27-Jacques Villeneuve - 228.949 mph
28-James Davison - 228.865 mph
29-Martin Plowman - 228.814 mph
30-Ryan Briscoe - 228.713 mph
31-Sage Karam - 228.436 mph
32-Sebastian Saavedra - 228.088 mph
33-Buddy Lazier - 227.920 mph

Posted in: