Indy 500: Pagenaud wins pole for Penske

The Frenchman, who just last Sunday won the IndyCar Grand Prix, turned a beautiful run in the Penske-Chevrolet with three laps above 230mph and a 229.7 on his fourth to knock three-time Indy polesitter Ed Carpenter from the top spot.

When neither his teammate Will Power nor Carpenter’s teammate Spencer Pigot – fastest yesterday – could match his speed and consistency, Pagenaud held on to top spot.

Despite generally being third fastest ECR car all week, Carpenter will start from the middle of the front row with a 229.889 average, just a squeak ahead of his former Indy Lights champion teammates Spencer Pigot and Ed Jones.

Colton Herta was fastest Honda driver, nailing fifth place with a great 229.086mph average, eclipsing 2018 Indy 500 winner Power who couldn’t explain where his speed had gone, but whose car looked more wayward than that of Pagenaud.

Sebastien Bourdais was seventh in the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda to beat the third Penske of Josef Newgarden, while Alexander Rossi was a slightly anti-climactic ninth in the fastest of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas.

For last chance qualifier report click here

FAST NINE SHOOTOUT

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	2'36.5271		230.012
2	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	2'36.5971	0.0700	229.909
3	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	2'36.6402	0.1131	229.846
4	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	2'36.7629	0.2358	229.666
5	Colton Herta	Harding Steinbrenner Racing	2'37.1465	0.6194	229.106
6	Will Power	Team Penske	2'37.4490	0.9219	228.665
7	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan	2'37.4659	0.9388	228.641
8	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	2'37.6208	1.0937	228.416
9	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	2'37.7240	1.1969	228.267
View full results