Helio Castroneves wins fourth Indy 500 pole of career
It was over before it truly started.
Designed to create late-afternoon drama, the new “Fast Nine” shootout for the Indianapolis 500 pole was instead rendered almost pointless in just minutes. Three-time ‘500’ winner Helio Castroneves, the first qualifier of the segment, opened his four-lap qualifying run with a lap at 227.961 m.p.h. and then peeled off the next circuit at 228.213 m.p.h., the fastest of the month.
When it was over, he had a four-lap average of 227.970 m.p.h., which was good enough for Castroneves to claim another pole at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He’s become the third driver in Indy 500 history to win four of ’em, and now, he’ll aim to join A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, and Al Unser, Sr. as a four-time winner of the race next Sunday afternoon (1 p.m. ET, ABC).
Castroneves will have help on the front row for the ‘500’ as well. Team Penske teammate Will Power grabbed the second spot on the grid with his average speed of 227.578 m.p.h. But a Penske sweep of the first three positions was foiled by Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti. The 2007 Indy winner will be on the outside of Row 1 after posting an average of 226.990 m.p.h.
But considering that the third Penske driver, Ryan Briscoe, will start fourth, it’s a small blemish on an otherwise dominant day for Castroneves and his squad, which has won 15 Indianapolis 500s.
“This place, you gotta expect the unexpected, my friend, and that was a great result,” he said. “[Going out first] was the right thing to do…I didn’t want to keep waiting to see other times. I wanted to go for it, and, by this time today, I just know when I’m ready. [Penske Racing president Tim Cindric] asked for two [qualifying order] numbers, first or last — and I said, ‘You know me. Just pick whatever decision you think is right.’ He was right again.”
Cindric was also keen on unleashing his team’s leader early on in the shootout.
“A lot at this place has to do with what you think and what you believe in, and when you know the driver is ready to go, that’s more important to you sometimes than a few degrees of track temperature,” he said. “I knew [Castroneves] was ready to go.”
Castroneves also managed to snag Team Penske the first pitbox on race day by holding the top spot at the end of the first segment of qualifications (pit positions are determined by the Segment 1 qualifying speeds). During that five-hour block, he took P1 away from Alex Tagliani with around 80 minutes remaining in the session. The primo spot stands to be a factor in their favor come next Sunday.
“The second attempt was really crucial for us to get that first pit,” said Castroneves. “These guys, they’re all about the first pit and I’m like, ‘Dude, we’ve won here not starting from the first pit.’ But [Cindric] knows. That’s why he’s the strategy guy and I trust him. It’s a good combination and from that, we learned a lot, we made some adjustments to the car, so when we went out there in the “Fast Nine,” it was just perfect.”
Power, the IZOD IndyCar Series championship leader, tried to get closer to his teammate. He took multiple shots at Castroneves in the “Fast Nine” session and during the run that would net him P2, he progressed forward on every lap. The Aussie may have been a victim of timing, as he felt that if he had gone out earlier, he may have been able to steal the pole.
“I think if I ran that setup earlier…when it was hotter and the air is a little thinner, it would have been quicker,” Power reckoned. “It’s so hard to tell. I know Helio went out at the end and was doing the same speed I was. You know, I just wonder. But that’s experience.
“Maybe I should have gone to that setup earlier, trimmed that much out earlier. But, you know, that’s the only thing that I could think of that would have got me closer to his pace or maybe challenged him.”
Franchitti was also impressed with Castroneves’ performance, as well as Power’s.
“Those were big numbers,” said the Scotsman. “I don’t want to take anything away from the job that Helio and Will did. Hats off to those guys. They did a great job. When I saw those numbers, I thought, ‘What do they have they we don’t?’
“…We were going all out for it. We just didn’t have it today.”
All three of them were expected to be pole contenders, and they lived up to those expectations. However, it was the unexpected elements that marked Pole Day 2010.
A number of potential “Fast Nine” combatants were unable to even make the top 24 positions that were determined in Segment 1. Andretti Autosport’s Tony Kanaan, who had been hyped as a possible pole winner, crashed in Turn 2 during his first qualifying run, and KV Racing Technology’s Paul Tracy and A.J. Foyt Racing’s Vitor Meira were victimized by a lack of speed from their machines.
Troubles also continued for Danica Patrick, who is normally a strong driver at Indy but has been toward the bottom of the speed charts since the start of practice. Patrick wound up 23rd on the grid (average of 224.217) with what she called an “absolutely awful” car. She’ll start behind two other female drivers, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing’s Ana Beatriz and HVM’s Simona de Silvestro.
“I wasn’t flat the last two laps, and I was scared to death flat the first two,” said Patrick after her attempt. “And it didn’t get better. You know, the problem is that the car can be fast. You trim it out and it accelerates, so there’s no issue there. It’s just that the balance and the car itself is so bad, we can’t even trim it out to go faster.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough for Patrick, she was roundly booed by the assembled crowd at IMS after she went on to declare that the poor qualifying run wasn’t her fault. She didn’t take kindly to that.
“I say one confident thing out there, that it’s not me, and everybody boos me,” she said in a press conference. “I’m blown away. These people, I mean, I don’t know, maybe they all booed me before. I would think that some of them have probably cheered for me before, and I’m not a different driver than I was five years ago. I don’t know if those people were here five years ago, but I got loose in [Turn] 1 and caught it and kept my foot down.
“So I can drive a loose car, but this is beyond.”
The unexpected vibe also seeped into the Fast Nine. Alex Tagliani backed up a stellar week of practice by qualifying fifth, while American drivers Graham Rahal and Ed Carpenter — both of them driving in one-off attempts — qualified seventh and eighth. Hideki Mutoh of Japan will start ninth for Newman/Haas Racing.
Tagliani had the pole until Castroneves topped him shortly before 2:40 p.m. ET.
“We spent some time today on the front row and ended up fifth here, and to have this result at Indianapolis is just amazing,” the Canadian said. “To be able to fight with the Penske’s and Ganassi’s of the IZOD IndyCar Series and have the opportunity to battle against them is just a huge honor…That is just an amazing accomplishment for this team.”
Rahal was also proud of his own Rahal Letterman Racing crew as well. He and his team owner/father Bobby Rahal had to scramble to get the program together for the ‘500,’ but so far, it’s been paying off on the track.
“None of us expected to be, you know, a tenth of a mile per hour off of Scott Dixon,” said the younger Rahal. “I think that shows, though, the potential of this team. They’ve been out of it for a couple of years now, and they certainly have not developed the car as these others have. And, yet, we can show up and be right on par. There’s a lot of pride to be involved in a team like this that can do that.”
Bump Day activities will begin tomorrow at Noon ET at the Speedway, with traditional four-lap qualifying filling the final nine positions on the grid and bumping coming thereafter.
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IZOD IndyCar Series
94th Indianapolis 500
Provisional grid (Positions 1-24)
(Car #-driver, team, four-lap average)
1. 3-Helio Castroneves, Penske, 227.970.
2. 12-Will Power, Penske, 227.578.
3. 10T-Dario Franchitti, Ganassi, 226.990.
4. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Penske, 226.554.
5. 77-Alex Tagliani, FAZZT, 226.390.
6. 9-Scott Dixon, Ganassi, 226.233.
7. 30-Graham Rahal, Rahal/Letterman, 225.519.
8. 20-Ed Carpenter, Panther/Vision, 224.507.
9. 06-Hideki Mutoh, Newman-Haas, 223.487.
10. 99-Townsend Bell, Ganassi/Schmidt, 225.097.
11. 22-Justin Wilson, Dreyer & Reinbold, 225.050.
12. 2-Raphael Matos, De Ferran Dragon, 225.028.
13. 32-Mario Moraes, KV Racing Tech., 224.888.
14. 21-Davey Hamilton, De Ferran Dragon, 224.852.
15. 24-Mike Conway, Dreyer & Reinbold, 224.583.
16. 26-Marco Andretti, Andretti, 224.575.
17. 37-Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti, 224.547.
18. 4-Dan Wheldon, Panther, 224.464.
19. 8T-E.J. Viso, KV Racing Tech., 224.380.
20. 23-Tomas Scheckter, Dreyer & Reinbold, 224.261.
21. 25-Ana Beatriz, Dreyer & Reinbold, 224.243.
22. 78-Simona de Silvestro, HVM, 224.228.
23. 7-Danica Patrick, Andretti, 224.217.
24. 36-Bertrand Baguette, Conquest, 224.189.
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Quotes and materials from league and team press releases were used in the making of this article.
