,
Hildebrand and his owner Carpenter discuss Hildebrand's qualifying run. All three of CFH's cars were quick and the trio could come alive on raceday. Could one of the three (Carpenter, Hildebrand, or Josef Newgarden) bring home a Cinderella victory?
Simon Pagenaued in his Chevy powered Penske was one of the quicker cars of the day. His name has not really been mentioned much in the 500 so far, yet the popular Frenchman put his number 22 on the outside of the front row, his best ever Indy start, and his best start with Team Penske thus far.
The man of the hour…would NOT be Will Power. Try as he may, Will could only manage 2nd. Will said earlier in the month, there were four sessions he wanted to lead in May. He won the Pole and the overall victory in the GP and was just 0.4 MPH off of the pole time for the 500. With coaching from the great Rick Mears, Power has become as skilled on the ovals as he is on the road courses. With some luck he could have his first taste of milk, and be the first driver in history to pull off an Indy double.
Team Target Chip Ganassi would be the fly in Roger Penske's ointment. Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon were the only drivers who could split the Penske monster. TK would qualify 4th, bumping Helio to 5th (and splitting up a Penske triage), while Dixie snapped up the Pole early in the session. This is Dixon's second 500 pole. His first came in 2008…the ame year he won the race. Dixon is the fuel saving master and Indy can be a fuel race. He will be tough to beat.Below is the starting lineup for the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500.
| Row | Inside | Middle | Outside |
| 1 | Scott Dixon (W) | Will Power | Simon Pagenaud |
| 2 | Tony Kanaan (W) | Helio Castroneves (W) | Justin Wilson |
| 3 | Sebastian Bourdais | Marco Andretti | Josef Newgarden |
| 4 | JR Hildebrand | Carlos Munoz | Ed Carpenter |
| 5 | Oriol Seriva | Charlie Kimball | Juan Pablo Montoya (W) |
| 6 | Ryan Hunter-Reay (W) | Graham Rahal | Carlos Huertas |
| 7 | Simona de Silvestro | James Jakes | Tristan Vautier (*) |
| 8 | Alex Tagliani | Sage Karam | James Hinchcliffe (*) |
| 9 | Conor Daly | Townsend Bell | Takuma Sato |
| 10 | Pippa Mann | Gabby Chaves (R) | Sebastian Saavedra |
| 11 | Jack Hawksworth | Steffano Coletti (R) | Bryan Clauson |
W = Past Winner R= Rookie *= Starting from back of field due to driver change
You may notice the two driver changes. Tristan Vautier was substituting for James Davison who was scheduled to race at MoSport in Canada during qualifying. The other name with an asterisk is James Hinchcliffe. If you've been following the Indycar action off of MotoIQ, you already know what happened to him…
