Ed Carpenter fastest at Indy, but not on pole yet

Ed Carpenter might win the Indy 500 pole on Sunday

F. Peirce Williams for Chevy Racing

Ed Carpenter posted the top time of the day, as the big horses of IndyCar put on a shootout at the end of the day while contesting the top 9 provisional positions. While the results will be thrown out tomorrow when the *real* qualification happens, these are the 9 that will be allowed to contest for the Pole: Ed Carpenter (230.661), Carlos Munoz, Helio Castroneves, James Hinchcliffe, Will Power, Marco Andretti, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden and JR Hildebrand.

Kurt Busch, in the top 9 all day long, was finally pushed out to the 10th position, and will join the rest of the field to contest positions 10-33. Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified 11th, Jack Hawksworth 12th, and Juan Pablo 13th.

In theory, a last-minute entry could be filed by 7:00 pm Indy time tonight, which would bring about an actual bump day. EJ Viso and Katherine Legge are both here, and there would be motors and cars for them, but no deals are even in the rumor mill. Under the current format, only Alex Tagliani (31st), Martin Plowman (32nd) and Buddy Lazier (33rd) would be in a position to be bumped.

– Scrubbing of the tires seemed to be a big topic in the paddock. Josef Newgarden commented on “Scrubbing was a big deal today… once we trimmed to a certain point, we just got too much scrub." He continued, “Sometimes you think you are going slower when you’re going faster."

– The top 9 get 1 shot for the Pole. At least that is the understanding of the media center. Helio took time to ask the assembled media about whether other cars could jump into the top 9 tomorrow, and the answer is that they cannot. Did we mention that we’re all trying to figure this out? A media person noted that this is the 5th qualification format in Helio’s Indy 500 career.

– Points. Okay, we weren’t doing more than setting up tomorrow’s real qualification attempts, but they did award points for today’s efforts. The top attempt by Ed Carpenter gets 33 IndyCar points, and the last place effort of Buddy Lazier was awarded 1 point, with everyone else falling in logical points awards by position.

– Both Ed Carpenter and JR Hildebrand are used to working on single-car teams. Both seem to be enjoying have veteran partners – “I’ve never worked this close" with another driver before commented JR. Ed chimed in that they actually started talking about this 2-car effort last June, probably at the exercise gym where they both worked out.

Hunter-Reay's teammate for the month, Kurt Busch, who is seeking to be the fourth driver to compete in the Indy 500 and the stock car race in Concord, N.C., the same day, was 12th after his initial qualifying run (229.256 mph). With an hour to spare before having to leave for the evening all-star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Busch moved into the top nine (229.960) and departed by helicopter satisfied with the day's efforts. By the time he landed, Juan Pablo Montoya had bumped Busch from the fast nine with a four-lap average of 229.966 mph. Montoya was summarily bumped by Andretti.

"I’ve qualified a Pro Stock car on the quarter-mile. I've done the longest track on the NASCAR circuit (Talladega), but to do four laps here … just the shear excitement of trusting a car with downforce going down into Turn 1 at 230 is indescribable," Busch said. "Qualifying at Indy you have to do it over 10 miles and you have to do it in the most unnerving conditions with the car; the car is not ready to go 230 (mph) but you have to handle it. It's been an experience, the Month of May in an IndyCar."

POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES

ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): (About if he's surprised by the speeds) "I thought it was going to be a little slower this morning, but then once it warmed up the speed seemed about right. I expected the Ganassi cars to be a little bit better, and like I said, five teams in there – Newgarden threw it in at the end and all sorts of teams represented. That's what's awesome about [the Verizon IndyCar Series] right now." (About what he has to do to keep the momentum going tomorrow) "It's just got to go like it did last year, we've got to get it right for that one run. Everybody's got one shot at it, and I think you saw guys going faster, going slower, going faster, going slower today depending on which run they were on. Some guys moved forward, some guys moved back when they pulled out a time. It just comes down to the engineers and the drivers making the right decision, believing in it and going out a laying down four good ones." (About if he's excited his cars have been so fast) "It's been a good month. I'm really happy we have the second car this month with the way it's gone with limited running and the rain. Having JR on the team has been a huge help. I'm happy we're in a position to have a chance to win a pole again, and at the same time I feel like we're in better shape for the race than where we were last year too, so it's shaping up to be a fun weekend."

JR HILDEBRAND (No. 21 Preferred Freezer/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "We changed our gearing strategy a little bit here. Through practice we used lower boost levels so it's a little bit different. We had more headwind and I was really trying to, as they might say in dirt bike country, trying to keep the thing on the pipe. I was really trying to keep the RPMs up in my first run and I think that really just ended up meaning that I was shifting too much. In this run, the balance was actually a little worse, but the conditions are a little bit better, and I was shifting a little less each lap so that helped me go faster. We just changed our gearing strategy a little bit. We didn't run this morning, so I was just coming off running with lower boost with a focus on more shifting given the headwinds we had been facing. So we went back and looked at some of the data and realized that our approach was just a little off base. So we made a couple of adjustments to get more speed out of it. I think actually our balance was worse in the second run, so if we have to go out there and do this again, we can squeeze a little bit more out of it."

JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "We picked up three-quarters of a mile per hour. We trimmed it out another step. There isn't much more than we can do. It's about as fast as it would go. It was pretty loose; the last two laps were a handful. We're pleased with it. We'll go look at it and try to find more straight-line speed. The first run was really straight-forward and this one was definitely more on edge."

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Pennzoil Ultra Platinum Team Penske Chevrolet): "Every time you get the front row here, at least for the first qualifying, it's great. It was a great battle. Every time we went out there we improved and we hope to continue that for tomorrow. When things are new you don't know what to expect. I was just kind of like excited to find out what's going to happen but it turned out to be not bad."

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Honda): "I don't think we realized our full potential today in the No. 7 SMP Racing car. The biggest reason for that is that the rain prevented us from trying a qualifying set-up before today. We've been working with different variables in the car, but only got two qualifying runs before time ran out. I think that if I would have gotten a chance to go out a third time we would have improved our time. I think we're in a good place for tomorrow though."

PIPPA MANN (No. 63 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "Today was a tough and at times a stressful one for us with the Susan G. Komen / Dale Coyne Racing car, but it started out, and finished the way we wanted things to! Running 228 mph for the first time in my IndyCar career this morning was a pretty fun experience, and we thought we were looking good for our first qualifying run. Unfortunately, we ran into a couple of small technical issues that hampered our speed in both our first two runs, and then when we got back in line to try a third time, the rain that has played such an important role this month decided to join us on pit lane again! It wasn't the first time I've been strapped in the Susan G. Komen car, waiting to go, and that's happened this year! However when we finally did get on track for that third run, we got the 228 plus average speeds we were looking for and it locked me into the top 30, and thus into the race whatever happens tomorrow. I've had a couple of stressful bump days in the past, so that's a pretty good feeling."

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Hartman Oil/Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): "Great job by my team, Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing. They pulled something out of their hats. Unbelievable. They put on a little different setup. We definitely went for it. It wasn't quite good enough to be at the top, but somehow we snuck in. It's pretty cool – a really good job by that team. Sometimes it's just fast and you don't know why. There are little tweaks though. Scrubbing, I think, was a big deal today. We were trying to get a consistent lap each run. It looked like that for other people too. Once we started trimming to a certain point we just started getting too much scrub. We figured out a way to limit that and I think that was the difference for us. It's different for everyone, but sometimes you go slower – or you go faster – and you don't actually know why. It's a funny place. Sometimes you get the conditions right or just the right run, but it definitely seems to pick you. When this place wants you to be fast, it lets you be fast."

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "It was looking pretty comfortable there for a while and then suddenly, bam, the track got quicker. Then we're starting to think, 'Jump in the car. We might have to make a run.' But still, it was a good day. I get to run fourth tomorrow in line. We'll just do what we can. It would have been nice to get full points, but it's still great to get in the Fast Nine for tomorrow."

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports Honda): "I've got to tell you, I think INDYCAR's got it right for the nerve wracking intensity that we all experienced today. It was a very entertaining qualifying day, especially for the fans. It was stressful all day long. We got a 230 mph average early on in the day so waiting it out to see if it would hold up was difficult! I was ready to go at the end if it would have come to that and I think the Lucas Oil car would have been able to qualify its way back into the top-nine, but it was nice to not have to go back out there at the last minute. It felt like I was driving all day and we found a lot of speed in the car. That's going to be great to help us for the second day of qualifying tomorrow. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to fight for pole position tomorrow. It's honestly another dream come true and I'll certainly give it my best tomorrow."

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 National Guard Honda): "From a fan's perspective, the system works because a lot of people ran a lot today so I thought that worked fairly well. Obviously, we have a lot of speed to find. We've got to keep working hard and try to get the car better and improve for tomorrow to get ourselves as far up the grid as possible. The goal right now is to focus. We made big changes for each qualifying attempt. I went from pretty good handling, to hanging on, to pretty good handling but went slower each time."

ORIOL SERVIA (No. 16 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda): "It's no secret that all month we have been a little slower than we wanted. Then yesterday and today we made good improvements with the car and I honestly thought we were looking at being in the top-12 and we are not there. We were hoping to be faster than that though. Realistically we have been improving step-by-step and I think we still have more steps to go I think the new system makes qualifying interesting."

JACQUES VILLENEUVE (No. 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "We had a run at the end of the day where we trimmed the car out but we went slower than before. That was frustrating because we just weren't accelerating like we should have. That was serving as a test for tomorrow, so we have a few things to figure out before tomorrow."(Comparing today to his qualifying in 1995) "The '95 car was edgy. I wasn't flat out on the four laps. There was more horsepower so you were a little bit more on the ragged edge. Now, it's more of a question of momentum. The speeds are similar but it drives differently. I love driving at these speeds, that's what I was born to do."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 Snapple Honda): (How did you overcome having a puncture in your tire and coming back out and putting that time up?): "Just line it up again. That's all you can do. Until the gun goes off at this place, it can bite you." (What is it like driving this car here for four laps trimmed out?): "I just have to keep reminding myself that we are in the field. I remember 2011; I was fighting to even race, so obviously we're lucky with that bit. I definitely want to have a shot at. Hopefully we maximize whatever we have to do to make that happen."

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 34 Cinsay AndrettiTV.com HVM Honda): "After the second run, I was really disappointed. During the first run, the Cinsay car was really good, but during the second run, we just completely lost the balance of the car. My team, my engineer – they did exactly what I asked, and we had a great third run. I was questioning myself, the team, everything before, but as soon as I hit the track I forgot everything (about the second run). The car was really fast, and it's a shame we wasted that second outing. I think we're looking strong, and we'll see what happens tomorrow."

ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 68 SFHR/RW Motorsports Honda): "Really happy for the team. They made it with Josef Newgarden's 67 car in the top nine. It's very important for the championship. I think the team has a good chance to steal the show tomorrow with the 67 car. I will be pulling and supporting them. In regards to the 68 car I am really sad for the crew. They deserve better and I am going to be on a mission for the race. That is the only thing that matters."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 United Fiber & Data Honda): "It feels really good now. It's a huge testament to this team and the work that they've done to be able to come out here. We had a solid first run, but we knew we were going to have to tweak some more out of it. We were sitting back in the garage there watching ourselves tumble down the charts, watching the track get a bit quicker and guys go a bit quicker. We knew it was our time to go out. The rain came, and we weren't sure what that was going to do to the track and the conditions. But Nathan (O'Rourke), my engineer, just nailed the aero balance on that one. The car was even nicer to drive than it was the last run. It was on edge, man. I'm shaking a little bit. But it was fast, and that's what matters."

KURT BUSCH (No. 26 Suretone Honda): (About his first run): "I've qualified Pro Stocks on the quarter-mile; I've done the longest track on the NASCAR circuit (Talladega) but to do four laps here on a 2.5-mile track, that's a 10-mile run. That's the longest I've had to focus for a qualifying run. Just the shear excitement of trusting a car with downforce going down into Turn 1 at 230 is indescribable. Those four laps felt like one; 230 is a totally different game. I wasn't as focused as I needed to be; the moment of Indy can kind of overtake you. It was a very solid run; I was hoping for more. I didn't keep up with the adjustments in the car. Those guys at Andretti Auto sport have given me a great car. I have to head to Charlotte by 3 p.m. I've got to be able to start the Charlotte race – there's a million bucks down there. It's been an experience, the month of May in an Indy car. It's really hard to digest at all. The chance to qualify is one thing but to do it in an Andretti car is another. The qualifying run I made felt very comfortable, maybe that's why it wasn't as good as I had hoped. Maybe I was conservative with the car instead of edgy. I have to thank Andretti Autosport and Suretone for making all this happen; those guys have been great to partner up with and run a big advertising campaign around the Indy 500. We're going to try and make it to Charlotte in time for the drivers' meeting tonight. It's nice that NASCAR has allowed my car to be practiced (by Parker Kligerman)." (About second run): "The Andretti team has taken the steps to help me get to a comfortable place to be able to go out there. We could have camped on our 12th-place run from our earlier outing and been back out here tomorrow. But why not go for it? We didn't have to withdraw our time, so why not go for it and try to get into that final group. I gave my heart a run at it. If we end up outside of the Top Nine I know I gave it my all and that was really a neat experience – not to withdraw the time, but go to up against the car and myself to pick up speed. The way you have to challenge a track for a NASCAR run is you have the most downforce and the car is going to be the most at its grip level. Here at Indy you take all the grip away and you take all the downforce – you make the car as uncomfortable as you can make it. And then they tack on three extra laps, so you're doing 10 miles. So I've qualified a Pro Stock car a quarter-mile at a time, I've qualified a stock car for 15 years – qualifying at Indy you have to do it over 10 miles and you have to do it in the most unnerving conditions with the car; the car is not ready to go 230 (mph) but you have to handle it."

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Hydroxycut/Mistic KVSH Racing Chevrolet): "It was a clean run for four laps; pretty solid. But I struggled quite a bit in Lap 3 and 4. Coming off of (Turn) 2 is the tailwind. I guess I could have been a little bit more aggressive. But the bottom line, you got on new tires; perfect track. It was a 228.7 and it's just not good enough to make the Fast Nine. We can't really trim the car much more than that, so I think the Mistic/Hydroxycut machine is just going to call it a day and come back tomorrow and just try to figure something out for tomorrow."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet): (About his first run): "It was an average run. I think we were a little bit neutral and started sliding the rear a bit coming from Lap 2 and onwards. The speed just wasn't there anyways. After Ed (Carpenter's) run we have to find a good mile and one-half or a little more. We're trimmed out more than what they are. It's not about how trim you are; it's all about the whole package together. We'll go back out. With warmer conditions later we may see some bigger speeds." (About Tony Kanaan as teammate): "It never hurts to have last year's Indy 500 champion alongside you. We're trying to work as hard together as we can. He has a lot of good experience. Hopefully we can get our package running and increase the speeds here."

CARLOS HUERTAS (No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I thought it was a decent run, but there is still something left in the car. I hope we can get another chance later today to improve on it."

RYAN BRISCOE (No. 8 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "It felt solid. I just need a bit more speed. We're going to go back and work pretty hard and see what we can do to go faster. I'm pretty sure we'll go back out again. I think it (the new qualifying format) is going to be great. It's going to roll all the way into tomorrow. It's going to keep the excitement going all weekend for the fans. I think as the day rolls on today, it's going to just keep getting stronger and stronger. It should be fun."

SEBASTIAN SAAVEDRA (No. 17 KV AFS Racing Chevrolet): "It's hard to believe that this is the same car that was involved in the big accident last weekend. I am so proud of the KV AFS Racing guys; they did an amazing job putting the car back together in two days. We lost a lot of time on track, but we are here and the car feels good. To be at the same pace as my teammates with a car that is not fully build for this event is a great feeling. We haven't focused so much time on the qualifying trim, so I know we have a good race car and now we focus on the race next weekend."

JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 98 Charter/Castrol Edge Honda): "I was disappointed when I hit the wall, but it was harder on the team than me. When the car was ready it was a matter of strapping up to get it done. The crew did a fantastic job. I had a good day (qualifying). It was pretty decent; I'd like to think we're in good shape. We're strong, how strong I don't know. The weather (last week) wasn't good. The condition this morning (practice) was cold. (First 500) It's been crazy. We've been up and down all week. We have an absolutely fantastic car. I came in here and crashed the car in practice; that was a bad day. We finished the week today. I'm sure everyone was giving it full gas this morning (qualifying)."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "I'm really happy with it. I think the team's done a great job of preparing the car for qualifying. Honda's come out really fighting. I'm very proud of what of what they've brought to the table. I'm very proud of the team for putting a car under me like that. Hopefully we can make this a great Indy 500; one to remember." (On not having a lot of time on the track this week): "You just really have to look at it from the perspective that it's the same for everybody. Everybody's in the same boat you are. Sometimes you want to be out there pounding around, getting some information. But it's the same for everybody, and we came prepared for qualifying. But today's going to be challenging to even get in the Fast Nine."

MARTIN PLOWMAN (No. 41 ABC Supply/ A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): "Just sitting on the grid getting ready to go out, I was pretty calm leading up to it. But when I was sitting there on deck, my heart rate went up to 170 because of all the emotion. From five years old, you live for this moment. And when you're sitting there you think, 'Holy crap. This is happening.' It was very exciting. The first green lap going into turn one was a pretty emotional moment – being wide open and seeing what the car has." (About his run): "The qualifying run itself was OK. The first three laps were decent. I think we got the most out of it. Then the fourth lap into turn one I got a bit of a bobble. The car got a little bit loose on me and we tracked it up to the wall. I stayed in it, but unfortunately that killed some of the momentum which really hurt me. I don't think it would have been a lot better, but if we need to, there's still a lot more speed to come. We're still on the conservative side. There's not a need to take a big risk today. We're keeping something in the pocket. If we need to, we can roll the dice tomorrow."

JAMES DAVISON (No. 33 KVRT/Always Evolving Racing Chevrolet): "It (the car) was quite stuck. We can certainly afford to trim a little more wing out of it but we're just progressively getting up to speed. Each time I go out in the car is another step forward in the experience for me since we're such a budget restricted program. We just got started on Thursday. We went into this morning with just rookie orientation under our belt. We have realistic expectations for qualifying and we're just focusing on the race. We have only so many engine miles we can use up until Race Day and we're here to use them wisely to make sure the car is a good race car."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): "(When you went out what was the number you had in mind?): "After this morning's practice session, which was very cold and pretty quick because all the air was moving because of a couple cars running together, so we hit 230 miles an hour which was a very impressive lap. But knowing that you are going to be by yourself in qualifying, I thought a high number of 228 would be the lap but then other people were doing 229s and 230 which was very impressive. I wasn't sure I could do the same, but I just felt that without knowing anything. The car was pretty good on the first lap, and then on the second lap it was kind of in happy place, but by the third and fourth laps, it was getting a little loose, the car was losing the rear grip. There's definitely room to improve if we can get it right, but otherwise it is pretty much what we expected. If the conditions allow, we would probably break through to 229 but it didn't happen. As I said there is some room to improve because the balance shift was quite big over the course of the four laps. I'm looking forward to looking at the data with the engineers to see if there is any sign that we can improve in the evening when it's cooling down, it might be busier, but I think we will try it." (Evolve as a driver since 2012 Indy 500?) "I really enjoyed running that race, leading the 500 for the first time in my life, the day was very special for us and Bobby gave me a great chance to race together. We were building up the team, the team was just reborn. There were a lot of fresh faces as well as a lot of longtime faces in the Rahal team too, so it was the second generation for the Rahal team in the IndyCar Series. I had a brand new race engineer for the States that I brought from Europe-in Formula 1, he was my race engineer. We had a lot to be done and we gained a lot of new experience. I might be very aggressive but what do you need from a race driver, right? After that race, A.J. gave me a great opportunity to race with his team and we achieved good results over the last one and a half seasons. The team is still moving forward and building up. Every time I jump in the car I feel I learn something. That is the name of the sport. Everybody's improving." (Build on what you learned out there?) "This was the first time we took off the rear wing to this level so it was definitely good experience to go through the qualifying segment for the four laps. We'll look over the data now and see where we can improve." (How long to figure out if you will go back out there?) "As soon as we can figure out what we can improve in terms of the grip and the consistency and try to minimize the balance shift, we will go but we need to wait a little bit." (Do you think it will be really busy later today with cars trying to improve their time?) "Yes because unlike normal Indy 500 qualifying, this gives championship points today so I am expecting it to get quite busy in the end."

TOWNSEND BELL (No. 6 Robert Graham KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "It felt pretty good. The balance was great. The Robert Graham car looked great on track. It was not super quick but it was well balanced. We did as much as we could. I'll have to go back and think about it. Our team will study the data. Our teammates are running right now. Right now, Bourdais isn't any quicker. So, we'll see. Maybe wait on a little better track condition. It's Indianapolis so it's all the little things and sometimes you need a little luck on your side."

SAGE KARAM (No. 22 Comfort Revolution/Brantley Gilbert Chevrolet): "Today was great. We qualified and made the show. We're in the Indianapolis 500, which has been a dream of mine as long as I can remember. To finally accomplish that is an incredible feeling for me and also my family, because we've worked so hard for it. As far as the car is concerned, it's great as well. Dreyer & Reinbold-Kingdom Racing put a really good car together for me. We know it's not today that counts, but tomorrow and next Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow we can find another couple tenths in the Comfort Revolution/Brantley Gilbert car, and try to qualify towards the front. Right now we're sitting about mid-pack, which I can work with, but if we can get up to tenth, it'll be a whole lot easier on me, and we'll have a lot more fun with that, so we'll see what we can do tomorrow."

Saturday Results

Results of qualifying Saturday for the 98th Running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Rank, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and speed in parentheses:

1. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.0735 (230.661)
2. (34) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.2090 (230.460)
3. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.2286 (230.432)
4. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.2452 (230.407)
5. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.3022 (230.323)
6. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4306 (230.134)
7. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4741 (230.070)
8. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4993 (230.033)
9. (21) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.5032 (230.027)
10. (26) Kurt Busch, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.5493 (229.960)
11. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.5904 (229.899)
12. (98) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.6471 (229.816)
13. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.6681 (229.785)
14. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.7821 (229.618)
15. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.0111 (229.283)
16. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.1426 (229.091)
17. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.3252 (228.825)
18. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.3522 (228.786)
19. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.4043 (228.710)
20. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.4364 (228.664)
21. (22) Sage Karam, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.4460 (228.650)
22. (6) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.5435 (228.508)
23. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.5944 (228.435)
24. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.6265 (228.388)
25. (63) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.6474 (228.358)
26. (17) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.6917 (228.294)
27. (5) Jacques Villeneuve, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.7766 (228.171)
28. (33) James Davison, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.7912 (228.150)
29. (16) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.8713 (228.034)
30. (18) Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.9011 (227.991)
31. (68) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 02:38.0246 (227.813)
32. (41) Martin Plowman, Dallara-Honda, 02:38.5601 (227.043)
33. (91) Buddy Lazier, Dallara-Chevy, 02:38.9102 (226.543)