Pole Day Qualifying At Indy

Think of it as a chess game that is being played out at over 220 mph. You need to be better than your opponent - or opponents, in this case - at deciding when is the best time to make your decisive move. Guess right, and you win the pole of the 93rd Indy 500: Guess wrong, & you might not even crack the top 1/3 of the starting grid.

You have three qualifying attempts at your disposal. If you use one and then wish to try again in hopes of vaulting yourself ahead of someone who has posted a faster time you can, BUT your previous time is now wiped away, & you can't get it back if your new attempt proves to be even worse.

This is the "game" that played out over the hours of noon - 6pm on Saturday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in cool & occasionally blustery conditions that played havoc with the cars. Most of the squads that knew they had no realisitic chance to crack the top 11 starting spots didn't even bother trying: Better to save the car & work on finding a bit more speed for Sunday, when slots 12-22 are up for grabs.

About 15 cars did fight it out for the sharp end of the grid, however. First out was Justin Wilson from Dale Coyne Racing, who set a respectable mark at 220+, only to have it thrown out a bit later on when his car failed the post-qualy tech inspection.

When the first flurry of qualifying had died down, after about one hour, Penske drivers Ryan Briscoe & Helio Castroneves were in the top two spots, with NHL's Graham Rahal on the outside of Row One. The Ganassi drivers had yet to be heard from, however, & nobody was feeling "safe" with their current standings.

When Franchitti & Dixon did come out (about one hour later), Dario managed to slot himself into the middle of Row One: Dixon wasn't as lucky, & ended up on Row Two.

The drama started around 4pm when AGR & Danica Patrick, then 10th fastest, withdrew her time and tried to haul herself further up the grid. She improved by one spot (for awhile).

Then Team Penske - always the ultimate gamblers on Pole Day - withdrew Helio's prior qualy time & sent him back out. He responded brilliantly, notching the day's only 225+ mph lap en route to a four lap average of 224.864, knocking his teammate off of the Pole. Not satisfied to let the matter rest, Briscoe went out (remember; he's still in 2nd spot at this point) to try & win it back. His effort failed, but his new time was still good enough to hold onto the second spot.

When all was said & done after the last hour's flurry of activity, here's who made the show on Pole Day:

ROW ONE

Helio Castroneves / Ryan Briscoe / Dario Franchitti 

ROW TWO

Graham Rahal / Scott Dixon / Tony Kanaan

ROW THREE

Mario Moraes / Marco Andretti / Will Power

ROW FOUR

Danica Patrick / Alex Lloyd

No rookies made it into the field on Pole Day. Qualifying resumes on Sunday at noon, when grid spots 12 -22 will be contested. If any driver on Sunday posts a time that is faster than one posted by a Pole Day qualifier, they do not get slotted ahead of them on the grid come race day. The same will hold true for Day Three & Bump Day qualifiers (I'll explain that in more detail come next weekend).

Here is a link to the best of the pics that I took today: http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e114/IndyAndy/Indy%2009%20-%20Pole%20Day/