Speedy Helio wins 4th Indy pole

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Helio Castroneves put his foot down Saturday and proved he’s still the one to beat at Indy.

The defending 500 champion and three-time race winner wrapped up a wild qualification day by topping 228 mph on two of his four laps, averaging 227.970 mph to win his fourth career Indianapolis 500 pole.

Nobody, including Castroneves, had touched 227.9 in practice even on one lap.

Fans were so shocked by the burst of speed that they gave Castroneves standing ovations after his second, third and fourth laps.

“This place, you’ve got to expect the unexpected, my friend. That was a great result,” said Castroneves, who now becomes the favorite as he tries to become the fourth man to win four Indy 500s. “I was ready. I didn’t want to keep waiting and see all the times. I wanted to go for it.”

The other eight drivers in the new pole “shootout” were relegated to taking aim at the No. 2 spot.

Castroneves tied A.J. Foyt and Rex Mays with his fourth Indy pole and will be joined on the front row by Penske teammate Will Power and Target Chip Ganassi driver Dario Franchitti. Australia’s Power averaged 227.578 and will start from the middle of Row 1. Scotland’s Franchitti averaged 226.990 and will start from the outside of the first row in the 11-row, 33-car field.

It was about the only part of qualifying that went as expected.

The day was marred by three crashes including one that took out pole contender Tony Kanaan, the 2004 IndyCar Series champ. Kanaan, a Brazilian like Castroneves, never got a second qualifying attempt Saturday.

Danica Patrick’s struggles continued, too.

The series’ glamour girl qualified 23rd at 224.217 and will start behind two other women — Brazil’s Ana Beatriz and Switzerland’s Simona de Silvestro, who were 21st and 22nd, respectively and Patrick was nearly in danger of being bumped out of the field.

Race organizers filled the first 24 starting spots Saturday.

Worse yet, Patrick criticized her team for the qualifying setup during an interview on the public address system and then was booed by the crowd.

“Shoot, I say one confident thing out there and everybody boos me. I’m blown away,” said Patrick, who never started worse than 10th in five previous Indy starts. “These people, I mean, I don’t know, maybe they all booed me before. I would think that some of them cheered for me before, and I’m not a different driver than I was five years ago.”