Indy 500 pole qualifying a matter of inches

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS

Roger Penske’s strategy beat Michael Andretti’s team by inches Saturday — 9.168 inches to be exact.

In the closest pole duel in Indianapolis 500 history, Team Penske sent points leader Will Power onto the track with two minutes left in the Pole Day shootout — a shrewd move that prevented three Andretti drivers from taking one last shot at the pole and preserving the No. 1 starting spot for Ryan Briscoe.

It was a remarkable finish on a wild afternoon.

Briscoe was the surprise winner with a four-lap average of 226.484 mph. He completed the 10-mile qualification run 0.0023 seconds quicker than James Hinchcliffe. The previous record was set in 1970 when Al Unser edged Johnny Rutherford by 0.01 seconds over the four-lap qualifying run.

“My name will go down forever for something that I won here at the Indy 500,” Briscoe said after claiming his first Indy pole after narrowly missing in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

This one will go straight into the record book.

How close was the battle on Indy’s historic 2.5-mile oval?

Everybody had an answer. When Hinchcliffe left the post-race news conference, Briscoe held his fingers about an inch apart and explained it was that close.

Hinchcliffe knew better.

“It’s a gust of wind, it’s a shadow over a part of the track,” Hinchcliffe said, before holding up his name card and explaining that was the distance. “I’m going to lose a little bit of sleep at how small the margin was to Ryan.”

Eventually a series spokesman came in and blurted out the actual distance right down to the thousandth of an inch.

Nobody knows how to play this game better than Penske and he proved it again Saturday.

The iconic racing owner has won five of the last seven poles at Indy and extended his own Indy record to 17 poles. Briscoe is the 11th driver to win a pole for The Captain, and it comes one week before Penske celebrates the 40th anniversary of his first career Indy win 1972. He’ll get a shot at win No. 12 here May 27.

As usual, Penske didn’t rely on conventional wisdom.

Penske’s three drivers — Briscoe, three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves and Power, the points leader — spent most of this week just trying to crack the top 10 of the speed charts.

When Castroneves arrived at the track Saturday morning, it didn’t take him long to top 227 mph in the early morning practice, and once qualifying began, it quickly became apparent this would be a two-team race between Penske’s drivers and the resurgent Andretti team.