All month long, our racing guru David Scoggan is blogging LIVE from the track! Check back here regularly for a dose of Dave’s wit and whimsy.
Spencer Pigot sits on the provisional pole position pending the scheduled Fast Nine Shootout that could get washed out on Sunday. PIgot was the second driver out to qualify and used the morning conditions to post a 230.083 average that held throughout a hot afternoon. Joining Pigot as Fast Nine pole candidates are: Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden, rookie Colton Herta, Ed Jones, Ed Carpenter, Alexander Rossi, and Sebastein Bourdais. All nine drivers will get one shot at pole position, weather permitting.
The following drivers (in order) are locked into positions 10-30: Marco Andretti, Conor Daly, Helio Castroneves, Marcus Ericsson, Takuma Sato, James Davison, Tony Kanaan, Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon, Oriol Servia, Charlie Kimball, JR Hildebrand, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Santino Ferrucci, Matheus Leist, Jack Harvey, Jordan King, Ben Hanley, Zach Veach, Felix Rosenqvist, and PIppa Mann, slowest in the field at 227.244 MPH.
Six drivers will be battling for the last three available slots. James Hinchcliffe had a hard crash on his qualifying run, but the Arrow/SPM team had his backup car out in the late afternoon. Hinchcliffe joins previous crash victims Fernando Alonso (!), Pato O’Ward, and Kyle Kaiser in the bumping pool, along with veterans Max Chilton and Sage Karam. The bottom line is whenever the eleventh-row shootout happens, three good cars and drivers will be going home early.
