Andretti posted a four-lap average of 231.351 mph to top the speed chart Saturday ahead of teammates
The Andretti organization grabbed four of the slots and
“Honda brought it this year,” Andretti said. “I was able to just go out and do my job and, man, when it all comes together, it is just beautiful.”
Hunter-Reay was second, Rossi third and Hinchcliffe fourth in the Andretti sweep.
“To be one-through-four is pretty unheard of,” Rossi acknowledged.
Andretti Autosport tried to get all six of its cars into the top nine but
It's also not clear that the Andretti group has the fastest car —
“We were just checking a few things for tomorrow, we wanted to get the right balance,” Dixon said.
It was a miserable effort for Chevrolet, which only placed 19-year-old rookie Rinus Veekay from
The race was originally scheduled for its traditional
The manufacturer thought it caught a break when Newgarden and former race winner Power both drew early qualifying slots, giving them a shot to make their runs during cooler temperatures. It should have worked, but Newgarden was only the second-fastest Chevrolet.
Power had one of the worst qualifying efforts of his
“Probably one of my slowest cars ever. It just blows my mind,” Power said. “We ran less downforce than Josef and we were slower."
Power said the four-car Penske organization will now focus on race preparation and accept the sub-par starting spots.
“Now we can get back to race focus,” Power said. “We are better in race trim, for sure.”
The shootout for the pole will consist of the four Andretti drivers, Dixon, VeeKay, rookie
Andretti likes his chances even as he initially worried his early speed wouldn't hold. He's winless in 14 previous attempts to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and the famed Andretti family has just one win in the event, a 1969 Mario Andretti victory.
“The biggest hurdle when you come to Indy is speed,” Andretti said. “We had it. But then you start to wonder — is Chevy sandbagging? Is it too good to be true? Man,
Andretti received praise from his father, Michael, the team owner.
“He blew me away,”
“One of the challenges is trying to make all our cars equal,"
Alonso’s qualifying time of 228.768 mph was 12th out of 13 drivers when he made his attempt. Alonso, who was bumped from the field last year, will start 26th.
“We just wanted to put together a solid run with no drama and put the car in the show,” the Spaniard said. “We were not as quick as we wanted and we had to accept that.”
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