Since 2013, the event on Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River, has been a double-header, with one race on Saturday, one on Sunday. After two practice sessions on Friday, a qualifying session would be held on Saturday morning and Sunday morning for the following race.
However, the packed nature of the schedule meant that IndyCar needed to save time by running two groups of 12 or 13 (depending on entry list size). Whoever had the fastest time across the two groups would earn pole and his group would occupy the odd-numbered side of the grid – P3, P5, P7, etc. while the fastest driver of the other group would line up on the outside of the front row, and his group would start from the opposite side of the grid.
