If qualifying for the 2022 Indianapolis 500 offered a glimpse into Sunday’s 106th running, it’s going to be an awfully fast race.
After two days of qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Scott Dixon came out on top, winning his fifth career and second consecutive Indy 500 pole.
Not only did Dixon set the record for fastest pole speed in Indy 500 history — it’s the fastest four-lap average for the race at 234.046 miles per hour — but he also, along with Alex Palou and Rinus VeeKay, combined for the fastest front row ever in Indy 500 history with an average speed of 233.643 miles per hour. Both records had been standing since 1996.
The fastest pole speed in #Indy500 HISTORY!@ScottDixon9's average speed of 234.046 mph breaks the late Scott Brayton's record of 233.718 mph. pic.twitter.com/i82tcKVwF3
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 22, 2022
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“Honestly, nobody goes that fast, right, unless you’re on a plane,” 41-year-old Dixon told For The Win on Monday, struggling to compare the feeling with something regular people can do. “For drivers, you always just want to go faster, right? So it’s something that one, we’re used to, but two, it becomes an addiction, right? That you just want to keep going faster.
“And sometimes, the sport allows for that to happen, or some years, they come back and it’s a rule reset or the engines have changed or something like that where you don’t see the speed. For a long period of time, we were setting poles in the mid 220s, so it’s kind of cool to see the evolution of this car, even though the rules package has stayed very similar.”
Even fellow drivers, who race at high speeds all the time, were blown away.
Starting third in the Indy500… STARTING THIRD IN THE INDY500!!! Thanks to @ECRIndy and @TeamChevy for the speed, congrats @scottdixon9 you speedy ‘old’ man pic.twitter.com/HbdH9f8Smy
— Rinus VeeKay (@rinusveekay) May 23, 2022
Congrats @scottdixon9 !!! that was FASSSSSTTTTTTT
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) May 22, 2022
This era of @IndyCar racing is truly incredible. The level of competition, the speed. I mean we just saw the second fastest set of 4 laps any human being has ever done @IMS. We’re in for one of the greatest #Indy500’s of all time next weekend.
— Conor Daly (@ConorDaly22) May 22, 2022
Of course, the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda driver’s record-breaking speed is a four-lap average, meaning he hit higher speeds down the mammoth speedway’s long straightaways. Even driving faster than 200 miles an hour, Dixon said he definitely can feel a difference when he picks it up.
“Our prep laps that we do before we start, you’re kind of around the 200-mile an hour mark, and it feels extremely slow,” he explained. “And then when you get to the 230s, 240s — a lot of us, we’re going 243, 244 on the straights the last few days — you do even feel that 40-mile an hour difference.”
Hoping to win his second Indy 500 — Dixon also won in 2008 from the pole position — some of his biggest competition for the crown will come from his own Chip Ganassi Racing teammates.
'@ScottDixon9 gets a warm reception from the @IMS crowd!
He wins the pole position for Sunday's #indy500 on @NBC. pic.twitter.com/15qa5y9qts
— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) May 22, 2022
All five Ganassi drivers advanced to Sunday’s second day of qualifying, and Palou will start second, Marcus Ericsson and Tony Kanaan will start fifth and sixth, respectively, and Indy 500 rookie Jimmie Johnson will start 12th.
In addition to fast teammates, the 33-car field also features eight previous Indy 500 champions: Hélio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009, 2021), Juan Pablo Montoya (2000, 2015), Takuma Sato (2017, 2020), Tony Kanaan (2013), Alexander Rossi (2016), Will Power (2018) and Simon Pagenaud (2019), along with Dixon.
So, like it so often does, it will likely take a completely flawless race — “and you need Lady Luck on your side” — to have a chance at becoming the milk-covered victor. And Dixon knows starting first can only get him so far through the 500-mile race.
“The tough part these days is that because of [the fast qualifying speeds] and because the group is so tight, the competition level is just through the roof,” Dixon said. “It just puts a massive emphasis on making sure you have no mistakes, because if you have one mistake, there’s literally 32 others that will be in front of you. Gone are the days where maybe you could pick out five, seven, eight cars that had a legitimate shot at winning. …
“For the pole sitters and the front-row drivers, that’s the frustrating part — is that you’ve done a hell of a job as a team and our efforts and put a lot on the line. But it guarantees you absolutely nothing, but that’s what makes this race so special.”
