Indianapolis 500 pole sitter Ryan Briscoe and runner-up by the slightest of margins James Hinchcliffe were quick to figuratively bring their respective crews and organizations onto the stage following Pole Day qualifications at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“It's definitely the preparation and the experience,” said Briscoe, who claimed the $100,000 pole award for the 96th running of the 500 Mile Race in the No. 2 IZOD Team Penske car. “There’s over 600 years of experience on the team. I think that helps us once we get here to do things methodically, not get ahead of ourselves, never get overconfident and just keep working hard.”
Briscoe delivered the 17th pole award at Indianapolis for team owner Roger Penske (team consultant Rick Mears has an Indy-record six and Helio Castroneves has four).
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“This race is just so important; it's so big, and I think even just a pole win here is remembered,” said Briscoe, who has amassed 13 poles in his IZOD IndyCar Series career and second of the season. “They were four really good laps and I was proud of myself and the team for the set-up they gave me. It wasn't the outright speed that we had. It was the consistency we had over four laps.”
Teammates Will Power and Castroneves will be on Row 2 for the 200-lap race May 27. Three Andretti Autosport drivers -- including Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti -- qualified in the top nine, while KV Racing Technology’s Tony Kanaan and E.J. Viso plus rookie Josef Newgarden of Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing fill out the top three rows.
Briscoe recorded a four-lap time of 2 minutes, 38.9514 (226.484 mph average) on his second run in the 90-minute shootout for the top nine qualifiers from Segment One. Hinchcliffe posted an aggregate time of 2:38.9537 (226.481 mph) in the No. 27 GoDaddy.com car – losing out on the pole by 0.0023 of a second or 9.168 inches over the 10 miles.
“I told him he should have ducked his head coming down the straight,” Briscoe said.
Briscoe expects close competition on Race Day, too.
“Andretti (cars) are always strong here in the race,” he said. “They have been strong in race runs in practice. I feel like we have been just as strong, though, and I feel like there are a lot of cars out there that have been strong.
“I think it's going to be a pretty wild race. I think nobody is going to be able to pull away. There's going to be a lot of passing. It's going to be a pretty grueling 500-mile race, and it's going to be hard to predict a winner until you see them come out of Turn 4 and maybe even then, you won't know it. I think it's going to be all about executing on the day, not making mistakes, having good pit stops and keeping your nose clean.”