Scott Dixon on pole for Indianapolis 500

2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon will start first for next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

While Sunday’s qualifying session wasn’t incredibly dramatic, the hours before the session were. During pre-qualifying practice on Sunday morning, Ed Carpenter crashed and his car flipped over. It was the third time in the past five days that a car flipped over after hitting the wall during practice.

Carpenter’s crash spurred a flurry of meetings between IndyCar officials and team owners. As the track’s fence was being repaired in turn two after the accident, the series made changes for qualifying.

Instead of a multi-session format where the pole would be determined from the fastest nine drivers, qualifying became a single-session affair. Horsepower on the cars’ engines was turned down, meaning no driver came close to breaking the 230 MPH average-speed barrier for four laps. Teams were also required to run the same aero kit pieces on the cars in qualifying that they would run for the race.

The third car of 33 cars that made attempts, Dixon’s pole-winning four-lap average was 226.760 MPH. It’s his second pole for the 500. The first? Yep, when he won in 2008.

The aero kits have been considered a possible culprit for the rash of flips. The Chevrolet and Honda cars are sporting additional bodywork for speed and downforce this year and it’s the first time the trim kits have been used at the Indianapolis 500. While the three cars that flipped have all been Chevrolets, Honda teams were also mandated to make the same qualify-what-you-race changes to their aero kits.

Teams were planning to run a higher downforce setup and kit in the race, opting for a sleeker and faster setup in qualifying for the best-possible qualifying spot. With changes over the next week suddenly outlawed, teams essentially had to qualify with their baseline race setup.

“We don’t know if it’s just a Chevy problem,” IndyCar CEO Mark Miles said Sunday morning about the flips.

2014 IndyCar Series champion Will Power starts second, while his Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud starts third. Dixon drives for Chip Ganassi Racing and his pole broke a streak dating back to last year of eight-straight poles won by Team Penske cars.

Here’s the starting lineup for the race. Buddy Lazier didn’t qualify.

1. Scott Dixon, Chevrolet
2. Will Power, Chevrolet
3. Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet
4. Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet
5. Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet
6. Justin Wilson, Honda
7. Sebastian Bourdais, Chevrolet
8. Marco Andretti, Honda
9. Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet
10. J.R. Hildebrand, Chevrolet
11. Carlos Munoz, Honda
12. Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet
13. Oriol Servia, Honda
14. Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet
15. Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet
16. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda
17. Graham Rahal, Honda
18. Carlos Huertas, Honda
19. Simona de Silvestro, Honda
20. James Jakes, Honda
21. Tristan Vautier (qualifying for James Davison), Honda
22. Alex Tagliani, Honda
23. Sage Karam, Chevrolet
24. James Hinchcliffe, Honda
25. Conor Daly, Honda
26. Townsend Bell, Chevrolet
27. Takuma Sato, Honda
28. Pippa Mann, Honda
29. Gabby Chaves, Honda
30. Sebastian Saavedra, Chevrolet
31. Jack Hawksworth, Honda
32. Stefano Coletti, Chevrolet
33. Bryan Clauson, Chevrolet