Luyendyk Wins Waiting Game : Indy 500: Dutchman gambles on afternoon run and takes pole from Andretti at 223.967 m.p.h.

Changing conditions on a newly designed track turned pole qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 into a crapshoot Saturday, and taking a gamble turned out to be more profitable than standing pat.

Arie Luyendyk, the long-haired Dutchman who won the fastest Indy 500 in 1990, gambled on waving off an early qualifying attempt in order to try again late in the day, when the track was cooler. His four-lap average of 223.967 m.p.h. earned him the pole for the May 30 race, plus a $100,000 bonus.

Mario Andretti, the 1969 winner still looking for his second 500 victory, decided to stand pat and gamble that his morning speed of 223.414 m.p.h. would hold up. It did against all but Luyendyk.

Both were driving Ford Cosworth-powered Lolas, as was Brazilian Raul Boesel, who qualified on the outside of the front row at 222.379.

The 2 1/2-mile track had been tightened by the placing of rumble strips in the four corners, preventing drivers from taking shortcuts across the apron and shortening the length of a lap as they had been doing in recent years. The effect was a dramatic reduction in speed.

Luyendyk’s speed was 8 1/2 m.p.h. slower than the 232.482 m.p.h. record set last year by Roberto Guerrero in a Buick-powered Lola.

“I’ve never turned down a time in my career,” Andretti said. “I have no regrets whatsoever. In 1987 we won the pole and I qualified 5 m.p.h. slower than what I had been practicing, and it held. That’s what we were doing here today, and it damn near worked.”

Luyendyk could manage only 215.254 in his first lap at 11:39 a.m. and car owner Chip Ganassi quickly aborted the qualifying attempt. When Luyendyk came back at 5:01 p.m., he put together successive laps of 223.892, 224.316, 223.830 and another 223.830 for the aggregate of 223.967.

“We were struggling with the setup,” Luyendyk said. “We ran 226 two days ago, and then yesterday we just couldn’t find the speed. We tried something new this morning, and obviously it didn’t work.

“We felt confident we would get another attempt because the weather forecast looked pretty good, so we had the luxury of working on the car. We changed so many things that it’s unbelievable. We were working our butts off to get the car to work.”

Nigel Mansell, the first world Formula One champion to leave to drive on the Indy car circuit, suffered through a long day before finally qualifying at 220.255 m.p.h., eighth fastest of the 15 first-day qualifiers.

“It was very frustrating,” Mansell said of his first attempt to qualify on an oval. “At lunchtime, in the heat of the day, I did 222.9, and I think at that time it was very quick. I put three laps together in the 222s, so I felt very optimistic.

“I was itching to go, like I have always been in my career for qualifying. We usually have one hour to get it done, not all day. I was advised that we would go quicker late in the afternoon, and in fact we were 3 m.p.h. slower, which is very frustrating.

“I’ll give you a good analogy. First I did the 222.9, and then when I went out to qualify, it was like Greg Norman hitting an air ball on the first tee. I couldn’t believe how the track had changed.”

One of Mansell’s problems was getting down on the rumble strips.

“I was running out of room everywhere,” he said. “I would have got down on the grass if I had wet-weather tires on.”

Stefan Johansson of Sweden beat Mansell for fastest rookie honors when he qualified on the outside of the second row at 220.824.

Scott Goodyear and Al Unser Jr., the two who had the closest finish in Indy 500 history last year, are side-by-side on the second row, but this time Goodyear is the fastest, 222.344 to 221.773 for the defending champion.

The front row is the first all-foreign born lineup in 500 history. Luyendyk lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and is from the Netherlands. Andretti is a naturalized American citizen born in Trieste, Italy, and Boesel lives in Curitiba, Brazil.