Sharp Takes Pole for Indy 500

Indy Racing League stalwarts Scott Sharp and Greg Ray showed their speed to frustrate a powerful group of crossover talent Saturday to take the first two qualifying positions for the May 27 Indianapolis 500.

Sharp, who shared the first IRL series championship in 1996, won the pole and its $100,000 bonus with a four-lap average of 226.037 mph in one of Kelley Racing’s Dallara-Olds. His fastest lap over the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway rectangular oval was his third, 226.423.

Ray, the 1999 champion and last year’s Indy 500 pole-sitter, kept Sharp and a smattering of fans waiting for more than five hours before taking his Dallara-Olds onto the track in the final hour of time trials. He fell short, running only 225.194.

“I was on pins and needles all afternoon,” said Sharp, who posted his time at noon and had to wait until 5:11 p.m. for Ray to roll off the starting line.

Sharp’s teammate, Mark Dismore, just missed putting two Kelley cars on the front row, but his 224.964 mph was a fraction short of third best.

A surprising third, filling out the front row, was the enigmatic Robby Gordon, a man without a series, who drove a Dallara-Olds for A.J. Foyt and Winston Cup car owner Richard Childress and ran 224.994 for the 10 miles. Gordon, who nearly won the 500 two years ago before he had to pit for fuel while leading with only two laps to go, was left without a job earlier this year when he was dropped from the Morgan-McClure Motorsports team after only five Winston Cup races.

“I thought we had a real shot at the pole,” Gordon said. “My fastest lap was my warmup lap. That caught me by surprise.”

To which Foyt interjected: “The last thing I told Robby was to not wear out his tires with too fast a warmup lap, but you know Robby. He showed the stuff he’s made of by running 225 [actually a tad short of it].”

“I’m excited to be in the front row,” Gordon said. “I’m going to beat Greg Ray into Turn 1 this year. Our race strategy will be to go out, sit back and cruise, then with 75 to 50 laps to go I’ll turn it up.”

On a cool and sunny day, ideal for fast running, 27 cars qualified for the 33-car field. It was the fourth highest first-day total in race history. A second session today is expected to fill the grid, leaving next Sunday as Bump Day.

The big-name invaders from CART and Winston Cup were scattered throughout the field.

Gil de Ferran, the CART champion, was fifth at 224.406, with his Penske teammate Helio Castroneves 11th.

Tony Stewart, brought from Winston Cup by Chip Ganassi in a hope to repeat the Target team’s victory last year with Juan Montoya, could squeeze only 224.248 from his G Force-Olds. Stewart’s one-race teammate, former CART champion Jimmy Vasser, was 12th, but Ganassi isn’t through. He announced that his two rookies, Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian, would attempt to qualify today. They were Ganassi’s original entries, but were moved aside to make way for Stewart and Vasser, two veterans of the Indy mystique.

Michael Andretti, another crossover from CART who had been away from Indy since 1995, had problems getting acquainted with his IRL equipment and will start 24th--if his 220.747 speed holds up on Bump Day.

“I’m older now, a little bit wiser, and I hope that experience will help me on race day,” said Andretti, 38. “I’ve got to be patient. I haven’t always been patient here and it’s hurt me. Getting in the field is the most important thing, and we did it.”

Two-time winner Arie Luyendyk, coming back after a one-year retirement, was the first driver on the line and his 224.257 mph gave the field something to shoot at. When the 6 p.m. gun went off, ending qualifying, Luyendyk was sixth.

The other two-time winner, Al Unser Jr., could qualify no better than 19th, the second worst in his 14 Indy races.

The IRL’s two poster kids, Sam Hornish Jr., 21, and Sarah Fisher, 20, qualified 13th and 15th, respectively.

The most surprising qualifier was Roberto Guerrero, a veteran of 15 Indy 500s who arrived at the Speedway this month without a ride. When Dick Simon’s driver, Stephan Gregoire, couldn’t get his Dallara up to the desired speed, Simon asked fellow San Juan Capistrano neighbor Guerrero to take a shot at it. But Guerrero had no driving uniform so he borrowed one from Lyn St. James, who announced her retirement last week.

“It [qualifying] must have meant to be,” said Guerrero, twice a runner-up in the 500. “Not only did Lyn’s uniform fit but when I sat in the cockpit, I fit perfectly in Stephan’s custom seat.”

Guerrero put the car in the field, for now at least, with a 220.054 effort. Gregoire’s fastest single lap all week was 218.855.

Five rookies made the field, paced by Castroneves, winner of the Long Beach Grand Prix CART race last month. At Indianapolis, a rookie is anyone who has never raced in the 500, no matter what their experience elsewhere.

Ray said he didn’t believe he could have matched Sharp’s speed no matter when he made his attempt.

“When I saw Sharp do his 226, I thought, ‘Oh, no, it’s going to be a long day at the office,’ ” Ray said. Sharp and car owner Tom Kelley credited Roger Penske with helping them win the pole.

“We didn’t have our IRL engine on the dyno until November,” Kelley said. “We could not have put the package together with Ilmor without having Roger as our partner. Without him, and without Ilmor, we would not be in this situation.”

Ironically, it was announced during the day that Paul Morgan, co-founder of Ilmor Engineering, died when a plane he was piloting crashed in England. Morgan was a partner in the firm with Mario Illien, Penske and Mercedes-Benz.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Indianapolis 500 Tentative Lineup

ROW 1

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 1. (8) Scott Sharp Dallara-Oldsmobile 226.037 2. (2T) Greg Ray Dallara-Oldsmobile 225.194 3. (41) Robby Gordon Dallara-Oldsmobile 224.994

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ROW 2

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 4. (28) Mark Dismore Dallara-Oldsmobile 224.964 5. (66) Gil de Ferran Dallara-Oldsmobile 224.406 6. (5) Arie Luyendyk G Force-Oldsmobile 224.257

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ROW 3

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 7. (33) Tony Stewart G Force-Oldsmobile 224.248 8. (35T) Jeff Ward G Force-Oldsmobile 224.222 9. (24) Robbie Buhl G Force-Infiniti 224.213

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ROW 4

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 10. (91) Buddy Lazier Dallara-Oldsmobile 224.190 11. (68T) Helio Castroneves Dallara-Oldsmobile 224.142 12. (44) Jimmy Vasser G Force-Oldsmobile 223.455

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ROW 5

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 13. (4) Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Oldsmobile 223.333 14. (10) Robby McGehee Dallara-Oldsmobile 222.607 15. (15T) Sarah Fisher Dallara-Oldsmobile 222.548

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ROW 6

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 16. (52) Scott Goodyear Dallara-Infiniti 222.529 17. (77) Jaques Lazier G Force-Oldsmobile 222.145 18. (6) Jon Herb Dallara-Oldsmobile 222.015

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ROW 7

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 19. (3) Al Unser Jr. G Force-Oldsmobile 221.615 20. (21) Felipe Giaffone G Force-Oldsmobile 221.100 21. (55T) Shigeaki Hattori Dallara-Oldsmobile 221.098

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ROW 8

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 22. (32) Didier Andre G Force-Oldsmobile 220.985 23. (88T) Airton Dare G Force-Oldsmobile 220.966 24. (39) Michael Andretti Dallara-Oldsmobile 220.747

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ROW 9

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Pl. (N) Driver Car Qual. Speed 25. (7) Roberto Guerrero Dallara-Oldsmobile 220.054 26. (12T) Buzz Calkins Dallara-Oldsmobile 220.039

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