Helio Castroneves continued his domination tradition at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, after taking pole position with a dramatic sequence of laps and secured his second consecutive pole for the historical race. His Team Penske teammate, Will Power, will start a surprising second, completing a Penske Racing front row, followed by 2007 Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti.
Castroneves held a solid command over the new two-stage qualifying session. With the fastest 24 cars being qualified foe the race, only the top-9 moved onto a shootout for the pole position.
Moving into the top-9, Castroneves drew first, setting laps of 227.961, 228.213, 228.187 and 227.521 for an average of 227.970. The bubbly Brazilian then watched as the other eight cars took multiple shots at his time, but none came close enough to unseat the 3-time Indy winner.
"Incredible. I'm speechless right now because let me tell you one thing. Sitting in that car for an hour and a half was not easy at all. I was like, are we going or are we not going, because I can't handle that much pressure! I think at 1-2 Penske [front row] is great. It's too bad Ryan [Briscoe] can't join us. This team, the number 3 team, everyone is incredible."
Castroneves' lap of 228.213 set the crowd into a loud cheer. From the cockpit, he says he was just focused on completing the wild run.
"I honestly wasn't looking at the time. The car was moving so much. I was saying, please just let me finish this run. We have the best pit spot, the best start[ing position] and it's still a long way to go."
Will Power took multiple shots at Castroneves, ending up second with an average of 227.578. Later he commented:
"I wanted to go out, and they said, it's up to you, but if you crash, you'll start 25th...but it's up to you."
Ryan Briscoe took fourth for Penske with an average of 226.554.
Dario Franchitti went from being a routine second to teammate Scott Dixon in practice to fielding the team's best chances in the run for the pole. The Scot placed third with a run of 226.990, however the unique qualifying format seemed to tickle Franchitti.
"Chip was giving me a pepe talk, and we were going for it, but we just didn't have it today... I've never seen anything like that in my life! to do multiple [top-9] runs was stressful, but the fans seemed to like it. That's all that matters."
Dixon was forced to settle for sixth with a 226.233.
Alex Tagliani continued his dream run at the 500 with his new FAZZT Racing Team, taking fifth with an average of 226.390.
Graham Rahal followed Tagliani's story line by taking seventh with a 225.519, just weeks after deciding to run the race.
Panther Racing's Ed Carpenter took 8th with a 224.507 and Hideki Mutoh secured the final top-9 position with an average speed of 223.487.
However, the greatest excitement and drama took place in the final qualifying session of the Bump Day, where the drivers not in the top-26 had been battling for the remaining places in the grid. Drivers included few big names that were left outside the initial qualifying grid, including crashed ex-F1 driver Rookie Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan as well as Bruno Junqueira, Paul Tracy and John Andretti veteran drivers. After an emotional dramatic fight with timing, the 2002 almost winner of the race, Paul Tracy was the only among them that failed to secure a position in the 2010 Indy 500 grid.
The starting grid of the 2010 Indianapolis 500 has been settled as follows:
