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Scott Dixon wins Indianapolis 500 pole with fastest speed in 21 years

<p>May 21, 2017; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Scott Dixon celebrates with his family wife Emma and children Poppy and Lilly after winning the pole position. Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports</p>

INDIANAPOLIS — Scott Dixon couldn’t believe it. The steering wheel dashboard must be broken, he thought. Because 232 mph can’t be right.

If only he could have heard the Indianapolis Motor Speedway crowd.

They would have let him know that his dashboard was working just fine.

The fans roared with approval as Dixon posted a four-lap qualifying speed of 232.164 mph — the best since Arie Luyendyk’s 236.986 mph in 1996 — to claim the pole Sunday for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500.

“I thought maybe the dash had broken on the steering wheel and brought up a fake number,” Dixon said in the post-qualifying news conference of the 232.595 mph, the fastest of his four laps. “We seriously (didn’t) think (we’d) … see the speed that we did.”

But he did, and the legend of Scott Dixon added another chapter.

The pole was the 26th of his career — his third at Indianapolis (2008, 2015) — and next Sunday, he will chase after his second 500 and the 41st victory of his career.

The wins, the records, the streaks, they’re only part of what make the legend. The rest is the respect and admiration he commands from his fellow drivers.

Moments after Dixon blew past that 21-year record, they began to heap on praise for the bold setup he took out onto the track.

“Scott Dixon is (expletive) man,” tweeted Graham Rahal, who qualified 14th earlier in the day. “I guarantee you that car was extremely on edge. … Legendary run.”

“Absolutely unreal,” Conor Daly tweeted. “Scott Dixon (is) legendary.”

“Wow, massive respect,” tweeted Sage Karam. “Dude is a wheelman.”

Frankly, it’s impressive there are still things Dixon can do to wow his fellow drivers. Ask most any of them about Dixon and that word — legend — is sure to come up.

Dixon wasn’t the only one to thrill the crowd and paddock Sunday. After Dixon posted his 232.164, the question on everyone’s mind was: What does Ed Carpenter have up his sleeve?

Quite a bit, actually. The fastest driver Saturday turned in a four-lap average speed of 231.664 on Sunday. It would have been good enough to become the third-best qualifying speed since Luyendyk in 1996, but it wasn’t enough to top Dixon. Instead Carpenter will start second.

But after qualifying, the driver/owner from Indianapolis wasn’t complaining about barely missing out on his third 500 pole. He, too, was in awe of what he and Dixon had accomplished and the roar of the crowd.

“It’s cool to see the speeds going back up, to hear the crowd roar when Scott did those laps, when everyone put up big times,” Carpenter said. “It’s cool. It’s part of the mystique of this place is pushing the limits of the cars and us as drivers. So I enjoy that part of it. It’s thrilling when it goes well and when it goes poorly like we saw yesterday, but that’s part of what makes IndyCar special.”

Not to be lost in the shuffle of Dixon’s triumph was the success the drivers of Andretti Autosport enjoyed. Team owner Michael Andretti’s crew put five cars in the top 10 and three in the top five.

Alexander Rossi led the way for the Honda-powered cars. The reigning 500 champion, who will start on the front line along with Dixon and Carpenter, was a man on a mission this weekend. Rossi said Saturday that there were plenty of people who believed his 500 victory relied more on strategy than on strength of his car.

“There were a lot of stories and comments going around regarding how we won the race purely on strategy, when I know we had a fast car,” Rossi said. “We had a fast car this time around, and we were going to prove it.”

Leading the second row of cars will be Rossi’s teammate Takuma Sato, and next to him two-time Formula One champion Fernando Alonso in his qualifying debut.

Alonso’s success and that of his teammates was an affirmation of his choice to not only try his hand at the 500 but to do it with Andretti Autosport.

“I am lucky,” Alonso said, “that it’s probably the best team for a rookie to come in with a lot of cars on the team and a lot of experience.”

For Team Penske, which is the all-time leader in Indianapolis 500 poles with 17, it was the first time since 2011 the team hasn’t had more than one driver in the first three rows. Will Power was the only driver of the five to make the Fast Nine, and he’ll start ninth.

Ayello writes for The Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network.

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