• Marco Andretti claims Honda’s 11^th ‘500’ pole in Fast Nine final qualifying
• Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato complete Honda front-row lockout
• Honda takes 11 of the top of 12 qualifiying spots in dominant show of speed
• 104^th Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, August 23

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 16, 2020) – In a thrilling “Fast Nine” final qualifying shootout for the coveted pole starting position, Marco Andretti edged fellow Honda driver Scott Dixon today by just 0.017 mph for the honor of leading the field to the green flag in next Sunday’s 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Takuma Sato completed a front-row lockout for Honda, as the manufacturer swept the front row and claimed 11 of the top-12 starting positions for next weekend’s race.  Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe will start on the second row, fifth and sixth, respectively.  The third row also is all Honda, with rookie Alex Palou starting seventh, followed by Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi. 

Four different Honda-powered teams are represented in the top nine, including Andretti Autosport (Andretti, Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe and Rossi); Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Sato and Rahal); Chip Ganassi Racing (Dixon) and Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh (Palou).

Andretti’s four-lap margin over second fastest Scott Dixon was the third closest in “500” history.  Only 2012 (Ryan Briscoe over Honda’s James Hinchcliffe by 0.003 mph) and 1970 (Al Unser over Johnny Rutherford by 0.008 mph) were closer.

On Saturday, Honda drivers and teams also dominated first-round qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  In addition to placing eight drivers into the Fast Nine shootout, Honda drivers fill out the fourth row of the starting grid with Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson and Spencer Pigot.  Felix Rosenqvist will start in the middle of the fifth row, 14^th; with Zach Veach in the middle of row six and Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey in the center of the seventh row.  Santino Ferrucci will start to the inside of Harvey after qualifying 19^th ; while James Davison rounds out the 15-driver Honda field and will start 27^th.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

The 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, August 23, with live television coverage on NBC starting with pre-race festivities at 1 p.m. EDT.

Quotes

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) Pole qualifier, his first Indianapolis 500 pole, 11^th Indy pole for Honda: “For me, I starting feeling the wind on Lap 2, which meant it was going to be a long couple of laps! Laps 3 and 4 definitely were sort of sketchy. [On leading the field to the green flag to start next weekend’s Indianapolis 500] It’s the best seat in the house! Clean air is always good here. Speed’s always good here and man, horsepower’s so cool, isn’t it? Makes everything so much easier.  Honda did an unbelievable job, and our team rolled off so fast [from the first of practice].  I’m just so excited!”

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Qualified in the middle of the front row, second: “Massive thank you to Honda and HPD, they’ve done a tremendous job.  We know they’ve worked very hard for the race as well.  I feel like we didn’t leave much on the table, we could’ve also gotten the car a little more neutral, it was pretty ‘understeery’ right from the get-go.  But it is what it is, [Fast Nine qualifying] is tough, especially with the wind conditions today.  That’s what makes it so exciting, it was extremely close [for the pole] right there at the end and unfortunately, we came up a little bit short. But I’m extremely happy for Marco [Andretti]. He’s a great person and a really good racer.  We just have to try to beat them [in the race] next weekend.” 

Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) Qualified on the outside of the front row, third: “First, big congrats to Marco [Andretti] and Andretti Autosport, they did a fantastic job [winning the pole]. Starting on the front row is a big accomplishment for us.  Everyone at Rahal Letterman Lanningan Racing worked hard over the off season to improved our performance here and the results showed today.  Honda, great, great work from them, just a tremendous job from them and the team.  Now we shift to preparing for the race.  We have another practice this afternoon that will be extremely important; also ‘Carb Day’ [final practice on Friday].  We believe we have a strong car in race trim, we’re so already looking forward to the race on Sunday.”

Ted Klaus (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s Indianapolis 500 pole and front-row sweep for Honda: “This has been a great weekend for Honda, and we’re thrilled to have the pole, and an all-Honda front row.  Everyone at HPD and our partner teams can take pride in the accomplishments this weekend. We all know that the race is going to be a battle. You’ll see tire degradation and pit strategy and fuel-saving strategy all play out just like it’s played out in years past. That’s why the race will be fascinating and fun to watch. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I don’t do anything to piss off the racing gods so that we can have one of our teams bring it home into Victory Circle next Sunday.”

Indianapolis 500 Starting Lineup

Circuit:               Indianapolis Motor Speedway (2.5-mile oval), Indianapolis, IN

2019 Winner:    Simon Pagenaud (Team Penske) 175.794 mph average

Weather:           Mostly sunny, warm, windy, 82 degrees F

104^th Indianapolis 500 Qualifying Results:

Ps.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Avg. Speed	Notes
1.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Herta Autosport	Honda	231.068	Fast Nine final qualifier
2.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	231.051	Fast Nine final qualifier
3.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	230.725	Fast Nine final qualifier
4.	Rinus VeeKay-R	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	230.704	Fast Nine final qualifier
5.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Honda	230.648	Fast Nine final qualifier
4.	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	Honda	229.870	Fast Nine final qualifier
7.	Alex Palou-R	DCR with Team Goh	Honda	229.676	Fast Nine final qualifier
8.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Honda	229.380	Fast Nine final qualifier
9.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	Honda	229.234	Fast Nine final qualifier
10.	Colton Herta	Andretti Harding Autosport	Honda	230.775
11.	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	230.763
12.	Spencer Pigot	RLL with Citrone/Buhl Autosport	Honda	230.539
13.	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	Chevrolet	230.296
14.	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda	230.254
15.	Pato O’Ward-R	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet	230.213
16.	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	230.211
17.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	Honda	229.961
18.	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet	229.955
19.	Santino Ferrucci	DCR with Vasser-Sullivan	Honda	229.924
20.	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	Honda	229.861
21.	Oliver Askew-R	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet	229.760
22.	Will Power	Team Penske	Chevrolet	229.701
23.	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	229.154
24.	Dalton Kellett-R	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	228.880
25.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Chevrolet	228.836
26.	Fernando Alonso	Arrow McLaren SP	Chevrolet	228.768
27.	James Davison	DCR with Ware/Byrd/Belardi	Honda	228.747
28.	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Chevrolet	228.373
29.	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Chevrolet	227.758
30.	Sage Karam	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	227.099
31.	JR Hildebrand	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet	226.341
32.	Max Chilton	Carlin Racing	Chevrolet	225.819
33.	Ben Hanley	Dragon Speed Racing	Chevrolet	220.946