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Geoff Miller/Reuters The 2013 Indianapolis 500’s first row: (left to right) Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter (pole) and Carlos Munoz.Ed Carpenter, whose family owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, qualified for the pole position for the Indianapolis 500 on May 26. The top qualifying position was worth a $100,000 prize, but Carpenter says the boost for his team, which he owns, was worth more.
“This is awesome, and it’s bigger than our wins, and it’s huge for the team,” said Carpenter, after posting his four-lap average speed of 228.762 miles per hour on Saturday. “It’s definitely a landmark day.”
He is the first team owner/driver to win the coveted No. 1 starting position since 1975. The rookie Carlos Munoz qualified second at 228.342 m.p.h. His teammate, Marco Andretti, earned the other starting spot on the outside of the front row in the 11-row lineup with an average speed of 228.261 m.p.h.
E.J. Viso, A.J. Allmendinger and Will Power will be in the second row, the reigning IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, the three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe will be in the third. Michel Jourdain Jr. was the only entrant in the race who did not make the lineup.
In other motorsports news from a busy week:
• Jimmie Johnson won the All-Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night and collected the $1 million prize that went with it.
Johnson, who has won the event a record four times, was the leader on the track for the last 10 laps, after starting the event in 18th place. Johnson had a comfortable margin over Joey Logano, the runner-up. Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch rounded out the top five; the Busch brothers won four of the five segments in the unique All-Star format, but Johnson won the final one, which was the segment that mattered most.
Despite its sizable payout, the All-Star event, which is limited to 22 starters and does not pay points toward the Nascar Sprint Cup title, is considered something of a tune-up for the regular 600-mile series event at the track on May 26.
• Shawn Langdon beat Tony Schumacher in a razor-close duel that decided the Top Fuel category in Sunday’s Kansas Nationals drag races in Topeka. Langdon made his run in 3.75 seconds, while Schumacher was clocked at 3.78. Schumacher actually hit a higher top speed, 327.27 m.p.h., than Langdon, who turned in 324.20 m.p.h., but Langdon won the race with a quicker reaction time off the starting line.
As close as that race was, the Pro Stock final was even closer. Jeg Coughlin took his first final round victory in two years, beating his teammate Allen Johnson by 0.018 of a second.
Johnny Gray won the Funny Car final when his rival Robert Hight lost traction at the starting light.
• Dani Pedrosa, riding a Honda, won the French Grand Prix Moto GP event on Sunday, defying a rain-soaked Le Mans racecourse to beat Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow. Pedrosa also took over the top spot in the world championship MotoGP standings with his victory. He leads his teammate Marc Marquez, who finished third, by six points.
Pedrosa has 83 points through the fourth leg of the 18-race championship. Jorge Lorenza, who finished seventh, is in third with 66 points.
• Jamie Whincup won three of the four 100-kilometer sprint races in the Austin 400 for Australian V8 Supercars over the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. He finished ahead of Fabian Coulthard, a second cousin of the former F1 driver David Coulthard. Fabian Coulthard was the winner of the one event in which Whincup failed to take the checkered flag.
Whincup, the series points leader, drove a Holden Commodore, a product of the Australian subsidiary of General Motors.
The weekend’s program also included a round of the Pirelli World Challenge Touring Car series, which was won by Brett Sandberg, in a Honda Civic Si.
• At just shy of 58 years old, Ken Schrader won the ARCA stock car series event Sunday in Toledo, Ohio, becoming the oldest driver to win in the series.
He broke a record set in 1974 by the legendary Iggy Katona, who was 57 when he won an event at Daytona International Speedway. Katona, who died in 2003 at age 87, is remembered as for racing into his 70s.
Thomas Frey/European Pressphoto Agency The Black Falcon Mercedes SLS in action during the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring circuit on Monday.• Black Falcon Racing’s Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 entry, driven by the team of Bernd Schneider, Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Niki Thiim, won the epic 41st running of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in Germany. Their margin over the second-place car was two minutes and 39 seconds.
The race started Saturday and didn’t end until Monday afternoon – it had been scheduled to end Sunday evening – after an all-night delay for torrential rains and fog on the Eifel Mountain course. The annual race attracts a huge and varied entry – more than 200 cars and some 700 drivers – and a huge crowd.
The weather was abominable for a good portion of the race, but by Sunday afternoon it became diabolical. Officials decided to red flag the race and, ultimately, restart it at 8 a.m. on Monday.
A footnote in the event was that among the entries still running at the end was an Aston Martin Hydrogen Hybrid Rapide S. The company said it was the first time a zero-emissions, hydrogen-powered car had competed in an international motor race.
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