Marco Andretti puts storied racing family back on top with Indy 500 pole

INDIANAPOLIS — Marco Andretti backed up his blazing speed in Indy 500 qualifying Sunday, knocking off Scott Dixon to win the pole position at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

© Matt Fraver/IndyCar

It’s the first time an Andretti driver has been on the pole in 33 years at the Brickyard when Marco’s legendary grandfather, Mario, qualified first in 1987.

“It was awesome,” Marco said, crediting his grandfather with crucial advice for dealing with high crosswinds on the 2.5-mile oval Sunday.

Andretti turned a four-lap average at 231.068 mph in his No. 98 Dallara-Honda.

.@MarcoAndretti WINS the pole position for next Sunday’s #Indy500!

Tune in next week on @NBC at 1PM ET! pic.twitter.com/AVheWORXb6

— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) August 16, 2020

Said Michael Andretti, Marco’s father and owner of his Andretti Autosport car: “Fantastic, it was unbelievable. The car was so loose and he just didn’t take his foot off the throttle, and he drove the hell out of it. He did a hell of a job.”

Dixon was second, followed by Takuma Sato as Dallara-Hondas swept the top three. Rinus VeeKay was the top Chevrolet in fourth.

Marco Andretti outperformed three other Andretti Autosport teammates in the Fast Nine as Ryan Hunter-Reay (fifth), James Hinchcliffe (sixth) and Alexander Rossi (ninth) all slowed down after sweeping the top four spots in provisional qualifying.

Andretti, though, lost none of his pace after turning the fastest laps the past two days at Indy, where drivers given an extra 50 horsepower with a turbo boost mandated for qualifying setups by the NTT IndyCar Series that sent lap speeds skyrocketing over 230 mph.

Alex Palou qualified seventh, and Graham Rahal was eighth as the remainder of the field was set after positions 10-30 were determined in Saturday’s qualifying session.

Marco Andretti puts storied racing family back on top with Indy 500 pole originally appeared on NBCSports.com