Scott Sharp Wins Pole at Indy

Has Scott Sharp been sandbagging? It sure seemed like it on Pole Day, as Sharp added a full mile per hour to his practice times and took the Pole for the 85th Indianapolis 500. Sharp qualified at a speed of 226.037 mph. He earlier had told reporters, "Our goal wasn't the pole, really. If we got it, that was great. It would be great if we were on the front row." Obviously, Scott knew something that no one else did.

Last year's Pole sitter, Grey Ray took the inside front row with a speed of 225.194 mph. Ray, who was the most recent IRL winner at Atlanta, was a favorite to take the pole, but somehow Sharp got that extra speed out of the #8 Delphi Automotive/Dallara/Olds early in qualifying, then had to sit back and wait as other cars made runs at his speed. In the end, nobody was able to match his effort.

Finishing out Row One is a surprise, as former IRL driver and recent NASCAR competitor Robbie Gordon qualified with a speed of 224.994 mph. Gordon, who recently left NASCAR under a cloud of controversy, hooked up with A.J. Foyt and made the #14 Conseco entry the real sleeper of Pole Day as he put his ride on the outside of the front row.

One driver who has his work cut out for him on May 27 is NASCAR champion Tony Stewart. Tony, who will drive anything with wheels, will not only start the Indy 500 from the third row, but will then hop a plane to Charlotte, N.C. for the Coca Cola 600 later in the day. Stewart, who is driving for Chip Ganassi at Indy will return that night to his Joe Gibbs entry at Charlotte, and if he can overcome the jet lag, could be a contender to win two races that day. He's an experienced Indy Car driver, and given the right breaks is a contender to win the "500". Around NASCAR circles, Stewart is always a contender, and it might be a first if he could win both races.

Stewart and his team mate Jimmy Vassar joined CART rookies Bruno Junqueira and Nicolas Minassian at Indy for Target/Ganassi Motorsports. This gave the team four cars in the elite 33 as the two rookies both qualified in the 9th row. That may change as Bump Day approaches, but for right now, it seems that Chip Ganassi Racing has a real advantage in terms of numbers.

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