Indy pole-winner Dixon says Bourdais would have beaten him

Dixon set an average pole time of 232.164mph in his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda for the fastest four-lap average since Arie Luyendyk’s 236.986mph run in 1996. However, he believed the #18 Dale Coyne Racing-Honda of Bourdais would have been the car to beat if not for the Frenchman’s huge shunt that left him with multiple fractures of his pelvis, and a broken hip.

The Frenchman's first two laps in yesterday's qualifying were almost 1mph faster than Dixon's at that time.

Said Dixon: “Got to give a shout out to Sebastien Bourdais, too. Saw him this morning, and he's doing well.

“He's a teammate with me in [Ganassi’s] Ford GT program, we've spent a lot of time together over the years, and he's a hell of a driver.

“To be honest, I think he would have been the one who snatched the pole today. So just got to wish him well. I know he's going to be on the mend quickly and hopefully he can be in a car here very soon.”

Dixon admitted that he was shocked at his opening lap of 232.595mph, also the fastest qualifying lap of Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 21 years.

“I thought maybe the dash had broken on the steering wheel and brought up a fake number, but yeah, I seriously don't think we expected to see the speed that we did. The whole pre-lineup for qualifying, I was debating with Chris Simmons, my race engineer – ‘Man, we trimmed too much, we trimmed too much,’ – and I was basically talking myself out of it and seeing if he could maybe put some more downforce in the car. He was like, ‘Don't worry, it's going to be fine, it's going to be fine.’

“When I saw that first number, I was like, ‘Wow, this is impressive!’ So obviously a huge thanks to Honda, too. They've been pushing extremely hard with the engine. They're definitely pushing it to the limit.”

The four-time IndyCar champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner admitted that despite his happiness with pole, his focus was swiftly turning to next weekend’s 101^st Indianapolis 500.

“Indianapolis is always about two big hills throughout the weeks, and you've got the pole first, and then into the race. This is the first step of it, but now our focus is obviously quickly transferred to tomorrow. We've got another four hours of track time and trying to make the #9 car as fast as possible.

“Today was fantastic to get the pole, but emphasis is on the 500.”

Dixon admitted that the restricted running in qualifying trim due to the bad weather over the past three days had made the Fast Nine shootout a “nerve-wracking” affair.

“It's been a little weird in the fact that both days we haven't run in the practice, so the first time for myself and my teammates has been just getting in the car qualifying, and it's kind of daunting. I've never done it before.

“You have all these crazy things that run through your mind, especially when you watch a lot of the other competitors either touch the wall or have a really bad runs. You think you're maybe heading in the wrong direction and the computer isn't telling you the right settings for the ambient conditions and things like that.

“The last two days have probably been the most nerve-wracking for me. I don't know whether it's because I'm getting older and emotion is becoming stronger, but it's definitely tough. This year I think more so, too; if you get the first lap right and you're like, OK, this is not so bad, but lap 2, 3 and 4, the fall-off on the tires has been quite dramatic, and that has been the hard thing. If you have a rough first or second lap, you know that lap 3 and 4 are really going to be tough, and yesterday that was the case for us.”