James Hinchcliffe wins pole for 100th Indianapolis 500

A year after he almost died while practicing for the Indianapolis 500, James Hinchcliffe will lead the field to green in the 100th running of the famed race.

Hinchcliffe swiped the pole from Josef Newgarden in the final qualifying run of the day on Sunday with a four-lap average speed of 230.760 MPH. Hinchcliffe had earned the opportunity to run after everyone else by posting the fastest speed in Saturday's preliminary qualifying session.

And not only is it Hinchcliffe's first career pole for the Indianapolis 500, it's the first time he's ever qualified first in the IndyCar Series.

"I came into this month hoping we'd have a new story to talk about after what happened last year and I think we did it," Hinchcliffe said after climbing from his car. "I can't believe it. I'm honestly at a loss for words. Which is rare for me.

The popular driver was impaled by a suspension piece last May when his car careened into the wall during practice. The suspension piece from the front of the car had severed an artery in his leg. He thanked the IndyCar Series safety team in an interview last summer for their quick response to his crash and said had the workers not made the decision to take him straight to the hospital following the crash that "it would have been a very different outcome."

"The suspension struck an artery and even before getting me out of the car, I had lost a tremendous amount of blood," Hinchcliffe told SportsNet Canada last year. "And the blood started in the ambulance, I’m told. From what I hear they skipped the infield medical center. They got me straight in the ambulance and straight to Methodist [Hospital] because they knew it was bigger than that. And I think I had 14 pints of blood en route to the hospital and the human body holds 12, something like that?
"And then a bunch more in surgery until they were able to get in and get the artery fixed."

Hinchcliffe missed the rest of the 2015 season after the injury and returned for the season-opening race at St. Petersburg in March. He drives for Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports, a team co-owned by former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt.

Schmidt was paralyzed in a testing crash in 2000 and spent months in the hospital on a respirator. He founded his team in 2004 and the team won the pole for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 (won by Dan Wheldon) with Alex Tagliani.

Hours before Hinchcliffe's run, Schmidt drove a his custom Corvette – one he steers with his head – at over 100 MPH around the track.

	Arrow Electronics @ArrowGlobal
Sam with all of his former @SPMIndyCar drivers after reaching 152 MPH at Indy. We're so proud, Sam! #ArrowDriven pic.twitter.com/j09y73jpQp 11:22 AM - 22 May 2016

All 33 cars who attempted to qualify for the May 29 race made the field. The fastest nine drivers from Saturday's session were eligible to run for the pole position on Sunday while those who qualified 10th-33rd on Saturday could do no better than 10th on Sunday afternoon. Here's how the whole field will look coming to the green flag:

 

1. James Hinchcliffe
2. Josef Newgarden
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay
4. Townsend Bell
5. Carlos Munoz
6. Will Power
7. Mikhail Aleshin
8. Simon Pagenaud
9. Helio Castroneves
10. Oriol Servia
11. Alexander Rossi
12. Takuma Sato
13. Scott Dixon
14. Marco Andretti
15. J.R. Hildebrand
16. Charlie Kimball
17. Juan Pablo Montoya
18. Tony Kanaan
19. Sebastian Bourdais
20. Ed Carpenter
21. Gabby Chaves
22. Max Chilton
23. Sage Karam
24. Conor Daly
25. Pippa Mann
26. Graham Rahal
27. Matt Brabham
28. Bryan Clauson
29. Spencer Pigot
30. Stefan Wilson
31. Jack Hawksworth
32. Buddy Lazier
33. Alex Tagliani