Indy 500 Qualifying Results 2015: Final Times, Starting Grid from Sunday Session

Scott Dixon already has one win and two second-place finishes to his name at the Indianapolis 500. Following Sunday's qualifying session, he positioned himself well for more success at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dixon posted the highest average speed (226.760 miles per hour) to qualify on the pole for next Sunday's race. As Dave Furst of WRTV-6 in Indianapolis noted, winning the pole might be a good omen for the 34-year-old:

Tony Kanaan, one of Dixon's teammates at Chip Ganassi Racing, missed out on the pole by a little over a mile per hour and instead qualified for fourth. He didn't let that get in the way of his happiness for Dixon:

Here's a look at the full results from qualifying, courtesy of the Indianapolis Star:

Pos.	Driver	Average Speed (mph)
1	Scott Dixon	226.760
2	Will Power	226.350
3	Simon Pagenaud	226.145
4	Tony Kanaan	225.503
5	Helio Castroneves	225.502
6	Justin Wilson	225.279
7	Sebastien Bourdais	225.193
8	Marco Andretti	225.189
9	Josef Newgarden	225.187
10	J.R. Hildebrand	225.099
11	Carlos Munoz	225.042
12	Ed Carpenter	224.883
13	Oriol Servia	224.777
14	Charlie Kimball	224.743
15	Juan Pablo Montoya	224.657
16	Ryan Hunter-Reay	224.573
17	Graham Rahal	224.290
18	Carlos Huertas	224.233
19	Simona de Silvestro	223.838
20	James Jakes	223.790
21	James Davison	223.747
22	Alex Tagliani	223.722
23	Sage Karam	223.595
24	James Hinchcliffe	223.519
25	Conor Daly	223.482
26	Townsend Bell	223.447
27	Takuma Sato	223.226
28	Pippa Mann	223.104
29	Gabby Chaves	222.916
30	Sebastian Saavedra	222.898
31	Jack Hawksworth	222.787
32	Stefano Coletti	221.912
33	Bryan Clauson	220.523

The biggest story of the day was the crash involving Ed Carpenter. Carpenter lost control of his car going into a turn and spun into the wall. His car then flipped over and skidded on the track.

The 34-year-old somehow avoided any major injuries, and one of his first thoughts after the wreck was to apologize for missing his scheduled autograph session, per Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star:

Following the accident, IndyCar decided to tweak the qualifying conditions Sunday and push it back a little further into the afternoon. Mark Miles, the CEO of IndyCar's parent company, Hulman & Company, issued a statement outlining the changes, per ESPN.com:

"

This morning we saw a third car get into the wall, turn backward and lift into the air. We've said all along we want to go faster, but we want to do so safely.

As a precautionary measure, IndyCar will require that the cars qualify today in the same aero setup that they will run in the Indianapolis 500 next weekend. Also, for today, boost levels will return to race conditions. Given these changes, we have elected to not award points for today's qualifications.

"

As a result of the changes, the "Fast Nine Shootout" was scratched in lieu of giving each driver four laps to post the best average speed possible. While it removed some of the drama from the event, there was no sense in risking another serious crash, especially during a qualifying run.

Will Power certainly won't have any qualms with the qualifying format. He'll start the Indy 500 in second place. He was just a fraction behind Dixon with an average speed of 226.350 miles per hour.

Power has been a fixture near the top of the IndyCar standings for the past few years, but the absence of an Indy 500 win is somewhat glaring. With the 34-year-old having won last week's Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the stars may be aligning for him this year.

The reigning champion, Ryan Hunter-Reay, didn't have the best of times Saturday. He qualified in 16th with an average speed of 224.573 miles per hour. That represented a somewhat steep drop from his speeds during yesterday's abandoned qualifying run, per Matt Glenesk of the Indianapolis Star:

Hunter-Reay won last year's race after starting in 19th, so he's probably not too intimidated with his difficult task ahead next Sunday.

History will be a more daunting foe for Hunter-Reay. No driver has repeated as Indy 500 champion since Helio Castroneves in 2002. Before that, you have to go back to Al Unser Sr. in 1971.

The chances are, a new victor will be crowned a week from Sunday.