Not only was this weekend qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, but with the new format came a new points system that could see a maximum of 42 points achieved if a driver qualified fastest on both Saturday (33 points) and Sunday (9 points). And Indianapolis 500 polesitter Ed Carpenter has done just that.
Obviously, those that broke into the Fast Nine shootout took home the bulk of the qualifying points.
Six others – James Hinchcliffe (38), Helio Castroneves (37), Will Power (36), Carlos Munoz (35), Marco Andretti (34) and Simon Pagenaud (31) – took home more than 30 points on qualifying weekend, the net equivalent of at least a fifth-place finish in a normal race.
Here’s a breakdown of where every driver qualified Saturday, Sunday and their points totals.
| Car | Sat. Order (Pts) | Sun. Order (Pts) | Total Pts |
| 20 Carpenter | 1 (33) | 1 (9) | 42 |
| 34 Munoz | 2 (32) | 7 (3) | 35 |
| 3 Castroneves | 3 (31) | 4 (6) | 37 |
| 27 Hinchcliffe | 4 (30) | 2 (8) | 38 |
| 12 Power | 5 (29) | 3 (7) | 36 |
| 25 Andretti | 6 (28) | 6 (4) | 32 |
| 77 Pagenaud | 7 (27) | 5 (5) | 31 |
| 67 Newgarden | 8 (26) | 8 (2) | 28 |
| 21 Hildebrand | 9 (25) | 9 (1) | 26 |
| 26 Busch | 10 (24) | 12 | 24 |
| 28 Hunter-Reay | 11 (23) | 19 | 23 |
| 98 Hawksworth | 12 (22) | 13 | 22 |
| 2 Montoya | 13 (21) | 10 | 21 |
| 19 Wilson | 14 (20) | 14 | 20 |
| 9 Dixon | 15 (19) | 11 | 19 |
| 7 Aleshin | 16 (18) | 15 | 18 |
| 8 Briscoe | 17 (17) | 30 | 17 |
| 14 Sato | 18 (16) | 23 | 16 |
| 83 Kimball | 19 (15) | 26 | 15 |
| 15 Rahal | 20 (14) | 20 | 14 |
| 22 Karam | 21 (13) | 31 | 13 |
| 6 Bell | 22 (12) | 25 | 12 |
| 10 Kanaan | 23 (11) | 16 | 11 |
| 11 Bourdais | 24 (10) | 17 | 10 |
| 63 Mann | 25 (9) | 22 | 9 |
| 17 Saavedra | 26 (8) | 32 | 8 |
| 5 Villeneuve | 27 (7) | 27 | 7 |
| 33 Davison | 28 (6) | 28 | 6 |
| 16 Servia | 29 (5) | 18 | 5 |
| 18 Huertas | 30 (4) | 21 | 4 |
| 68 Tagliani | 31 (3) | 24 | 3 |
| 41 Plowman | 32 (2) | 29 | 2 |
| 91 Lazier | 33 (1) | 33 | 1 |
Which means that, unofficially, the Verizon IndyCar Series points standings looks like this coming out of qualifying:
POINTS 1. Will Power, 185 2. Simon Pagenaud, 175 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 171 4. Helio Castroneves, 139 5. Marco Andretti, 121 6. Scott Dixon, 121 7. Justin Wilson, 107 8. Josef Newgarden, 99 9. Ryan Briscoe, 97 10. Carlos Munoz, 96 11. James Hinchcliffe, 94 12. Mike Conway, 93 13. Tony Kanaan, 93 14. Jack Hawksworth, 93 15. Juan Pablo Montoya, 91 16. Sebastien Bourdais, 91 17. Takuma Sato, 91 18. Charlie Kimball, 82 19. Mikhail Aleshin, 77 20. Sebastian Saavedra, 71 21. Graham Rahal, 69 22. Carlos Huertas, 67 23. Oriol Servia, 60 24. Ed Carpenter, 42 25. JR Hildebrand, 26 26. Kurt Busch, 24 27. Martin Plowman, 14 28. Sage Karam, 13 29. Townsend Bell, 12 30. Pippa Mann, 9 31. Franck Montagny, 8 32. Jacques Villeneuve, 7 33. James Davison, 6 34. Alex Tagliani, 3 35. Buddy Lazier, 1
And now, the starting grid for the 98th Indianapolis 500, after Saturday’s, Sunday’s Group 1 and Fast Nine qualifying:
ROW 1 20-Ed Carpenter, 231.067 27-James Hinchcliffe, 230.839 12-Will Power, 230.697 ROW 2 3-Helio Castroneves, 230.649 77-Simon Pagenaud, 230.614 25-Marco Andretti, 230.544 ROW 3 34-Carlos Munoz, 230.146 67-Josef Newgarden, 229.893 21-JR Hildebrand, 228.726 ROW 4 2-Juan Pablo Montoya, 231.007 9-Scott Dixon, 230.928 26-Kurt Busch, 230.782 ROW 5 98-Jack Hawksworth, 230.506 19-Justin Wilson, 230.256 7-Mikhail Aleshin, 230.049 ROW 6 10-Tony Kanaan, 229.922 11-Sebastien Bourdais, 229.847 16-Oriol Servia, 229.752 ROW 7 28-Ryan Hunter-Reay, 229.719 15-Graham Rahal, 229.628 18-Carlos Huertas, 229.251 ROW 8 63-Pippa Mann, 229.223 14-Takuma Sato, 229.201 68-Alex Tagliani, 229.148 ROW 9 6-Townsend Bell, 229.009 83-Charlie Kimball, 228.953 5-Jacques Villeneuve, 228.949 ROW 10 33-James Davison, 228.865 41-Martin Plowman, 228.814 8-Ryan Briscoe, 228.713 ROW 11 22-Sage Karam, 228.436 17-Sebastian Saavedra, 228.088 91-Buddy Lazier, 227.920