Insider: 232 mph? Scott Dixon thought his dashboard was broken

INDIANAPOLIS --Scott Dixon couldn’t believe it. The steering wheel dashboard must be broken. 232 mph? That can’t be right.

If only he could have heard the Indianapolis Motor Speedway crowd.

They would have let him know that his dashboard was working just fine.

The fans roared with approval as Dixon posted a four-lap qualifying speed of 232.164 mph — the best since Arie Luyendyk’s 236.986 mph in 1996 — to claim the pole Sunday for next weekend’s 101st running of the Indianapolis 500. 

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“I thought maybe the dash had broken on the steering wheel and brought up a fake number,” Dixon said in the post-qualifying news conference of the 232.595 mph first lap. “We seriously (didn't) think (we'd) ... see the speed that we did.”

But he did, and the legend of Scott Dixon added another chapter.

The pole was the 26th of his career -- his third at Indianapolis (2008, 2015) — and next Sunday, he will chase after his second 500 and the 41st victory of his career. Though qualifying points aren't officially awarded until after the race, Dixon's pole gives him the provisional points lead by 21 over 2016 champion Simon Pagenaud.

But the wins, the records, the streaks, they’re only part of what make the legend of Scott Dixon.

The rest is the respect and admiration he commands from his fellow drivers.

Moments after Dixon blew past that 21-year record, they began to heap on praise for the bold setup he took out onto the track.

“Scott Dixon is the man,” tweeted Graham Rahal. “I guarantee you that car was extremely on edge. … Legendary run.”

“Absolutely unreal,” Conor Daly tweeted. “Scott Dixon (is) legendary.”

“Wow, massive respect,” tweeted Sage Karam. “Dude is a wheelman.”

Frankly, it’s impressive there are things Dixon still can do to wow his fellow drivers. Ask most any of them about Dixon and that word — legend — is sure to come up.

Dixon though, wasn’t the only one to thrill the crowd and paddock Sunday. After Dixon posted his 232.164, the question on everyone’s one mind was: What does Ed Carpenter have up his sleeve?

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Quite a bit, actually. The fastest driver Saturday turned in a four-lap average speed of 231.664 on Sunday. It would have been good enough to become the third-best qualifying speed since Luyendyk in 1996, but it wasn’t enough to top Dixon. Instead Carpenter will start in the middle of Row 1.

After qualifying, the local driver/owner wasn’t complaining about barely missing out on his third 500 pole. He, too, was in awe of what he and Dixon had accomplished and the roar of the IMS crowd.

“It's cool to see the speeds going back up, to hear the crowd roar when Scott did those laps, when everyone put up big times,” Carpenter said. “It's cool. Part of the mystique of this place is pushing the limits of the cars and us as drivers. So I enjoy that part of it. It's thrilling when it goes well and when it goes poorly like we saw yesterday (when Sebastien Bourdais broke his pelvis in a violent accident), but that's part of what makes IndyCar special.”

Not to be lost in the shuffle of Dixon’s triumph was the success the drivers of Andretti Autosport enjoyed Sunday. Michael Andretti’s crew put five of its six cars in the top four rows.

Alexander Rossi led the way for the Honda-powered cars, and it meant a lot to him to do so. The reigning 500 champion, who will start on the front line along with Dixon and Carpenter, was a man on a mission this weekend.

Rossi said Saturday that there were plenty of people who believed his 500 victory relied more on strategy that on strength of his car. He was out to prove them wrong this year.

“There were a lot of stories and comments going around regarding how we won the race purely on strategy, when I know we had a fast car,” Rossi said. “We had a fast car this time around, and we were going to prove it.”

On the inside of Row 2 will be Rossi’s teammate Takuma Sato and next to him Formula One star Fernando Alonso.

Alonso's success and that of his teammates was an affirmation of his choice to not only try his hand at the 500 but to do it with Andretti Autosport.

“I am lucky,” Alonso said, “that it's probably the best team for a rookie to come in with a lot of cars on the team and a lot of experience.”

Marco Andretti (middle of Row 3) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (inside of Row 4) rounded out the Andretti contingent in the top four rows.

Slotting in beside Alonso, on the outside of Row 2, is Carpenter's teammate, JR Hildebrand.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Tony Kanaan qualified on the inside of Row 3 and Team Penske’s Will Power on the outside.

It was the first time since 2011 the Penske team hasn’t had more than one driver in the first three rows.

Follow IndyStar reporter Jim Ayello on Twitter and Instagram: @jimayello.