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Indianapolis - Driver and car owner Ed Carpenter won his third Indianapolis 500 pole position in Sunday's time trials while team-mate Danica Patrick qualified seventh for her auto racing farewell next Sunday.
Carpenter, a 37-year-old hometown hero, took the top spot on the 2.5-mile (4km) oval with a four-lap qualifying average of 229.618 mph (369.53km/h) to claim the inside front row spot in the 33-car field for the 102nd Indy showdown.
"It means everything to me to put us in a position like this," Carpenter said.
"It's nice to start up front. It feels good knowing I have good air in front of me."
France's Simon Pagenaud will start in the middle of row one after qualifying second-fastest at 228.761 mph while Australian Will Power completed an all-Chevrolet-powered front row in 228.607 mph.
Carpenter, the 2013 and 2014 pole sitter, has finished no better than fifth in 14 Indy 500 starts, that top effort coming in 2008.
The most recent of his three career IndyCar series wins came in 2014 at Texas.
But Carpenter had the fastest single lap of the day at 230.088 mph to start his run and never dropped below 229 mph on any lap.
"That first lap blew my mind," Carpenter said. "I knew we had more left but I wasn't expecting a 230. Of all the pole runs I've had here, this one came the easiest."
Carpenter is the car owner for fellow Americans Patrick and Spencer Pigot, who were also among Saturday's nine fastest qualifiers and thus earned a chance to run for the pole on Sunday.
Patrick finished seventh, one spot behind Pigot, and booked an inside third row start for the final race of her trailblazing 20-year career.
"I had one little slip on the exit of (turn) one that was the only non-boring part, but otherwise it was straightforward," Patrick said of her qualifying run.
She had watched as another US racer who nearly bumped her from the fast nine pole hunters, Alexander Rossi, faded in Sunday's runs and settled for a last-row starting spot.
"The fear of having a bad day is there. That's possible here. Indy just changes," Patrick said.
"I'm thankful for all the good days I've had here. Now it's time for 500 fun miles."
Patrick, back at Indy after running stock cars since 2011, began the pole fight with a run of 228.090 but was overtaken by US racer Josef Newgarden, who then lost the top spot to Power.
Pagenaud followed to grab a front-row spot only to see Carpenter's run deny him the pole.
"It's four laps when you are completely on the edge of everything. It's like holding your breath," Pagenaud said.
"It's a front row. It's a great job."
Three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves was the last man on the track after topping Saturday's speed chart but only went 227.859 and will start in the middle of row three between Patrick and New Zealand's Scott Dixon.
"It was a tough one," Castroneves said. "Hopefully we can get the big win number four from there. I'd prefer the win to the pole position."
France's Sebastien Bourdais, who crashed last year in qualifying, will start in the middle of row two between Newgarden and Pigot after a run at 228.142.
"It was really hard. The car was sliding a lot," Bourdais said. "Pretty happy with the run the way things went."
The slowest 24 qualifiers from Saturday took one run each Sunday and filled out the grid's last eight rows, with Brazil's Tony Kanaan, the 2013 Indy 500 winner, the fastest at 227.664 mph to claim the inside fourth row spot.
"We worked so hard and that's all we had," Kanaan said. "We missed the fast nine. I couldn't make it for thousandths of a second. Today felt like a win for us. We're working really hard."
Another Brazilian, Matheus Leist, will start in the middle of row four as the fastest rookie qualifier in 227.571 mph, two spots better than Canadian newcomer Zachary Claman de Melo.
Defending Indy 500 champion Takuma Sato of Japan will start from the inside of the sixth row.
Results from Sunday's Indianapolis 500 qualifying for next Sunday's race (4-lap mph average on 2.5-mile/4km oval, first three rows open only to top Saturday qualifiers):
Row One
Ed Carpenter (USA) 229.618
Simon Pagenaud (FRA) 228.761
Will Power (AUS) 228.607
Row Two
Josef Newgarden (USA) 228.405
Sebastien Bourdais (FRA) 228.142
Spencer Pigot (USA) 228.107
Row Three
Danica Patrick (USA) 228.090
Helio Castroneves (BRA) 227.859
Scott Dixon (NZL) 227.262
Row Four
10. Tony Kanaan (BRA) 227.664
11. Matheus Leist (BRA) 227.571
12. Marco Andretti (USA) 227.288
Row Five
13. Zachary Claman de Melo (CAN) 226.999
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA) 226.788
15. Charlie Kimball (USA) 226.657
Row Six
16. Takuma Sato (JPN) 226.557
17. Kyle Kaiser (USA) 226.398
18. Robert Wickens (CAN) 226.296
Row Seven
19. James Davison (AUS) 226.255
20. Max Chilton (GBR) 226.212
21. Carlos Munoz (COL) 226.048
Row Eight
22. Gabby Chaves (COL) 226.007
23. Stefan Wilson (GBR) 225.863
24. Sage Karam (USA) 225.823
Row Nine
25. Zach Veach (USA) 225.748
26. Oriol Servia (ESP) 225.699
27. JR Hildebrand (USA) 225.418
Row Ten
28. Jay Howard (GBR) 225.388
29. Ed Jones (UAE) 225.362
30. Graham Rahal (USA) 225.327
Row Eleven
31. Jack Harvey (GBR) 225.254
32. Alexander Rossi (USA) 224.935
33. Conor Daly (USA) 224.429
This is your #Indy500 Front Row. ???? ???? ???? #ThisIsMay | #INDYCAR pic.twitter.com/wwK74uiRYo
— Indianapolis Motor Speedway (@IMS) May 21, 2018
