Curt Cavin

USA TODAY Sports

INDIANAPOLIS — A wiggle here, a pole there. That's how close this Indianapolis 500 is.

The difference between the Sunday qualifying runs of Ed Carpenter and James Hinchcliffe was a tenth of a second, a blink in a 10-mile tour of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The separation likely would have been closer, perhaps even resulted in a swap of positions, had Hinchcliffe's car not bobbled briefly in Turn 3. That caused him "to crack the throttle," he said, which was enough.

He knew it.

"I was screaming in my helmet in Turn 4 and all down the front straightaway," he said.

Hinchcliffe gave Carpenter a 230.839 mph to shoot for, and the Indianapolis native hit the target by a whisker. Carpenter's four-lap average was 231.067 mph.

"I knew when I came off Turn 4 and didn't have to lift (off the throttle)," he said.

Kurt Busch, who took an early morning flight Sunday from Charlotte after competing in Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, will start 12th. Busch is trying to become the fourth driver to attempt the Indy 500-Coca-Cola 600 double.

Both Carpenter and Hinchcliffe have incredible stories to share.

Eight days ago, Hinchcliffe was removed from the IMS road course on a stretcher after being struck in the helmet by flying debris during the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He had been knocked briefly unconscious, and was diagnosed with a concussion.

Hinchcliffe didn't take any pain medication and after two nights of sleep, felt he was close to being back to full strength.

"One more good night's sleep like that and I'll be (ready)," he said.

Hinchcliffe passed a post-concussion test and was cleared to drive Thursday afternoon. He got the Andretti Autosport car back up to speed Friday and now he's ready to start second in the 500 for the second time in three years.

Carpenter, who owns his IndyCar team, made the bold decision last year to remove himself from the cockpit for road races. He hired Mike Conway for the races that comprise two-thirds of the season, but things are coming together nicely.

Conway won last month's street race in Long Beach, Calif., and now Carpenter has 42 points for winning the 500's pole. Before this month Carpenter hadn't driven a racecar since October.

"No one's raced on an oval since (the race at Auto Club Speedway), so I don't feel like I missed very much," he said. "I don't feel lacking or unprepared."

Ed Carpenter Racing's namesake is a veteran of the track his family owns — he is the stepson of former speedway executive Tony George — and he knew how to adjust a car that was sliding late in the qualifying. It was the right move.

"But it's hard to do the math at 230," he said.

Carpenter, 33, also became this event's 11th back-to-back pole winner in history, joining the likes of Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Tom Sneva, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. He didn't see it coming.

"I always get extremely paranoid the week before practice here," he said. "I have this giant fear we're going to be really slow and really struggle."

In IndyCar's new qualifying format, the field was split into a pair of groups. The first, competing for starting positions 10 through 33, saw Juan Pablo Montoya of Team Penske, turn the first 231 mph average, and that turned out to be the second-fastest run of the weekend.

Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner who spent the past seven years driving in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, also became the fastest Penske driver, even quicker than Verizon IndyCar Series points leader Will Power, who will start on the front row along with Carpenter and Hinchcliffe. Power ran 230.697 mph.

Three-time Indy 500 winner Castroneves settled for a spot on the second row along with Simon Pagenaud of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Marco Andretti, who is one of Hinchcliffe's teammates at Andretti Autosport.

The last group of Fast Nine qualifiers were Andretti driver Carlos Munoz, who slid from second to seventh in second-day qualifying, Josef Newgarden of Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing and Carpenter's teammate, JR Hildebrand.

The rest of the field settled their starting positions for the May 25 race earlier Sunday, with speeds increased from the opening round.

In order, Montoya, Scott Dixon, Busch, rookie Jack Hawksworth, Justin Wilson and rookie Mikhail Aleshin delivered 230 mph efforts.

Montoya will start 10th after posting the fastest four-lap average at 231.007 mph. Dixon, the reigning IndyCar champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner ran 230.928 mph, while Busch ran 230.782 mph. That means Busch, the 2004 NASCAR Cup champion, will start in the same position Tony Kanaan won from last year. Kanaan qualified 16th.

The separation from fastest to slowest is 2.1509 seconds, the closest in the history of 500 qualifying.

IndyCar will give teams five hours of practice Monday to simulate race-day fuel runs. Carpenter, who was disappointed to finish 10th last year, will be ready, and he knows the field will be, too.

Cavin writes for The Indianapolis Star

Indianapolis 500 lineup

Results of qualifying Sunday for the 98th Running of the Indianapolis 500 on the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with rank, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, time and four-lap average speed in parentheses:

1. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 02:35.7992 (231.067)

2. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 02:35.9528 (230.839)

3. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.0488 (230.697)

4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.0812 (230.649)

5. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.1049 (230.614)

6. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.1526 (230.544)

7. (34) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4224 (230.146)

8. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.5946 (229.893)

9. (21) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.3938 (228.726)

10. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 02:35.8396 (231.007)

11. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 02:35.8930 (230.928)

12. (26) Kurt Busch, Dallara-Honda, 02:35.9913 (230.782)

13. (98) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.1779 (230.506)

14. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.3480 (230.256)

15. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.4881 (230.049)

16. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.5750 (229.922)

17. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 02:36.6259 (229.847)

18. (16) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.6905 (229.752)

19. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.7132 (229.719)

20. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 02:36.7756 (229.628)

21. (18) Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.0328 (229.251)

22. (63) Pippa Mann, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.0521 (229.223)

23. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.0671 (229.201)

24. (68) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.1038 (229.148)

25. (6) Townsend Bell, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.1990 (229.009)

26. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.2376 (228.953)

27. (5) Jacques Villeneuve, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.2400 (228.949)

28. (33) James Davison, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.2977 (228.865)

29. (41) Martin Plowman, Dallara-Honda, 02:37.3333 (228.814)

30. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.4028 (228.713)

31. (22) Sage Karam, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.5931 (228.436)

32. (17) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.8335 (228.088)

33. (91) Buddy Lazier, Dallara-Chevy, 02:37.9501 (227.920)