For most forms of motor racing qualifying is a relatively simple task; a no-limits hour long session where those with the fastest times are rewarded with stronger starting positions for that weekend’s race. When it comes to Indianapolis however, the qualifying format can often turn into a two-week battle of endurance with as much drama, intrigue and lore as the race itself, and with today being pole day for the 2016 running of the 500, it should be apt that we talk about the quirks, trivia and idiosyncrasies that come with qualifying at the Brickyard.

The first novelty of qualifying for the 500 can be traced back to the very first running of the race back in 1911. Although participants were forced to adhere to a 75mph minimum speed in order to be allowed to compete in the race, the starting grid was determined by the order that entries were received by the top brass of the Speedway, with New York based racer Lewis Strang having the privilege of claiming the pole for the inaugural running of the event. A keen racer during the early 20th century, Strang had been inspired to compete in the 500 when he passed by the site of the speedway whilst it was still under construction, famously being pictured standing above a scaled outline of the speedway that came to be known as ‘The Vision’. For the next three years, the speedway continued with using postal entries as a means of dictating the starting order, but after overseas competitors voiced complaints about their entries arriving in the mail later than local entrants, thus unfairly starting them deep in the grid, a compromise was made such that the grid was determined by a blind draw a few days before the race.

Starting in 1915, the qualifying format was simplified so that starting positions would be determined by speed during practice for the race. Intially, speed would be measured over the course of one flying lap of the course, before being extended to a 10-mile, four lap format which is still in use at the speedway to this day. Though multiple days were allotted for qualifying (often referred to as “elimination trials”), drivers were known to wait until the last minute to qualify. Even though the track would normally be made available for practice beginning on May 1, many teams chose not to even arrive until just before elimination trials. The Speedway reacted by setting up a slightly retooled format in 1916 such that the first day qualifiers lined up first in the grid by speed. The second day qualifiers would line up behind the first day qualifiers, and so on, regardless if drivers on subsequent days were faster than the first day qualifiers. This system created the possibility the possibility of the fastest car in the field being forced to start in the middle of the pack come the 500 itself, a feat most recently seen with Sweden’s Kenny Brack in the 2005 running of the race. This format stayed in place until 2014, when an additional ‘knockout format’ was introduced to the final day of time trials in which the fastest nine drivers in the field competed between each other for pole position for the race.

With such a unique and intriguing format, it should come as no surprise that qualifying at Indianapolis has thrown up a number of surprises over the years, with many of the sport’s underfunded outfits and long shots for victory finding themselves at the centre of attention with a strong run in time trials. In 1950, Walt Faulkner became the first rookie ever to qualify on pole for the race, putting his Kurtis-Kraft machine into the field at a speed of 134.343mph on his way to a seventh place finish in the race. Teo Fabi and Tony Stewart would later repeat Faulkner’s feat in 1983 and 1996 respectively, only to see their races come to a premature end thanks to mechanical issues.

On the adverse however, the format can also prove to be the undoing of many big names in the series, with mechanical gremlins, poor setup or misfortune with the weather seeing some of the sport’s powerhouse competitors either mired at the back of the pack or even suffering the embarrassment of even missing the race altogether. In 1995, Team Penske became the highest profile victims of this fate, when chassis issues with their machines forced former 500 champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr. to miss out on competing in the race, in a sequence of events I looked at in much more detail in entry #34 of this countdown. Reigning Indycar series Champion Bobby Rahal became another high profile casualty of the system in 1993, when the Ohio native’s insistence of getting his in-house Rahal Hogan chassis up to speed saw him miss out on the race at the expense of last minute qualifier Eddie Cheever. In 2011, the previously dominant Andretti Autosport outfit faced the prospect of four of its five entered machines missing out on the race, with lead driver Marco Andretti having to bump team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay out of the field in order to make the Memorial Day Classic.

For most Indy fans however the king of qualifying at the Brickyard comes in the form of Rick Mears. The California based driver came to be known as a specialist on Pole Day, claiming a record six pole positions throughout his 14-year career as well as a run of six successive front row starts between 1986 and 1991. At the height of his career, Mears found himself as part of a unique Indianapolis 500 achievement, when he and Penske team-mates Al Unser Sr. and Danny Sullivan became the first team ever to lock-out the front row in qualifying for the 1988 race, one that Mears went on to dominate on his way to a third victory at the Brickyard.

For this year’s running of the 500 however, the field will be lead to the green flag by veteran driver James Hinchcliffe driving for Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports. The 29-year-old claiming his third front-row start at the speedway in five years, and in the process becoming the first Canadian to claim pole position for the race since former SSM driver Alex Tagliani achieved the feat in 2011. With Hinchliffe’s achievement comes the publicity and hype one would expect with leading to field to green in the biggest race of the year, but it also serves as a reminded that the undercard of the month’s activities has come to an end… and that the main event of the race itself is just around the corner.