Scott Dixon wins second consecutive Indy 500 pole position and fifth on the IMS oval

INDIANAPOLIS — Scott Dixon dethroned teammate Alex Palou to win the pole position for the 106th Indy 500 as Chip Ganassi Racing dominated qualifying Sunday.

Dixon earned his fifth pole position on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval with a four-lap average of 234.046 mph, the second-fastest qualifying speed in Indy 500 history behind Arie Luyendyk’s 236.896 mph in 1996.

For the second consecutive year, the six-time NTT IndyCar Series champion’s No. 9 Dallara-Honda will start first in the Indy 500 on May 29 (11 a.m. ET, NBC).

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Palou qualified second at 233.499, followed by Rinus VeeKay (233.385 as the top Chevrolet) as the front row posted three of the top five qualifying speeds in Indy 500 history while taking advantage of a 90 extra horsepower turbo boost added for qualifying. Ths speeds of Palou and VeeKay slotted in behind the late Scott Brayton, who posted the third-fastest qualifying speed (233.718) with the 1996 pole position.

Dixon earned his lone Indy 500 win in 2008, the first time he qualified first at the 2.5-mile track.

Chip Ganassi Racing put four of its five Hondas in the top two rows but came up short of the first front-row lockout of an Indy 500 since 1988 (Team Penske with Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser).

Ed Carpenter (233.080), Marcus Ericsson (232.764) and Tony Kanaan (232.372) qualified on the second row Sunday.

Pato O’Ward, Felix Rosenqvist, Romain Grosjean, Takuma Sato, Will Power and Jimmie Johnson occupied the next two rows after being eliminated during the first round Sunday,

Though there remained no major crashes during five days of on-track activity over the past week, there were some harrowing moments Sunday for two