The Indy 500 used a new qualifying format with a Fast 12 and a Fast Six instead of bump day due to there only being 33 entries for the race. And it was indeed a fast one.

Scott Dixon stormed to pole with a second-best ever qualifying run at a remarkable speed of 234.046 MPH. This is only behind Arie Luyendyk’s 1996 236.986 MPH run. He smoked the competition, behind him was Alex Palou who was over half a mile-an-hour slower.

Things were already looking good for Dixon when he had already gotten off to a great Fast 12 run with a 233.5 MPH speed, putting him at the top of the charts going into the Fast Six.

“I think simplicity is key,” Dixon told RACER. “And honestly, some of the races that we’ve had this year, namely the issue as the Indy GP where we just kept throwing the kitchen sink at it, every time I got in the car, it was a new car to try and learn. And when you’ve only got one or two laps in qualifying, that’s just not a possibility. So we kept it simple. You know, [Saturday], we talked ourselves out of things that we shouldn’t have, and kudos to [race engineer Michael] Cannon who got aggressive on the last run, and the car was a dream to drive.”

Jimmie Johnson was looking at excellent speed on Saturday, going P6. But he had to settle for 12th on Sunday after he went to high and almost spun out the car. Ed Carpenter came back to Indy having had three poles there before. He settled for fourth with a speed of 233.080 MPH in the Fast Six.

Track temps were supposed to go up, but after a few runs, they cooled down a lot, making drivers, for the most part, go faster as the day went on.

Ganassi is looking like a big candidate to win the race, they dominated qualifying with Dixon in front, Palou P2, Ericsson P5, Kanaan P6, and Johnson P12.

The front row for the race this Sunday will be Dixon, Palou, and Veekay.

The 106th Running of the Indianapolis 500 will take place on Sunday, May 29 at 12:45 PM ET.