Indianapolis: American Ed Carpenter set the pace on the first day of qualifying for the 98th Indianapolis 500, leading nine drivers who still have a chance to take pole position on Sunday (early Monday in UAE).

Carpenter set a four-lap qualifying average of 230.661mph (371.364kph) to edge Carlos Munoz at 230.460mph (371.041kph) for top honours after the Colombian rookie had bumped an earlier run off the top of the speed chart.

“We felt like there was a little more in there and fortunately there was,” said Carpenter, whose average was the fastest posted at Indy since 2003.

A revamped time trials format for the IndyCar classic at the famed 2.5-mile (4km) oval course produced drama as 33 cars made the field for the May 25 race but none of the starting spots were set.

All times on Saturday will be wiped out for Sunday, but only Saturday’s fastest nine will have one chance on Sunday to run for the pole and decide the order for the front three rows. The other 24 cars will fill out the back eight rows of the starting grid in a separate session.

“It’s stressful qualifying here and the less you have to do it the better,” Carpenter said.

“I think we have a good chance for the pole, but the field is very tight this year. There are so many good cars and drivers out there. It will come down on who gets it right on the day for the pole. It really comes down to being perfect for four laps.”

Joining Carpenter and Munoz in Sunday’s pole fight will be, in qualifying speed order, Brazil’s Helio Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner, Canada’s James Hinchcliffe, Australian Will Power, American Marco Andretti, France’s Simon Pagenaud and Americans Josef Newgarden and J R Hildebrand.

Points in the season championship were awarded based on the day’s runs, allowing Power to stretch his lead from one point to 178-171 over Hunter-Reay, with Pagenaud third on 170.

US stock car racer Kurt Busch, American Ryan Hunter-Reay and Colombian former Formula One racer Juan Pablo Montoya were among those bumped out of the ‘Fast Nine’.

Castroneves and Andretti were bumped from the top nine but able to requalify to keep alive their pole bids.

Among those to qualify was Canada’s Jacques Villeneuve, the former F1 and IndyCar champion making a comeback at age 42. He was 27th-fastest of 33 cars.

The fastest nine cars cracked 230mph for the four-lap qualifying average, with Busch just missing out at 229.960mph and Hildebrand ninth at 230.027 mph.

Busch was unable to try and requalify later in the day because he took a helicopter from Indianapolis Motor Speedway and caught an airplane to North Carolina for a US stock car race on Saturday night.

Busch will return to finish qualifying Sunday and next weekend will attempt to become only the fourth driver to race in both the Indianapolis 500 and a 600-mile US stock car series event on the same day.

“To do four laps here... just the sheer excitement of trusting a car with downforce going down into turn one at 230 is indescribable,” Busch said.

“You have to do it over 10 miles and you have to do it in the most unnerving conditions with the car. The car is not ready to go 230 but you have to handle it. It has been an experience.”

Montoya bumped out Busch but was in turn knocked from the fast nine by Andretti. That set the stage for Newgarden to oust Busch teammate Hunter-Reay, who failed in a last-second bid to bump his way back into the fast nine at Hildebrand’s expense.

“That was more tense than any laps I’ve ever driven around the track,” said Hildebrand was watching Hunter-Reay try to bump him from ninth.

“Frustrating,” Hunter-Reay said. “We were in the top nine most of the day. Just got to grin and bear it.”