Ryan Briscoe Narrowly Wins Pole for 96th Indianapolis 500

For the last week drivers have flocked from every corner of the world to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in order to practice and hopefully qualify for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500.  When all is said and done 33 drivers will have a chance to make racing history.

One guy already has; the driver of the No 2 Penske car, Ryan Briscoe.

Briscoe took the pole position with the fastest time in the Fast Nine Shootout Saturday beating out James Hinchcliffe by the smallest margin in the history of the 96 year old race, .0023 seconds. When someone smarter than me did the math the difference came out to a hair over nine inches—after the drivers had just covered 633,600 of them (10 miles).

Winning the pole is great, and if recent history is any indication it could very well lead to victory for Briscoe. Scott Dixon won the pole in '08 and Helio Castroneves did it as well in '09; both went on to win the race. Sam Hornish Jr. did the same in '06 as did Buddy Rice in '04.

Even if he doesn't win he does get a nice payday just for winning the pole--$175,000. Not bad for a days work.

Article by Travis Pulver