Briscoe to start from middle of last row at Indy

Experienced IndyCar substitute Ryan Briscoe will start from the middle of the final row of the grid as his place in the Indianapolis 500 was formally confirmed.

As previously reported Briscoe will stand in for Canadian James Hinchcliffe who suffered pelvic and thigh injuries in the Schmidt Peterson Honda earlier this week.

Briscoe will be wedged between fellow Australian James Davison (outside) and Bryan Clauson on row 11 in the 33-car line-up.

Briscoe is confident his experience will see him re-acclimatise quickly after being left without a full-time drive in IndyCar this season after parting ways with Chip Ganassi at the end of last year.

“First and foremost, I feel absolutely terrible for Hinch,” Briscoe said.

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“I wish him the best and a speedy recovery.”

“You sort of prepare for this race a year out. You visualise how you’re going to go through practice, all the prep you’re going to do, and something like this comes up and you throw that all out the window.

“I feel with my experience and the experience the team has, the experience that Hinch has had with (race engineer) Allen McDonald putting this car in really good condition for the race, I feel really confident that even with a few laps I’ll be able to find my groove again.”

Briscoe will be given special dispensation to undertake a one-hour familiarisation run at the 4km super speedway ahead of the final practice on Carb day Friday (Indianapolis time).

It will be the 33-year-old’s 10th Indy 500 start and 130th in the IndyCar series.

He won pole at Indianapolis in 2012 before finishing fifth which equalled his previous best finish in 2007.

Indianapolis 500 starting line-up

ROW 1
Inside	Middle	Outside
#9 Scott Dixon (W)	#1 Will Power	#22 Simon Pagenaud
Avg. Speed 226.760 MPH	Avg. Speed 226.350 MPH	Avg. Speed 226.145 MPH

 

ROW 2
Inside	Middle	Outside
#10 Tony Kanaan (W)	#3 Helio Castroneves (W)	#25 Justin Wilson
Avg. Speed 225.503 MPH	Avg. Speed 225.504 MPH	Avg. Speed 225.279 MPH

 

ROW 3
Inside	Middle	Outside
#11 Sebastien Bourdais	#27 Marco Andretti	#21 Josef Newgarden
Avg. Speed 225.193 MPH	Avg. Speed 225.189 MPH	Avg. Speed 225.187 MPH

 

ROW 4
Inside	Middle	Outside
#6 JR Hildebrand	#26 Carlos Munoz	#20 Ed Carpenter
Avg. Speed 225.099 MPH	Avg. Speed 225.042 MPH	Avg. Speed 224.883 MPH

 

ROW 5
Inside	Middle	Outside
#32 Oriol Servia	#83 Charlie Kimball	#2 Juan Pablo Montoya (W)
Avg. Speed 224.777 MPH	Avg. Speed 224.743 MPH	Avg. Speed 224.657 MPH

 

ROW 6
Inside	Middle	Outside
#28 Ryan Hunter-Reay (W)	#15 Graham Rahal	#18 Carlos Huertas
Avg. Speed 224.573 MPH	Avg. Speed 224.290 MPH	Avg. Speed 224.233 MPH

 

ROW 7
Inside	Middle	Outside
#29 Simona de Silvestro	#7 James Jakes	#48 Alex Tagliani
Avg. Speed 223.838 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.790 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.722 MPH

 

ROW 8
Inside	Middle	Outside
#8 Sage Karam	#43 Conor Daly	#24 Townsend Bell
Avg. Speed 223.595 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.482 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.447 MPH

 

ROW 9
Inside	Middle	Outside
#14 Takuma Sato	#63 Pippa Mann	#98 Gabby Chaves (R)
Avg. Speed 223.226 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.104 MPH	Avg. Speed 222.916 MPH

ROW 10
Inside	Middle	Outside
#17 Sebastian Saavedra	#41 Jack Hawksworth	#4 Stefano Coletti (R)
Avg. Speed 222.898 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.738	Avg. Speed 222.001 MPH

 

ROW 11
Inside	Middle	Outside
#88 Bryan Clauson	#5 Ryan Briscoe (*)	#19 James Davison (**)
Avg. Speed 221.358 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.519 MPH	Avg. Speed 223.747 MPH