Dixon: Bourdais would've beaten me to 2017 Indianapolis 500 pole

Dixon set an average pole time of 232.164mph in his Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda for the fastest four-lap average since Arie Luyendyk's 236.986mph run in 1996.

Bourdais' first two laps in Saturday's opening qualifying session were almost 1mph fastest than Dixon's at that point, but he then crashed his Dale Coyne Racing car and sustained multiple fractures of his pelvis and a broken hip.

"Got to give a shout out to Sebastien Bourdais," said Dixon.

"Saw him this morning, and he's doing well.

"He's a team-mate with me in [Ganassi's] Ford GT programme, we've spent a lot of time together over the years, and he's a hell of a driver.

"To be honest, I think he would have been the one who snatched the pole today.

"I know he's going to be on the mend quickly and hopefully he can be in a car here very soon."

Dixon admitted that he was shocked at his opening lap of 232.595mph, which was the fastest qualifying lap of Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 21 years.

"I thought maybe the dash had broken on the steering wheel and brought up a fake number," he said.

"I don't think we expected to see the speed that we did.

"I was debating with Chris Simmons, my race engineer - 'Man, we trimmed too much, we trimmed too much' - and I was basically talking myself out of it and seeing if he could maybe put some more downforce in the car.

"He was like, 'Don't worry, it's going to be fine, it's going to be fine.'

"When I saw that first number, I was like, 'Wow, this is impressive!'

"So obviously a huge thanks to Honda, too. They've been pushing extremely hard with the engine. They're definitely pushing it to the limit."

The four-time IndyCar champion and 2008 Indy 500 winner admitted that the restricted running in qualifying trim due to the bad weather over the past three days had made the Fast Nine shootout a "nerve-wracking" affair.

"It's been a little weird in the fact that both days we haven't run in the practice, so the first time for myself and my team-mates has been just getting in the car in qualifying, and it's kind of daunting. I've never done it before," said Dixon.

"You have all these crazy things that run through your mind, especially when you watch a lot of the other competitors either touch the wall or have a really bad run.

"You think you're maybe heading in the wrong direction and the computer isn't telling you the right settings for the ambient conditions and things like that.

"The last two days have probably been the most nerve-wracking for me.

"I don't know whether it's because I'm getting older and emotion is becoming stronger, but it's definitely tough."