Who holds the record for most pole positions at the Indianapolis 500?

Rick Mears holds the record for most Indianapolis 500 pole positions, earning six career poles.

Mears took pole in 1979, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1989, and 1991. His sixth came in 1991, when he also won the race and became only the third four-time Indianapolis 500 champion, joining A. J. Foyt and Al Unser at the time.

A pole position goes to the driver who records the fastest qualifying performance and starts first. It is separate from winning the race, which explains why some famous Indianapolis drivers appear prominently in victory statistics without matching Mears’s qualifying record. Mears won the 500 four times, but his six poles are the specific record asked about here.

Hélio Castroneves and A. J. Foyt each have four poles, while Mario Andretti has three. Mears’s combination of speed and consistency across three different decades made his qualifying record especially durable.