Takuma Sato qualified on pole for the race, while Will Power managed to take victory despite being over a lap down at one point.

Despite being the last driver on track, Takuma Sato qualified on pole position with a two lap time of 1:21.9526 (219.639 mph), besting Simon Pagenaud, Charlie Kimball, Tony Kanaan, and Will Power.

Later in the session, Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed heavily in turn three, then made further contact with the inside wall on the front stretch.

Accelerometers measured the impact with a lateral g-force of 138 g.[1] Hunter-Reay walked away from the incident but suffered hip and left knee injuries and was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest in Allentown for examination.

He suffered no broken bones and was cleared to drive the following day, but was forced to start in 21st due to his incident.

[2] Ed Carpenter made no attempt to qualifying after suffering damage to his car in a crash during the morning practice session.

Several drivers who started farther back in the field, including Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, and Hélio Castroneves, began to work their way forward quickly in the opening laps as well.

On lap 23, the first of the race's caution periods came out after Esteban Gutiérrez made contact with the turn 3 wall, causing parts of his rear wing to break off and land on the track.

During the caution, teams took the opportunity to make their first round of pit stops, with Rossi retaining the lead, but now with Will Power running second, Kanaan third, and Dixon fourth.

During the stops, Max Chilton lost several laps after suffering from turbo-wastegate issues that required repair by his crew.

However, midway through the cycle, Sebastián Saavedra made contact with the turn two wall, bringing out another caution.

One more round of pit stops remained, which Power emerged back out in front, while Newgarden and Rossi became the closest pursuers.

However, Rossi suffered a broken fuel-nob, forcing him to remain in full-savings mode while Power and Newgarden went on ahead.

While the car was three laps down, Chilton expressed extreme displeasure over the radio, saying, "[Whoever gave me] this instruction is brain dead.