INDIANAPOLIS — IndyCar officials chose safety over speed Sunday.

A few hours after Ed Carpenter hit a wall, got twisted backward and flipped through the air at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the series announced changes to reduce speeds in hopes of keeping all four wheels on the ground.

Carpenter was the third driver in the past week to go airborne on the 2.5-mile oval.

“When we’re talking about an event here, we’re talking about safety,” said Derrick Walker, IndyCar’s president of competition and operations. “It’s not about a manufacturer, one versus the other. It’s about how can we grab ahold of this situation and reduce the speed in the interest of safety, and safety is going to be our guiding light.”

Series officials responded to the series of crashes by being more cautious, rather than pushing pole speeds into the 233 to 234 mph range by giving the cars a boost of about 50 horsepower for qualifying weekend.

Scott Dixon won his second Indy 500 pole with a four-lap average of 226.760 mph, more than 4 mph slower than Carpenter’s pole-winning pace last year.

The three cars involved in the frightening crashes were Chevys. None of the drivers – three-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Carpenter, who won the past two Indy poles – were seriously injured.

Each returned to the track without missing a day of work, and Castroneves and Carpenter actually made it back on the track on the same day.

But that didn’t make drivers feel much safer.

“It caught me by surprise,” Carpenter said. “I wasn’t expecting to swap ends. The car was actually feeling pretty good, better than it did yesterday. Things are a little unpredictable right now.”

Carpenter’s crash caused a five-hour delay to the start of qualifying, and race organizers changed the schedule for the second straight day – giving each car one qualifying attempt.

SPRINT CUP: Denny Hamlin intently watched the qualifying event for NASCAR’s annual All-Star race and noticed, as has been the case in recent years, the driver out front in the waning laps was almost certainly guaranteed the win.

As Greg Biffle led all 20 laps of the Sprint Showdown to earn a spot in the All-Star race, Hamlin understood that nothing about NASCAR’s current rules package has changed. To win the $1 million prize late Saturday night, he’d have to be the leader exiting Turn 2 on the first lap of the final segment.

“The final 10 laps, you’ve got to be on the front row,” Hamlin said. “Aero means so much with these cars nowadays that the person out front just has a huge advantage. I knew once we got cleared going into Turn 1 we had a great shot.”

And that’s how Hamlin earned what he considers the biggest win of his career. His victory in the dash-for-cash at Charlotte Motor Speedway gave team owner Joe Gibbs his first All-Star race victory in 24 years of trying, and it was the first for manufacturer Toyota.

He wasn’t alone in his belief that he had to be out front for that final restart, which came after a mandatory four-tire pit stop for the entire field. Cars entered pit road in the order of their average finishing position over the first four segments of the race, and Hamlin was sixth overall. But his Joe Gibbs Racing team used a rapid pit stop to get Hamlin rolling, and he beat everyone back onto the track.

Keselowski rolled off second but was flagged for speeding and had to forfeit that position.

“Whoever gets the clean air with this format and this rules package is going to drive away,” Keselowski said. “I knew when I came out of my pit stall and the 11 was pulling out with me that I either beat him to that line or lose the race.

“I told my crew chief I’d rather go down swinging than take a strike and wonder what might have been. I swung and missed.”

XFINITY SERIES: Chris Buescher pulled away on a restart in a green-white-checkered finish Sunday at Iowa Speedway to claim his first victory of the season.

Chase Elliott appeared poised for an easy win before a late caution set up overtime. Buescher was the beneficiary, taking advantage with a perfectly executed restart.

Elliott finished second after leading a race-high 114 laps. Erik Jones was third, followed by Brian Scott and Ryan Blaney.