LEXINGTON, Ohio – Team Penske’s Will Power had the right combination to win the Verizon IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 pole on Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Power’s fast lap of 1:04.172 seconds around the 13-turn, 2.258-mile circuit was enough for him to win the Verizon P1 Award. It was Power’s fifth pole of the season, the third of his career at Mid-Ohio and the 49th of his career, which ties him with the legendary Bobby Unser for fourth on the all-time list.
It is the sixth time in Power’s career that he’ll start on the front row at Mid-Ohio.
“In practice, it’s difficult to get a clean lap so I was unsure going into qualifying after today’s practice,” Power said. “It always changes when you get to qualifying because the track changes. The car had a really good balance on used tires at the end.
“When you go into qualifying you have what you have and go with it. It’s a matter of putting what you have together and what you have had in practice. In qualifying you have to dig deep. I haven’t won here so it’s something I would really like to do. It’s a very technical track. It’s smooth, fast and an old school IndyCar road course.”
Castroneves was the first to get after it by taking to the course first during Fast Six qualifications and put up a time at 1:04.849. He was called into the pits with 2:30 left. Sato had the second timed lap in the final session at 1:09.224. Power moved up to second before he was displaced by Newgarden and Dixon.
Sato took over the provisional pole at 1:04.679 with 1:27 left. Castroneves returned to the track as he prepared to make another run at the pole Power took over the pole with a lap of 1:04.304. Rahal was attempting to make a fast lap and nearly lost control, ending his attempt at the pole.
“It was a good, tough, competitive session,” Rahal said. “I’m just lucky we didn’t cause a red because that is as sideways as I’ve been in a very, very long time. I hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Power won the pole in a Chevrolet followed by Newgarden’s 1:04.3067 (126.407 mph) in a Chevrolet, Sato’s Honda at 1:04.6792 (125.679 mph), Rahal’s Honda at 1:04.7959 (125.452 mph) and Dixon’s 1:05.1927 (124.589 mph).
“We’re getting closer on the qualifying setup and hopefully we can get one of those poles soon,” said Newgarden, who is 23 points behind Dixon with five races remaining in the battle for the IndyCar championship. “If we have a good start that goes a long way. If we can get through the first corner cleanly, I think we can have the pace and get it done.”
Dixon is attempting to win for the sixth time in 11 Verizon IndyCar Series races at Mid-Ohio.
“It wasn’t the best day for us, we’ve been chasing the car on entry and it’s loose,” Dixon said. “We tried a pretty big change in the Fast Six because we had nothing to lose. It was good to see a few Hondas up there in the Fast Six. Every year it changes whether it’s the weather or the tire. When you have a track the team is good at that I prefer as well we came back with a similar setup to what we had last year. I thought the car was fairly different as the temperature was cooler.”
With patches in the turn two area of the Keyhole, some drivers were driving wide rather than hugging that corner as they have in the past.
“For me trying to hug the corner is a lot better but with the wind today and the wind direction you get a lot of push trying to keep the rear underneath the car and then you start sliding,” Dixon said. “That created the outside line that we saw today.
“I think we tried everything that we shouldn’t have done so hopefully we will have a better car in the race.”
In the first group of segment one, the drivers used the harder Firestone Black tires and J.R. Hildebrand was an early leader with a lap at 1:05.388 but in the final two minutes, Simon Pagenaud’s 1:04.539, Sato’s 1:05.080 and Tony Kanaan’s 1:05.320 moved Hildebrand down the list.
In the final 20 seconds, Castroneves was eighth on the track but drove his way into the top six with a lap at 1:04.414 in the No. 3 Chevrolet – the third fastest lap of the session. Kanaan spun in the Keyhole section of the course.
“We are trying to overcompensate for the grip we don’t have,” Kanaan said. “I was trying my best and it was too much. I should not try everything I have because it makes me look pretty bad.
“On Sunday, I’ll just have to make it happen.”
Pagenaud ended as the fastest followed by Sato’s Honda (1:04.3734), Castroneves’ Chevrolet, Esteban Gutierrez’s Honda (104.7785), James Hinchcliffe’s Honda (1:04.3213) and Conor Daly’s Chevy at 1:04.9627.
Missing the cut were Charlie Kimball, rookie Ed Jones, Kanaan and Hildebrand.
Source :speedsport.com
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