Will Power has been unbeatable at the INDYCAR Grand Prix when starting the Verizon IndyCar Series race from the pole position.
The Team Penske driver is looking to make it 3-for-3 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on Saturday after collecting the Verizon P1 Award in qualifying. Power, who won the race from the pole in 2015 and ’17, earned the first starting position for a third time with a lap of 1 minute, 9.8182 seconds (125.761 mph) in the Firestone Fast Six climactic round of knockout qualifying on Friday.
Four-time series champion Scott Dixon failed to advance out of the first qualifying round for the first time in three years and will start 18th in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. “The PNC Bank car actually wasn’t too bad earlier this morning in cooler conditions. We took a pretty hefty swing at it for qualifying, but the car didn’t feel like it had speed – it was just sort of on top of the track.
“That condition got worse as it got hotter and hotter, unfortunately. We’ll get back to a setup we know and then try and take it from there. Today, it just seemed like the heat made everything worse for us.”
“We did have to dig deep,” said Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. “I mean, that was everything I had. We made a downforce adjustment after the first round when we saw how fast the other guys were and kind of got close to them. And on used tires, the car was really good, so (I’m) stoked, man, really, really stoked!”
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Robert Wickens missed winning his second Verizon P1 Award of the season by less than a tenth of a second. Driving the No. 6 Lucas Oil Honda, Wickens put in a lap of 1:09.9052 (125.604 mph) on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn permanent road course that will have the Canadian starting alongside Power on the front row. It was Wickens’ best qualifying effort since he won the pole in his Verizon IndyCar Series debut race, the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in March.
Sebastien Bourdais qualified third in the No. 18 Team SealMaster Honda (1:09.9449, 125.533 mph). It’s the Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan driver’s best INDYCAR Grand Prix qualifying effort in five tries.
James Hinchcliffe, Wickens’ teammate at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, had his best qualifying result of 2018 and will start fourth in the No. 5 Arrow Electronics Honda (1:10.0858, 125.281 mph).
Twenty-four cars will take the green flag in Saturday’s 85-lap race, with live coverage starting at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network.
Qualifying results
1. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 1:09.8182 (125.761 mph)
2. (6) Robert Wickens, Honda, 1:09.9052 (125.604)
3. (18) Sebastien Bourdais, Honda, 1:09.9449 (125.533)
4. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 1:10.0858 (125.281)
5. (20) Jordan King, Chevrolet, 1:10.1326 (125.197)
6. (1) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 1:10.7276 (124.144)
7. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 1:10.0382 (125.366)
8. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 1:10.1062 (125.244)
9. (21) Spencer Pigot, Chevrolet, 1:10.1601 (125.148)
10. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 1:10.1847 (125.104)
11. (30) Takuma Sato, Honda, 1:10.1979 (125.081)
12. (14) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 1:10.3592 (124.794)
13. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 1:10.0985 (125.258)
14. (98) Marco Andretti, Honda, 1:10.1044 (125.247)
15. (10) Ed Jones, Honda, 1:10.2859 (124.924)
16. (59) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 1:10.2113 (125.057)
17. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 1:10.3605 (124.792)
18. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 1:10.3221 (124.860)
19. (19) Zachary Claman De Melo, Honda, 1:10.5064 (124.533)
20. (26) Zach Veach, Honda, 1:10.3371 (124.833)
21. (4) Matheus Leist, Chevrolet, 1:10.6425 (124.293)
22. (88) Gabby Chaves, Chevrolet, 1:10.5066 (124.533)
23. (23) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 1:10.7784 (124.055)
24. (32) Kyle Kaiser, Chevrolet, 1:10.7394 (124.123)
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