Franchitti and Conway win Indy Dual pole spots
Two qualifying sessions on Friday produced two pole-winners for the Indy Dual pair of races at Belle Isle in Detroit set for Saturday and Sunday.
Photo by: Art Fleischmann
Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti earned the first starting position for Race 1 through the regular three rounds of qualifications for street and road courses, but will start 11th because of an unapproved engine change carried over from the Indianapolis 500.
Andretti Autosports EJ Viso qualified in the second spot, and Dale Coyne Racing's Mike Conway qualified third.
"I have to thank the engineering group," Franchitti said. "We had a really tough Indianapolis and to back with a pole is great, even with a 10-spot grid penalty. I’ll do the best from where we start."
Conway then qualified on the pole for Race 2 in a twelve-minute free-wheeling qualifying session, turning a lap of 1:18.0977 to best all comers.
It was the Coyne team's first IndyCar Series pole. It was also Conway's first career pole. Rahal Letterman Racing's James Jakes won second spot on the grid.
"We just had to hang out and see what we had and it was enough for pole," Conway said. "Excellent job by all the guys at the team at Dale Coyne for making this happen. We couldn’t have asked for much more coming into this weekend."
The remainder of the cars in the pole sitter’s qualifying group occupy the odd-numbered starting grid positions, starting with third; and the rest of the cars occupy the evennumbered starting grid positions.
The 2.346-mile, 13-turn street course of Belle Isle park in Motor City will host Race 1 on Saturday, June 1st at 3:30 PM; and Race 2 commences at the same hour on Sunday, June 2nd.
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