Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA
Qualifying report

Will Power leads Penske 1-2-3 in Texas qualifying

Will Power and Simon Pagenaud topped the speed charts in IndyCar qualifying.

Polesitter Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Polesitter Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

IndyCar Series

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet and Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet
Helio Castroneves, Team Penske Chevrolet
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport Honda
Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport Honda

Being first car out wasn’t the problem for Will Power, earning pole for the Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Power was able to hold off all challengers as teammate Simon Pagenaud turned out to be his biggest threat, qualifying only .017 seconds behind Power. Team Penske sweept the top three spots the grid with Helio Castroneves third.

Power was open about the options that different drivers are exercising with the aero kits in order to make the cars go faster.

“You know, you got all this stuff you can put on to add downforce if you want. But it's quite draggy, so you lose a bit of speed. It's going to be about finding the right compromise for speed loss versus grip. I guess we'll try some things tonight and see how it all stacks up. I think you'll see a few different variations of what people bolt on as far as body kits go for the race,” Power said.

RHR has a rough day

During the morning practice session, 2012 series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay had an incident in turn two, and having a repaired car after losing a lot of practice time was a detriment to the Floridian.

“We knew we were going to miss it by a bunch for qualifying, we had to be conservative, we didn’t know what setup to really go with and no matter what, when you put a bunch of new stuff on the car like that, you never know where it’s going to be stressed,” Hunter-Reay said.

Munoz leads the Hondas

The fastest Honda was Detroit race one winner Carlos Munoz in fourth with Graham Rahal qualifying the second fastest Honda in sixth.

James Hinchcliffe’s substitute and 2010 Texas winner Ryan Briscoe qualified 19th.

Stefano Coletti qualified last after losing a lot of time in the morning practice session.

“We had some trouble this morning and couldn’t run so we lost 35 minutes of the practice session, and losing track time is not something we want.”

Starting Grid

 Pos.  No.   Driver   Car / Engine   Time   Margin 
1 Will Power Dallara/Chevrolet 47.9410 -
2 22  Simon Pagenaud Dallara/Chevrolet 47.9580 0.0170
3 H.Castroneves Dallara/Chevrolet 48.0398 0.0988
4 26  Carlos Muñoz Dallara/Honda 48.0923 0.1513
5 J.P.Montoya Dallara/Chevrolet 48.1589 0.2179
6 15  Graham Rahal Dallara/Honda 48.1792 0.2382
7 Scott Dixon Dallara/Chevrolet 48.1853 0.2443
8 10  Tony Kanaan Dallara/Chevrolet 48.2016 0.2606
9 83  Charlie Kimball Dallara/Chevrolet 48.2047 0.2637
10 Sage Karam Dallara/Chevrolet 48.2942 0.3532
11 27  Marco Andretti Dallara/Honda 48.3042 0.3632
12 James Jakes Dallara/Honda 48.3067 0.3657
13 14  Takuma Sato Dallara/Honda 48.3465 0.4055
14 67  Josef Newgarden Dallara/Chevrolet 48.4530 0.5120
15 20  Ed Carpenter Dallara/Chevrolet 48.4558 0.5148
16 19  Tristan Vautier Dallara/Honda 48.5160 0.5750
17 41  Jack Hawksworth Dallara/Honda 48.5853 0.6443
18 11  S.Bourdais Dallara/Chevrolet 48.6569 0.7159
19 Ryan Briscoe Dallara/Honda 48.6888 0.7478
20 98  Gabby Chaves Dallara/Honda 48.6926 0.7516
21 28  Ryan Hunter-Reay Dallara/Honda 48.7198 0.7788
22 18  Pippa Mann Dallara/Honda 48.8041 0.8631
23 Stefano Coletti Dallara/Chevrolet 49.4315 1.4905

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Alex Tagliani, the traveling man
Next article Foyt looking to put more pressure on his drivers

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA