Will Power scored the pole for Saturday’s Verizon IndyCar Series Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo by Chris Owens
Will Power earned the Verizon P1 Award for the third consecutive year at the Texas Motor Speedway oval and tied a legendary Indy car driver for career pole positions in the process.
Driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Power recorded a two-lap average speed of 218.519 mph (47.9410 cumulative seconds) as the first of 23 Verizon IndyCar Series qualifiers for the Firestone 600 to be run under the lights June 6. It is Power’s fourth pole this season and 40th of his 11-year career, tying him with retired Team Penske driver Rick Mears for fifth place on the all-time list.
Power set track qualifying lap records earlier this season on street courses at St. Petersburg and Detroit Belle Isle, as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He was six-tenths of a second off his 2013 Texas Motor Speedway two-lap qualifying record on the 1.455-mile, high-banked oval and led a Team Penske sweep of the top-three qualifying positions.
“When I drew No. 1 (in the qualifying order), I was a bit worried about conditions, but it stayed consistent throughout the whole run of qualifying,” said Power. “I was really happy to get pole, honestly. I felt if I could be in the top five, I’d be happy. Starting first, really happy about that.”
Power will be seeking his second victory at Texas Motor Speedway in the 248-lap event. He won the second race of the same-day doubleheader in 2011.
“The race will be interesting,” he said. “There are many (aero kit) components you can put on the car to add downforce, but it’s really draggy so it’s going to be about finding the compromise between speed loss and grip.”
Simon Pagenaud, fastest in the late-morning practice in the No. 22 Avaya Team Penske Chevrolet, earned his third front-row start of the season with a two-lap average speed of 218.441 mph.
“I just missed it by a little bit,” said Pagenaud, who posted the fastest lap of the practice session at 218.744 mph.
Helio Castroneves, who has won four times at Texas Motor Speedway, qualified third (218.069 mph) in the No. 3 AAA Insurance Team Penske Chevrolet. Carlos Munoz, winner of the first race last weekend at Belle Isle, broke the Penske stranglehold up front by qualifying fourth (217.831 mph) in the No. 26 AndrettiTV Cinsay Honda for Andretti Autosport.
Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya (217.530) and Graham Rahal (217.438) qualified on Row 3.
“Starting up toward the front with these boys is exactly where we need to be. Obviously, points are a big focus for us right now,” said Rahal, who is fifth in the Verizon IndyCar Series championship standings in the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. “It is going to be a tough race; everybody is going to have to manage their tires as well as they can. I feel like our race car is pretty good and I feel like track position is going to be pretty important here, too.”
Ryan Hunter-Reay, uninjured in a crash in the morning practice, qualified his repaired No. 28 DHL Honda 21st.
Verizon IndyCar Series
Texas Motor Speedway – Fort Worth, TX
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1. (1) Will Power, Chevrolet, 218.519
2. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 218.441
3. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 218.069
4. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 217.831
5. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 217.530
6. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 217.438
7. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 217.411
8. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 217.337
9. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 217.323
10. (8) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 216.920
11. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 216.876
12. (7) James Jakes, Honda, 216.864
13. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 216.686
14. (67) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 216.210
15. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 216.197
16. (19) Tristan Vautier, Honda, 215.929
17. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 215.621
18. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 215.303
19. (5) Ryan Briscoe, Honda, 215.162
20. (98) Gabby Chaves, Honda, 215.146
21. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 215.026
22. (18) Pippa Mann, Honda, 214.654
23. (4) Stefano Coletti, Chevrolet, 211.930
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