Ryan Briscoe couldn’t help but flash a big smile.
A week after spinning out at Richmond and losing the IndyCar Series points lead, Briscoe won his second straight pole at Watkins Glen International on Saturday. He turned in a time of 1 minute, 28.5970 seconds around the 11-curve, 3.4-mile road course in qualifying for today’s Camping World Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, N.Y. Kansas City Star
“I haven’t had this much fun around a road course in a long time,” Briscoe said. “We had a great car today, and hopefully we can break the Penske tradition and get a win here.”
Team Penske has won the pole for the first five races at Watkins Glen, with Castroneves taking the top starting spot in the first three races here from 2005-07. But Penske has yet to win a race at the 3.4-mile road course.
Wilson from Dale Coyne Racing secured the outside pole for the second consecutive time at Watkins Glen after turning a lap at 1:29.3106 (135.841 m.p.h.).
“I don’t know if we had enough for Ryan, he was obviously doing a great job today,” Wilson said. “I would like to think we could have gotten there, especially since he was on used tires and we got by on a new set.”
Scott Dixon, a three-time Watkins Glen winner, and Mario Moraes will start on row two, while Graham Rahal and Dario Franchitti will share the third row. MiamiHerald.com
IndyCar Series: Camping World Grand Prix - Race Line-Up
Qualifying on road and street courses is broken down into three sessions. In the first, each of two groups have 20 minutes on track to run as fast a lap as possible. The fastest six cars from each group advance to the second session.
The 12 cars in the second session get 15 minutes to post their fastest lap, and the top six move to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout. In the Shootout, the finalists are allowed a new set of tires and have 10 minutes to post their best time.
Rahal’s No. 2, owned by Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing, failed post-qualifying tech inspection and was dropped 10 spots on the starting grid.
Left on the outside looking were defending race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, who will start 16th, and Castroneves, a three-time pole winner at The Glen since the series began racing here in 2005. He failed to make it out of the first round and will start 14th in the 21-car field.
“It’s just a shame. This car is better than 14th,” Castroneves said. “We started really well, and when we put the reds on we got a little overconfident. I took a little longer to bring the tires up. We ended up not getting what the car had to offer.” The Associated Press
