Team Penske’s Will Power turned two strong laps into another valuable point in the race for the IZOD IndyCar Series championship Saturday by winning the pole position for Sunday’s Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.
Power’s two-lap average in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Dallara/Honda was 219.283 mph around the 1.5-mile tri-oval. The strong effort gave him the bonus point for winning the pole and padded his lead over Dario Franchitti, who qualified in the 11th position, to 12 points with just two races remaining in the 2011 season.
“It was a great result for Verizon Team Penske today,” said Power, who scored his second career oval pole to go along with the one he earned at Iowa in 2010. “We’ve been working really hard and the team has done a lot of work on the car to get the absolute most out of it. This is a really good start to the weekend and it’s good to get the point for the championship.”
With Saturday’s result, Power has now posted eight poles in back-to-back seasons to lead Team Penske.
Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon—the others eligible for the driver championship—will start 11th and seventh, respectively. Franchitti’s crew changed the engine in the No. 10 entry between the second practice session and qualifications (2 hours, 15 minutes), and “We just didn’t have the speed we did in the first session.”
Power carries a 12-point lead over Franchitti and is 60 points ahead of Dixon heading into the 200-lap race. Five different teams are represented in the top five, and eight in the top 10.
In recording his 24th career pole, Power broke a tie for 11th all-time with three-time Indianapolis 500 champion Johnny Rutherford. Nine earned poles in a season has been accomplished by Danny Sullivan in 1988 (CART sanction) and Mario Andretti in 1966 (USAC). Auto Racing Daily
Graham Rahal will join Power on the front starting row after his two-lap average of 218.348 mph. Rahal has started no worse than third in the past three races.
“I thought Will was going to be tough to beat, but I didn’t see that kind of speed coming from him,” Rahal said. “It feels good to start on the front row. We have been knocking at the front door qualifying in the front of the field the last few races, and I hope we can have a good result and finish up front.”
Rookie James Hinchcliffe qualified third, followed by Ed Carpenter, who started on the pole for this race last year.
J.R. Hildebrand, also a rookie this year, and Marco Andretti will start on the third row, while Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay will occupy row four.
Oriol Servia and Charlie Kimball will roll off from row five.
Danica Patrick qualified 14th. MiamiHerald.com
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IZOD IndyCar Series: Kentucky Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway - Race Line-Up
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