Scott Dixon Grabs 12th Career Pole At Texas Motor Speedway
Jun 19, 2008
Ron McQueeney/IMS
Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves will start in the Bombadier Learjet 500 in the same way they are in IndyCar Series points - 1-2.
Dixon, the Indianapolis 500 champion and series points leader, earned his fourth pole of the season by averaging 214.878 mph (345.8 kph) during his four-lap qualifying run at the 1 1/2-mile (2.4-kilometer), high-banked track.
Still, his 12th career pole came as a bit of a surprise for Dixon.
“Today (in practice), we were struggling,” Dixon said. “Qualifying was eye-opening. I didn’t think the car could do a speed like that.”
“Coming into this year, we looked at our weakness from last year, when we didn’t start as well as we needed to,” Dixon said. “What we’re trying to do is keep the ball rolling and try to build up a points margin right from the get-go.”
“The Target guys have been giving me great cars,” said Dixon.
Starting alongside the Indianapolis 500 winner will be Helio Castroneves who posted a time of 1:37.5063.
Ryan Briscoe (1:37.9398) and Hideki Mutoh (1:38.1426) will make up row two.
