Scott Sharp claimed his first IndyCar Series pole position in more than five years, winning the AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award for the Bombardier Learjet 550k at Texas Motor Speedway.
Sharp, driving the No. 8 Patron Dallara/Honda/Firestone for Rahal Letterman Racing, posted a quick lap of 215.260 mph (24.3334 seconds) to seize his first pole start since August 2001 at Kentucky Speedway, and his sixth in the IndyCar Series.
Sam Hornish Jr. (214.518) will start on the front row for the third time this season, while IndyCar Series points leader Dario Franchitti (214.411) and Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan (213.844) will share Row 2.
Scott Dixon, who crashed his primary Target Chip Ganassi Racing car during the afternoon practice session, qualified seventh in his backup car.
SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Patron Sharp Rahal Letterman Racing Dallara/Honda/ Firestone, AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award winner): “Wow, that sounds good. Polesitter. It’s been a long time since someone has said that. I just can’t say enough. We’ve been a little behind, no doubt, this year. Anyone that is not one of the top three teams is a little behind. The Patron Rahal Letterman team has been working really hard. We thrashed trying to just learn about the car. We forsaked a little bit of speed there just trying to learn about the car and it’s starting to pay off. Some of the things we did really loosened us up pretty good for Indy but those are the kind of things that work better on a banked track and we showed that it has. The minute the guys rolled the car off the trailer, it has been right on. We’ve hadn’t had to make a lot of changes and it worked well in race trim last night, as everybody did, I think, working that for the race. We had to make a few changes over night just to trim the car out a little bit but I’m really pleased. I never thought we’d run that quick. ”
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