Courtesy of the Verizon IndyCar Series

LEXINGTON, Ohio – Will Power will start from the front row in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio for the sixth straight year on Sunday after claiming the Verizon P1 Award in Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying today at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Will Power with the Verizon P1 Award after winning the pole position for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio — Photo by: Chris Jones

Driving the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Power’s best lap of 1 minute, 4.1720 seconds (126.672 mph) in the Firestone Fast Six was enough to earn his third pole position at Mid-Ohio, his fifth pole this season and the 49th of his Indy car career – tying the 2014 series champion with Bobby Unser for fourth on the all-time list.

“The Verizon car was really hooked up,” Power said. “Before qualifying, we made a few changes and kind of got it in the window. Really happy for all the guys, especially here. You’ve got to start at the front here; it’s really, really difficult to pass, so (winning pole is) giving us the best chance to win tomorrow.”

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO: Qualifying results

Will Power hits the apex of Turn 1 during qualifications for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio — Photo by: Chris Owens

Power, who has yet to win a race at Mid-Ohio, was among three Team Penske drivers to advance to the Firestone Fast Six, the last of three knockout qualifying rounds. Joining the 36-year-old Australian on the front row in Sunday’s 90-lap race on the 2.258-mile, 13-turn permanent road course will be teammate Josef Newgarden, who qualified second in the No. 2 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet (1:04.3067, 126.407 mph).

“I think we did a good job today,” Newgarden said. “The boys on the (No.) 2 car gave me everything I needed with a fast car. It’s been pretty good all weekend.

“It’s always tough to get pipped by your teammate by just a little bit, but ultimately it’s a good day for us on Team Penske. We have two cars up there on the front row.”

Will Power sails into the Turn 2 Keyhole turn during qualifications for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio — Photo by: Joe Skibinski

Takuma Sato, winner of the 101st Indianapolis 500 in May, qualified third in the No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda (1:04.6792, 125.679 mph). Graham Rahal, who was fastest in his group in each of the first two qualifying segments, finished fourth in the Firestone Fast Six with a lap of 1:04.7959 (125.452 mph) in the No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda. The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver won at his home Mid-Ohio track in 2015.

“A good qualifying session for us,” said Rahal, the Ohio native. “It was a shame that in (the Firestone Fast Six), I frankly just messed up. I didn’t have Power’s speed, but I kind of threw it away early in the lap and that was that. Disappointed, at the same time we showed we’ve got the pace. Hopefully tomorrow we can work from fourth.”

Helio Castroneves, a two-time Mid-Ohio winner (2000, 2001), qualified fifth in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet (1:04.8485, 125.351 mph). Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon extended his streak of reaching all seven Firestone Fast Six sessions this season and qualified sixth in the No. 9 NTT Data Honda (1:05.1927, 124.689 mph). Points leader Dixon takes a three-point edge over Castroneves into the race.

Will Power adjusts his balaclava along pit lane prior to qualifications for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio — Photo by: Chris Owens

Defending Mid-Ohio race winner and 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud missed advancing to the Firestone Fast Six by less than five-hundredths of a second and will start seventh in the No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet.

“I’m surprised that we didn’t get in (the Firestone Fast Six) because it felt like a good lap and I put everything I had in it,” Pagenaud said.

Conor Daly advanced past the first segment of knockout qualifying for the first time this season and will start 11th in the No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Alongside Daly in Row 6 will be Esteban Gutierrez, whose 12th-place showing in the No. 18 UNIFIN Honda is his best qualifying effort in six races with Dale Coyne Racing.

Tony Kanaan originally advanced from Round 1, Group 1 but was penalized for causing a local yellow that impeded other drivers’ laps. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver spun sideways in Turn 2 on his final lap, forcing other drivers to slow as he corrected the car to continue on track. The automatic penalty levied by INDYCAR is loss of the driver’s fastest lap to that point, which prevented Kanaan from advancing.

A final 30-minute warmup practice is set for 11:15 a.m. ET Sunday and will stream live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com. Live coverage of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, the 13th of 17 races on the 2017 schedule, starts at 3 p.m. on CNBC and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network. An encore presentation of the race airs at 7 p.m. on NBCSN.

Mazda Road to Indy recap

Santi Urrutia, who lost the 2016 Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires championship by two points, notched his first win of the 2017 season in today’s first race of the Mid-Ohio weekend doubleheader. Starting from the pole, the Belardi Auto Racing driver beat Colton Herta (Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing) across the finish line by 0.4812 of a second. Urrutia is the seventh different driver to win a race this season in the top level of the Mazda Road to Indy development series.

Victor Franzoni (Juncos Racing) kept the intense battle for the Pro Mazda presented by Cooper Tires championship going by winning today’s second race of a weekend tripleheader at Mid-Ohio. Franzoni passed Anthony Martin (Cape Motorsports) with four laps to go and hung on to win by 0.4828 of a second. Franzoni takes a five-point lead over Martin into the third race on Sunday.

In the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship powered by Mazda, Parker Thompson (Exclusive Autosport) led wire to wire to capture his third win in the past four races, in the conclusion of the series’ weekend doubleheader. Rinus VeeKay finished second for Pabst Racing, which clinched the team championship for the Wisconsin-based outfit. Oliver Askew (Cape Motorsports) finished fourth and saw his points lead dwindle to 13 over VeeKay with one race remaining at Watkins Glen International on Sept. 3.

“What They’re Saying” from Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio qualifying

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 1 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet): “Honestly, I’m a little surprised we didn’t make the (Firestone) Fast Six. It felt like a good lap in the Menards Chevy, but we came up a little short. I put everything I had in it. That’s racing. That’s INDYCAR racing. We’re all fighting for hundredths of a second. I think we have a good car for the race. We’ll line up tomorrow and see what happens.”
 
JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 2 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet):“Starting second tomorrow is awesome. The No. 2 PPG Chevrolet is really strong for tomorrow’s race at Mid-Ohio. The team has been really working hard this weekend and it’s paying off. We can’t wait for tomorrow’s race to put on a great show for the crowd here.”
 
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): “That was a lot of fun. Everything was so close. INDYCAR racing is down to the centimeters now. We calculated about three laps would be perfect. But because of those 15 seconds that we stayed in the pits, it basically cost us a third lap on the second set of tires, so we didn’t have enough time to complete that. And I got caught in (Turns) 4, 5 and 6, which is a fast area. We lost a bunch of lap time. Regardless of that, thought the Hitachi Chevy was really strong. Congrats to Will (Power). We’ll just keep digging.”

CONOR DALY (No. 4 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): “Obviously it’s really good for us. I think it’s just a nice thing after the year that we’ve had, it’s nice to have a good qualifying session. The car has been improving, you know. We haven’t had the results to show it yet, but I think this is at least a good step forward for us. We need a race like this where we just sit in the top 10, top 11, top 12, whatever, the whole time so hopefully we can fight from there tomorrow and make up some ground.”  

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): “A bit of a disappointing day to be honest. The Arrow car has been top six pretty much every single session when you put all the pieces together, and the challenge here in qualifying is getting that lap and putting all the pieces together. Unfortunately we ran into some guys that were gapping pretty disrespectfully and not giving everybody the room that was needed; when there are only 12 cars on track, it’s pretty crazy that we can’t all find a gap. We got caught out by that today. It happens, it’s part of racing. No doubt we had the speed to be in the Firestone Fast Six. Hopefully that bodes well for tomorrow, and we can move up and put the Arrow Electronics car in victory lane.”

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): “Qualifying last was definitely not what we were expecting. I think part of it is me getting back into my rhythm after missing the last race weekend in Toronto. Of course it would be nice to qualify at the top, but the most important thing is to finish the race. We all know what can happen here at Mid-Ohio. The people who have seen last year’s race will know what I mean. We just need to continue to push forward and do well, and I’m pretty sure we are going to have a competitive race car for tomorrow.”

MAX CHILTON (No. 8 Gallagher Honda): “Practice session one was really good for the Gallagher team, but we started chasing the setup like a wild goose after that for some reason. I think we’re struggling as a team a bit too. Three of us didn’t get through, and Scott (Dixon) wasn’t exactly blistering out there, but he did make it. It’s strange because this is my kind of track. I hope we can sort something out or it’s going to be a bit of a long day tomorrow.”

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 NTT Data Honda): “It wasn’t the best day for us. We’ve been chasing the same issue since the test here last week. The car is really loose on entry and really has understeer. Hopefully we can figure out what’s going on. It was a good day for Honda overall with the qualifying results.”

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 NTT Data Honda): “I was overcompensating for the grip we don’t have and pushing it too hard out there. We need to do a better job of setting the car up – it just wasn’t there today. I shouldn’t be pushing the car to the max to make up for what’s not there in the setup. It’s going to be really difficult starting in the back here with how hard it is to pass, but we’re going to do everything we can to get up to the front.”

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): “I’m really excited for this pole. The No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet crew has really been on it all weekend here at Mid-Ohio. I’m ready for tomorrow’s race with what we feel is a really strong car.”

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet): “It was a tough one. On the blacks (Firestone primary tires) we were looking pretty strong, but then on the reds (Firestone alternate tires) we didn’t gain where we should gain on the red tires. It was hard to qualify in the top 12 for my group. I think my group was quite tough. It is what it is. Tomorrow I think we have to go strategy-wise really aggressive. Here at this track it’s hard to pass. We have to go aggressive on the strategy and see if it pays off. Last year, I did an aggressive strategy and it paid off, so we will see this year.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Steak ‘n Shake Honda) : “To have the Steak ‘n Shake Honda be the fastest overall in qualifying is special, but we would have liked to be on pole. I messed up on my best lap in Segment 3, and obviously the two rounds before I put it all together, but when it counted we lost a lot in the last turn, in Turn 12, on the very start of the final lap. I don’t know if we had enough on used reds (Firestone alternate tires). Power was on used reds too, but I don’t think I had that sort of time in me. But we were definitely better than fourth, so I’m a little disappointed in fourth place. I lost four-tenths in one corner alone, and then on the last lap I almost lost it. It’s great for our team and program to be up front once again. We’ve got a good starting spot and hopefully can battle from there. Last year you saw with the three-stopper that a lot of guys were on reds, even if they were used, they were preferred. This year it’s a new tire, so we haven’t run them a full stint yet. We’re in a really good spot in terms of tires. We didn’t use any new blacks (Firestone primary tires), and Helio (Castroneves) used two sets in qualifying. So I thinking tomorrow morning we can use a set and then we can have a heyday in the race and run whatever we want.”   

ESTEBAN GUTIERREZ (No. 18 UNIFIN Honda): “It was very exciting to try to explore and to keep experimenting with the car. Obviously, this is a new track for me. It was challenging to find the right set up. We’ve been working hard as a team to find the sweet spot. I think we managed a good balance until we got to the last run when the track changed. The track is evolving very quickly and you need to keep up with that balance. It was the first time we were in that session, so we missed something to anticipate and to keep up with the balance, but I think it was a good experience. It’s my first time into the fast 12 and it was very interesting. The team did a good job and it’s our best qualifying so far, so we’re making progress and that makes me happy.”

ED JONES (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): “It was a tough qualifying session overall. We got slowed down a bit by a car in front of us on my last laps, and then the car just got loose and I wasn’t able to improve my lap time at the end to move up the charts.”

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet): “We knew going into qualifying that we were in a really hard group. There’s so many good guys up and down pit lane. I feel like it was a pretty good lap on my part, we just ended up missing a little bit in the end. We closed the gap to the fastest cars yet again, but there were just a bunch of people super close as usual. We’ve been looking for a bit more front grip all weekend. We’ve been getting better and better, but that’s one thing that if we can fix it, it will raise our speeds quite a bit. The Fuzzy’s Vodka car is really good though, especially on the longer runs, so we’re looking forward to racing tomorrow.”

JR HILDEBRAND (No. 21 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet): “The Fuzzy’s Vodka guys are doing a good job. The car doesn’t feel that bad to drive, we just don’t seem to have a lot of speed in it. It’s frustrating because this is a track I really like and the team’s been good here in the past. We just can’t manage to get much better lap times out of it. It’s disappointing, but we’ll continue plugging away at it for the rest of the weekend.”

TAKUMA SATO (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Honda): “[Qualifying was] very good. The team work extremely well with the four cars and we were very competitive for all the practice sessions. I’m extremely happy with the performance of the Ruoff Home Mortgage car. I think the team has reached a good setup. I think a P3 is very happy place for us and a good position for the race tomorrow.”

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda): “(Group 2) was definitely a tough group, but we needed to beat everybody anyway – that was the goal. The car just didn’t turn enough for us to get there. We basically qualified our race car, I think, and were a bit too conservative (for qualifying). We started the weekend really good – within a couple hundredths of the quick time in Practice 1, but we’ve gone back a bit which is obviously not the goal.”

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): “We just lost some grip in the car this afternoon. Things were obviously promising after yesterday’s session and leading the way, but coming into today and the morning session we had promise in the DHL car. We lost a little bit of where we were and tried to retrace our steps. In the end, we had an imbalance in the car and just missed it a bit. We didn’t quite have what I needed to get into the (Firestone) Fast Six. Here in the Verizon IndyCar Series, it all adds up. If you’re off just a little bit in the car it can make a big difference.”

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Tresiba Honda): “Pretty disappointed honestly. We made some big improvements this morning and then we seemed to lose our way a little bit this afternoon. We were within like three-hundredths of transferring through to the top 12, which would’ve given us another shot to make the car better. I know there’s more in it for tomorrow, but we missed it a little bit, I missed it a little bit. The nice thing is that we have two sets of Firestone alternates (tires), sticker alternates, plus the scrubbed set from qualifying to use tomorrow. We just need a little bit of strategy and I think we have every opportunity to finish up front.”

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Andretti Autosport/Curb Honda): “I’m pretty disappointed to miss the (Firestone) Fast Six after running so well this morning. We just went the wrong direction with a change in session and it hurt us in the end. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but we have a fast race car so we’ll work to get up front tomorrow.”