Castroneves leads Penske trio in Barber qualifying
Helio Castroneves will lead the field to the green flag for the second consecutive IndyCar race.
Photo by: IndyCar Series
Though conditions were ideal, a new track record was hard to come by. But that didn’t stop Helio Castroneves from scoring his second pole position of the season at Barber Motorsports Park as he was able to beat the rain to put in a lap of 1:07.1925 around the 2.38 mile road course.
Big names in the back
Threatening skies were the story of qualifying as everyone was hoping to lay down a fast lap before the skies opened up. The first group saw a few surprise eliminations as St. Petersburg winner Juan Pablo Montoya and defending race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay could not get out of the first round and will start 15th and 18th, respectively.
Also not making it out of the first round was A.J. Foyt Racing’s Takuma Sato and Jack Hawksworth in addition to all Honda drivers bar James Hinchcliffe and Graham Rahal.
The second round of qualifying began with ten Chevrolet cars and two Honda cars competing to get into the Firestone Fast Six, but it was six Chevrolets that came out as Sebastien Bourdais, Rahal, Luca Filippi, Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball and Sage Karam filled out the second half-dozen positions on the grid for Sunday’s race.
The fast six was completed before the rain came and washed off the track, leaving Castroneves on pole followed by Will Power, Simon Pagenaud, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden and Tony Kanaan completing the top six.
Qualifying results:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | 1m07.1925 |
2 | Will Power | Team Penske | 0.1908 |
3 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 0.4458 |
4 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 0.5013 |
5 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | 0.6997 |
6 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 0.7501 |
7 | Sebastien Bourdais | KV Racing | Q2 |
8 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | Q2 |
9 | Luca Filippi | CFH Racing | Q2 |
10 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Q2 |
11 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Q2 |
12 | Sage Karam | Chip Ganassi Racing | Q2 |
13 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Q1 |
14 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Q1 |
15 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Q1 |
16 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing | Q1 |
17 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Q1 |
18 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Q1 |
19 | Jack Hawksworth | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | Q1 |
20 | Takuma Sato | A. J. Foyt Enterprises | Q1 |
21 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Dale Coyne Racing | Q1 |
22 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Q1 |
23 | Francesco Dracone | Dale Coyne Racing | Q1 |
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