Qualifying report
IndyCar Watkins Glen
Dixon takes pole after acrimonious session
Scott Dixon grabbed a predictable pole but in an unpredictable way, as he set his fastest time – and a new track record – on the harder compound black tires. Behind him however, there were several incidents that caused penalties.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Sep 3, 2016, 9:54 PM
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The Chip Ganassi Racing driver set a 1min22.5259sec lap, over five seconds under the old IndyCar track record set in 2009. But it was a close-run thing as Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power came within 0.0483sec of toppling the #9 car him from top spot. It was Dixon's second pole of the season and 25th of his career.
Power was somewhat fortunate to have made it to the Firestone Fast Six, as the red tires weren’t providing enough grip in the track conditions, and Penske cars seemed hardest hit. He ended Q2 in seventh.
However, Mikhail Aleshin, who had appeared to reach the top six, had his fastest two laps deleted for interfering with Juan Pablo Montoya’s qualifying run, which allowed Power to move forward. Penske took full advantage, put Power on blacks, and he rediscovered his speed.
Power then got unlucky as his engine briefly died as he was about to start his fastest lap, which cost him momentum as he came to the timing line. But he was happier than third-placed qualifier Sebastien Bourdais. His engine died completely as he came to start his fastest lap, and had blown his previous lap by running wide at Turn 1.
Helio Castroneves chose reds to set his fastest time, fourth fastest, with Tony Kanaan and Max Chilton making it three Ganassi cars in the top six. It was ex-F1 driver Chilton’s best qualifying session of his IndyCar career.
Championship leader Simon Pagenaud was a disappointing seventh, and will start alongside teammate Montoya, with Jack Hawksworth an impressive ninth for AJ Foyt Racing, the top Honda entry. Aleshin was a disgruntled 10th, rookie RC Enerson a deeply impressive 11th for Dale Coyne Racing, and Josef Newgarden a subdued 12th.
Other furious drivers included Rahal – who was penalized for interfering with Hawksworth and Hinchcliffe, who was penalized for interfering with Power. They will start from unrepresentative 20th and 13th places.
Takuma Sato will start last after having his best two laps deleted when he crashed at the end of Q1 and brought out the red flag.
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Watkins Glen - Qualifying
N°DriverTeam (Engine)Time 1 9 
Scott Dixon 
Ganassi (C) 1:22.5259 2 12 
Will Power 
Penske (C) 1:22.5742 3 11 
Sébastien Bourdais 
KVSH (C) 1:22.7844 4 3 
Helio Castroneves 
Penske (C) 1:22.8748 5 10 Tony Kanaan 
Ganassi (C) 1:22.9158 6 8 
Max Chilton 
Ganassi (C) 1:23.0064 7 22 Simon Pagenaud 
Penske (C) 1:23.4660 8 2 
Juan Pablo Montoya 
Penske (C) 1:23.5493 9 41 Jack Hawksworth 
Foyt (H) 1:23.6392 10 7 
Mikhail Aleshin 
Schmidt (H) 1:23.7744 11 19 
R.C. Enerson 
Coyne (H) 1:23.9907 12 21 Josef Newgarden 
Carpenter (C) 1:24.0983 13 5 
James Hinchcliffe 
Schmidt (H) 1:23.7342 14 98 Alexander Rossi 
Andretti-Herta (H) 1:24.0908 15 15 Graham Rahal 
Rahal (H) 1:24.1716 16 18 Conor Daly 
Coyne (H) 1:24.2606 17 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 
Andretti (H) 1:24.5254 18 83 Charlie Kimball 
Ganassi (C) 1:24.8928 19 20 Spencer Pigot 
Carpenter (C) 1:25.1826 20 26 Carlos Muñoz 
Andretti (H) 1:25.5560 21 27 Marco Andretti 
Andretti (H) 1:26.4285 22 14 
Takuma Sato 
Foyt (H) 2:12.3265
(C) = Chevrolet ; (H) = Honda
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