Long Beach IndyCar: Castroneves grabs pole, other Penskes falter
For the third consecutive year, Helio Castroneves will start the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach from pole position, but one of his Penske-Chevrolet teammates, Simon Pagenaud, will start from the back.
Castroneves’ pole was the 48th of his career, and involved him lowering his 2015 record by 0.4sec, to nail a 1min06.2254sec lap around the 1.986-mile course, beating Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Scott Dixon by almost 0.2sec.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi took third and fifth for Andretti Autosport, with James Hinchcliffe slotting his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda between them. Graham Rahal was sixth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda in sixth.
Pagenaud didn’t even get out of Qualifying’s first of three segments, having his two best times deleted for interference with teammate Castroneves, when he backed off massively into the final hairpin. Pagenaud said another teammate, Will Power, had also backed up him, but Race Control disagreed.
However, Power had a horrible exit from the hairpin on his final lap, wound up ninth, so will start behind Ganassi’s Charlie Kimball and his own Penske teammate Josef Newgarden.
Pagenaud’s penalty allowed Marco Andretti to get a third AA car into the Top 12 but he wound up 10th, just ahead of Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan and St. Petersburg winner, Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing-Honda).
Rookie Ed Jones did a great job to grab 13th, just behind teammate Bourdais, with Carlos Munoz 14th for AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.
Qualifying results:
| Pos. | # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | 1'06.2254 | |
| 2 | 9 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1'06.4123 | 0.1869 |
| 3 | 28 |  Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 1'06.4401 | 0.2147 |
| 4 | 5 |  James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1'06.5291 | 0.3037 |
| 5 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 1'06.5595 | 0.3341 |
| 6 | 15 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 1'06.7562 | 0.5308 |
| 7 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1'06.5404 | 0.3150 |
| 8 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 1'06.6074 | 0.3820 |
| 9 | 12 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 1'06.6145 | 0.3891 |
| 10 | 27 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | 1'06.6222 | 0.3968 |
| 11 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1'06.6262 | 0.4008 |
| 12 | 18 |  Sébastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing | 1'06.7853 | 0.5599 |
| 13 | 19 |  Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | 1'07.5832 | 1.3578 |
| 14 | 14 |  Carlos Munoz | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 1'07.3783 | 1.1529 |
| 15 | 21 | J.R. Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1'07.6931 | 1.4677 |
| 16 | 7 |  Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | 1'07.3893 | 1.1639 |
| 17 | 4 | Conor Daly | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 1'07.7977 | 1.5723 |
| 18 | 26 |  Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | 1'07.4699 | 1.2445 |
| 19 | 20 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | 1'07.8442 | 1.6188 |
| 20 | 8 |  Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | 1'07.5333 | 1.3079 |
| 21 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 1'08.0439 | 1.8185 |
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About this article
| Series | IndyCar |
| Event | Long Beach |
| Location | Streets of Long Beach |
| Drivers | Helio Castroneves |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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