IndyCar Mid-Ohio: Power claims 60th pole for Race 1
Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power claimed his third pole of the season, his fifth at Mid-Ohio and the 60th of his career when unusually Group 1 proved the faster.
Traditionally, the 2.258-mile Mid-Ohio course gets ever quicker as more rubber goes down rapidly but Power’s top time from Group 1 – 66.334sec lap at 122.543mph – beat Group 2 pacesetter Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport-Honda by over 0.3sec.
Power had already guaranteed himself a front-row start by beating teammate Josef Newgarden by a little over 0.2sec, with Jack Harvey’s Meyer Shank Racing-Honda an almost identical gap behind.
Felix Rosenqvist headed up Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s challenge, as championship leader and six-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon was only ninth, complaining of no rear grip on the softer-compound red Firestones.
Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet narrowly grabbed a fifth-row spot just ahead of Marco Andretti.
In Group 2, Hunter-Reay clocked a 66.729sec lap just 0.1474sec faster than the highly impressive Conor Daly of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy.
Alexander Rossi, after his various troubles this year that have left him a desultory 18th in the championship, could be relatively pleased with third in session and sixth on the grid, but the 2018 Mid-Ohio winner will have been perturbed to find himself 0.45sec off Hunter-Reay’s pace.
Local hero Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda was fourth fastest in Group 2, beating Champ Car Atlantic rival Simon Pagenaud by three-hundredths of a second, while Max Chilton did a great job to land a mid-grid slot for Carlin-Chevy.
Race 1 is set to get the green flag at 5pm local (Eastern) time.
GROUP 1
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Will Power | 1:06.334 | --.---- | 9 | 9 | 122.543 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 2 | Josef Newgarden | 1:06.551 | 0.2165 | 9 | 9 | 122.144 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 3 | Jack Harvey | 1:06.769 | 0.4347 | 8 | 8 | 121.745 | Honda | A | Meyer Shank Racing |
| 4 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1:06.784 | 0.4498 | 8 | 9 | 121.718 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 5 | Rinus VeeKay | 1:07.011 | 0.6767 | 8 | 8 | 121.305 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 6 | Marco Andretti | 1:07.016 | 0.6819 | 8 | 8 | 121.296 | Honda | A | Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian |
| 7 | Colton Herta | 1:07.021 | 0.6869 | 8 | 8 | 121.287 | Honda | A | Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport |
| 8 | Pato O'Ward | 1:07.035 | 0.7011 | 9 | 9 | 121.261 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:07.141 | 0.8063 | 6 | 8 | 121.071 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
| 10 | Zach Veach | 1:07.210 | 0.8758 | 8 | 8 | 120.946 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 11 | Marcus Ericsson | 1:07.389 | 1.0547 | 9 | 9 | 120.625 | Honda | A | Chip Ganassi Racing |
GROUP 2
| P | Name | FTime | Diff | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine | Tire | Team |
| 1 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1:06.729 | --.---- | 8 | 8 | 121.819 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 2 | Conor Daly | 1:06.876 | 0.1474 | 8 | 8 | 121.550 | Chevy | A | Ed Carpenter Racing |
| 3 | Alexander Rossi | 1:07.186 | 0.4569 | 8 | 8 | 120.990 | Honda | A | Andretti Autosport |
| 4 | Graham Rahal | 1:07.220 | 0.4918 | 8 | 8 | 120.927 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 5 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:07.249 | 0.5202 | 8 | 8 | 120.876 | Chevy | A | Team Penske |
| 6 | Max Chilton | 1:07.449 | 0.7204 | 8 | 8 | 120.518 | Chevy | P | Carlin |
| 7 | Santino Ferrucci | 1:07.501 | 0.7724 | 8 | 8 | 120.425 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan |
| 8 | Oliver Askew | 1:07.621 | 0.8924 | 8 | 8 | 120.211 | Chevy | A | Arrow McLaren SP |
| 9 | Takuma Sato | 1:07.819 | 1.0905 | 8 | 8 | 119.860 | Honda | A | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
| 10 | Alex Palou | 1:08.155 | 1.4261 | 7 | 7 | 119.270 | Honda | A | Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh |
| 11 | Charlie Kimball | 1:08.378 | 1.6496 | 8 | 8 | 118.880 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
| 12 | Dalton Kellett | 1:08.544 | 1.8155 | 7 | 7 | 118.592 | Chevy | A | AJ Foyt Enterprises |
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