IndyCar Iowa: Daly and Newgarden share pole positions

Conor Daly scored his and Carlin-Chevrolet’s first ever NTT IndyCar Series pole position for tonight’s Iowa 250 race and was only pushed down to third for the second by the Team Penske-Chevrolets of Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

Daly set a brilliant first lap of 175.188mph that was unmatchable even by Newgarden and Power, ensuring he kept top spot for Race 1, while the second lap – which decides Race 2 – was a 174.9, which eclipsed all but those two Penske drivers.

Daly, who had never started inside the Top 10 on an oval before, thus delivers Carlin its first IndyCar pole in the squad’s third year in this series.

Colton Herta’s Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport machine bottomed out at Turn 4 on his qualifying run but he held on to claim fourth, ahead of Andretti Autosport teammate Alexander Rossi whose first lap was brave and wild.

Takuma Sato, a former Iowa polesitter, was sixth for Rahal Letterman Lanigan ahead of the fastest Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda of Felix Rosenqvist who, as in last week’s second race at Road America, just eclipsed the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy of Patricio O’Ward.

The 2016 and ’19 Iowa polesitter Simon Pagenaud in the third Penske had the worst day of anyone, unable to take his qualifying run reportedly because of no fuel pressure, and he is thereby consigned to the final row for both races.

Champion Scott Dixon also struggled after using the whole track, and will line up 17th.

For tomorrow evening’s race Newgarden and Power have locked out the front row while Daly will start alongside Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and Herta.

Like Hunter-Reay, Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey felt out his first lap and then laid it on the line in Lap 2 to grab sixth on his first ever qualifying run at Iowa.

Rookie Alex Palou was also impressive for Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh, taking seventh, just ahead of the most experienced man in the field, 45-year-old Tony Kanaan in the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy.

Marcus Ericsson and Rosenqvist rounded out the Top 10 for Ganassi, while teammate Dixon’s poor first lap led to only 18th on the second.

The same was true of Zach Veach, whose Andretti car had a huge moment in Turn 4 at the end of his first lap, killing the speeds for both laps.

RACE 1 – Friday

ClaDriverTeamTimeGapMph
1 Conor Daly Carlin 18.371  175.188
2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 18.379 0.008 175.107
3 Will Power Team Penske 18.411 0.040 174.807
4 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 18.412 0.040 174.799
5 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 18.683 0.312 172.263
6 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 18.697 0.326 172.130
7 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 18.704 0.333 172.063
8 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP 18.753 0.382 171.617
9 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 18.754 0.382 171.611
10 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing 18.766 0.395 171.496
11 Santino FerrucciDale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 18.783 0.412 171.340
12 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 18.790 0.419 171.278
13 Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing 18.820 0.449 171.005
14 Oliver AskewArrow McLaren SP 18.834 0.463 170.879
15 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18.841 0.470 170.817
16 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing 18.858 0.487 170.661
17 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 18.863 0.492 170.619
18 Alex PalouDale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 18.876 0.505 170.495
19 Tony Kanaan A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18.878 0.507 170.482
20 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 18.995 0.624 169.433
21 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19.110 0.739 168.407
22 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 19.452 1.080 165.453
23 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske   

 

RACE 2 – SATURDAY

ClaDriverTeamTimeGapMph
1 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 18.355  175.333
2 Will Power Team Penske 18.388 0.032 175.024
3 Conor Daly Carlin 18.395 0.039 174.960
4 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 18.470 0.114 174.245
5 Colton HertaAndretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 18.556 0.200 173.437
6 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing 18.654 0.299 172.523
7 Alex PalouDale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 18.670 0.314 172.382
8 Tony Kanaan A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18.729 0.373 171.834
9 Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing 18.749 0.393 171.653
10 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 18.784 0.428 171.336
11 Charlie Kimball A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18.788 0.432 171.294
12 Patricio O’WardArrow McLaren SP 18.810 0.454 171.099
13 Oliver AskewArrow McLaren SP 18.824 0.468 170.970
14 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing 18.843 0.487 170.797
15 Rinus van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing 18.868 0.512 170.574
16 Santino FerrucciDale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 18.881 0.525 170.450
17 Marco AndrettiAndretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 18.897 0.541 170.313
18 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 18.984 0.628 169.531
19 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19.013 0.657 169.268
20 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 19.024 0.668 169.174
21 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 19.084 0.728 168.639
22 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 19.948 1.592 161.334
23 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske   

 

 

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