Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power scored his third IndyCar pole at Iowa Speedway after outpacing teammate Josef Newgarden in qualifying for Sunday’s Iowa Corn 300.
Power’s two qualifying laps around the 0.894-mile oval were 182.035mph and 182.747mph, producing an average of 182.391 – 1.231mph faster than Newgarden, who won this race for Ed Carpenter Racing back in 2016.
Iowa is one of the few tracks on the IndyCar schedule on which Power has never won, while this race has the strange distinction of never having been won by the polesitter.
He now lies just one behind AJ Foyt in terms of career poles, albeit still 15 adrift of Mario Andretti.
Three-time Iowa winner Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti Autosport) did a superb job to not only go fastest of the Honda drivers but also prevent a Penske 1-2-3, his 180.681mph average being just over 0.3mph faster than Simon Pagenaud.
Teammate Alexander Rossi clocked fifth, alongside championship leader Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing.
Robert Wickens, as usual, excelled in his rookie season, to finish seventh ahead of the second Ganassi car of Ed Jones, oval expert Carpenter, his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate James Hinchcliffe, and both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Hondas.
Gabby Chaves gave Harding Racing-Chevrolet a boost with a fine 16th.
Source: Read Full Article