Will Power claimed his seventh pole position of the IZOD IndyCar season at Mid-Ohio for tomorrow’s Honda Indy. Power set the fastest time for the -lap race with a best lap of 1 minute, 7.1997 seconds (120.965 mph) in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car during the 10-minute shootout. It is his seventh of the season, tying teammate Helio Castroneves’ IZOD IndyCar Series record.
Earlier Power clipped a curb and slide backwards into a tire barrier during the morning’s practice session but this did not curb his ability and speed in the afternoon’s qualifying period.
Franchitti (1:07.2846) will start on the outside of the front row. Takuma Sato will start a season-high third alongside Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves – both two time winners at Mid-Ohio – will be on Row 3. Dixon extended his series record to 44 consecutive top-10 starts. Castroneves made his fourth consecutive appearance, and seventh overall, in the Firestone Fast Six.
The top six cars were separated by 0.3373 of a second. The top 19 of the 27-car field are separated by less than a second.
Power, who enters the 12th race on the IZOD IndyCar Series with a 50-point lead over Dario Franchitti in the drivers’ championship, will seek to increase that margin and wrap up the inaugural Mario Andretti Road Championship.
The race is time to go at 3pm local time tomorrow (Sunday) – (7am Monday 9th August NZ time).
