Pagenaud secures 500th pole for Penske at Iowa

Simon Pagenaud has recorded the 500th pole position for Team Penske ahead of the Iowa Corn 300 IndyCar Series race.

Pagenaud concluded his two-lap average with a 185.85 mph (299.85 km/h) effort to supply the team the landmark effort as the remarkable squad celebrates its 50th year.

The series leader Pagenaud realised the seventh pole of his IndyCar career in outstripping Ed Carpenter Racing gun Josef Newgarden.

Rebounding recently from fractures to his hand and shoulder, Newgarden was second fastest in 185.63 (298.75) while Pagenaud’s team-mate Helio Castroneves was third in 185.43 (298.42).

The pole on the short oval was Pagenaud’s fifth this year and only his second on an oval after topping the charts at the Fontana super speedway last year.

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Pagenaud said it was important for him to convert the pole into a win and validate his form on an oval.

“The biggest statement we want to show is we are strong on ovals as well and want to win,” Pagenaud said.

“I’m super happy we can show some speed. We were fast at Indy as well, but a mechanical took us out of that.

“It is great to show so much strength. I’m the lucky one who got to win the 500th pole for Team Penske; a Frenchman and on an oval.”

Former F1 driver and Nissan LMP1 driver Max Chilton (Chip Ganassi Racing) produced his best qualifying in his rookie year and will start on the second row with a 185.41 (298.380.

Fellow Ganassi drivers Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan were fifth and sixth.

Ed Carpenter was seventh ahead of Team Penske’s 2014 series champion Will Power with Mikhail Aleshin (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports) and Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) completing the top 10.

Aleshin was the sole Honda-powered driver to make the top 10.

His team-mate James Hinchcliffe was mysteriously down on power and will start from last position.

“It was definitely a less-than-ideal day at the office in the Arrow Electronics car,” Hinchcliffe said.

“We had some sort of issue in qualifying and I’m not entirely sure what caused it but for the gap in pace that we saw, there’s definitely a major issue.

“We’ll take a look at it and try to diagnose the problem. It’s just unfortunate to start from the back here, especially during a day race, and another bad pit selection for my home race in Toronto.”

See below for full qualifying results

Rank	Car	Driver Name	C/A/E/T	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total Time	Avg Speed
1	22	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/C/F	17.3089	17.3245	00:34.6334	185.855mph
2	21	Josef Newgarden	D/C/C/F	17.3314	17.3424	00:34.6738	185.639
3	3	Helio Castroneves	D/C/C/F	17.3605	17.3517	00:34.7122	185.433
4	8	Max Chilton (R)	D/C/C/F	17.3768	17.3380	00:34.7148	185.419
5	83	Charlie Kimball	D/C/C/F	17.4438	17.4461	00:34.8899	184.489
6	10	Tony Kanaan	D/C/C/F	17.4720	17.4291	00:34.9011	184.430
7	20	Ed Carpenter	D/C/C/F	17.4501	17.4681	00:34.9182	184.339
8	12	Will Power	D/C/C/F	17.5366	17.4490	00:34.9856	183.984
9	7	Mikhail Aleshin	D/H/H/F	17.6076	17.6135	00:35.2211	182.754
10	9	Scott Dixon	D/C/C/F	17.6701	17.5716	00:35.2417	182.647
11	2	Juan Montoya	D/C/C/F	17.5590	17.6840	00:35.2430	182.641
12	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/H/F	17.6816	17.6364	00:35.3180	182.253
13	14	Takuma Sato	D/H/H/F	17.7213	17.6556	00:35.3769	181.949
14	41	Jack Hawksworth	D/H/H/F	17.7183	17.7072	00:35.4255	181.700
15	26	Carlos Munoz	D/H/H/F	17.8024	17.7469	00:35.5493	181.067
16	11	Sebastien Bourdais	D/C/C/F	17.8887	17.6884	00:35.5771	180.925
17	98	Alex Rossi (R)	D/H/H/F	17.7853	17.7929	00:35.5782	180.920
18	19	Gabby Chaves	D/H/H/F	17.8346	17.8481	00:35.6827	180.390
19	27	Marco Andretti,	D/H/H/F	17.7837	17.9196	00:35.7033	180.286
20	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/H/F	17.9788	17.8004	00:35.7792	179.903
21	18	Conor Daly (R)	D/H/H/F	18.0670	17.9641	00:36.0311	178.646
22	5	James Hinchcliffe,	D/H/H/F	18.3330	18.4430	00:36.7760	175.027