Aleshin secures maiden IndyCar pole at Pocono

Russian Mikhail Aleshin has soared to his maiden IndyCar pole, topping qualifying for the ABC Supply 500 at Pocono.

As IndyCar returned to the tri-oval with heavy hearts a year on from Justin Wilson’s fatal accident at the Pennsylvania track, Aleshin extracted a 220.44 mph (354.76 km/h) two-lap average.

The Schmidt-Peterson Honda driver was the 12th car to run in the single-car qualifying format, banking a session best 220.6 on his first flying lap to set up the pole effort.

Aleshin said he chanced his hand, taking a gamble after being on the edge of breaking loose and hitting the wall.

“We had a couple of moments in Turn 1, but I decided to keep it flat and see what would happen,” Aleshin admitted.

“(Hitting) the wall didn’t happen, but pole position happened. Amazing.”

Josef Newgarden (Ed Carpenter Racing) crafted a 220.19 (354.36) to just fall short while AJ Foyt’s Takuma Sato was the only other runner to exceed the 220 average and will start third.

Helio Castroneves fared best of the Penske runners, qualifying fourth while Will Power was eighth with points leader Simon Pagenaud to start from 14th.

Carlos Munoz (Andretti Autosport) had occupied the top spot after an early run of 219.64 (353.47) but slipped to fifth ahead of Aleshin’s team-mate James Hinchcliffe and Andretti-Herta’s Indy 500 champ Alex Rossi.

Tony Kanaan was ninth ahead of Ed Carpenter.

The fourth Penske runner, Juan Montoya qualified 15th after the team scrambled to repair his car following a crash in practice.

Defending race champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was forced to sit out qualifying after an earlier heavy shunt but is confident he will return for final practice ahead of the race.

Result: Pocono qualifying

Rank	Car	Driver Name	C/A/E/T	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total Time	Avg Speed	Comment
1	7	Mikhail Aleshin	D/H/H/F	40.7901	40.8629	01:21.6530	220.445
2	21	Josef Newgarden	D/C/C/F	40.8518	40.8938	01:21.7456	220.195
3	14	Takuma Sato	D/H/H/F	40.9058	40.8873	01:21.7931	220.067
4	3	Helio Castroneves	D/C/C/F	40.9709	40.9288	01:21.8997	219.781
5	26	Carlos Munoz	D/H/H/F	40.9870	40.9628	01:21.9498	219.647
6	5	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/H/F	41.0076	41.0109	01:22.0185	219.463
7	98	Alex Rossi(R)	D/H/H/F	41.0480	41.0216	01:22.0696	219.326
8	12	Will Power	D/C/C/F	41.0872	41.2487	01:22.3359	218.617
9	10	Tony Kanaan	D/C/C/F	41.1550	41.1849	01:22.3399	218.606
10	20	Ed Carpenter	D/C/C/F	41.3041	41.1045	01:22.4086	218.424
11	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/H/F	41.2689	41.2228	01:22.4917	218.204
12	41	Jack Hawksworth	D/H/H/F	41.2919	41.2576	01:22.5495	218.051
13	27	Marco Andretti	D/H/H/F	41.2426	41.3217	01:22.5643	218.012
14	22	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/C/F	41.2078	41.4667	01:22.6745	217.721
15	2	Juan Montoya	D/C/C/F	41.2793	41.5614	01:22.8407	217.284
16	83	Charlie Kimball	D/C/C/F	41.4946	41.4865	01:22.9811	216.917
17	8	Max Chilton(R)	D/C/C/F	41.5076	41.5606	01:23.0682	216.689
18	11	Sebastien Bourdais	D/C/C/F	41.6428	41.5892	01:23.2320	216.263
19	9	Scott Dixon	D/C/C/F	41.8258	41.7642	01:23.5900	215.337
20	88	Conor Daly(R)	D/H/H/F	41.9102	41.9056	01:23.8158	214.757
21	19	Pippa Mann	D/H/H/F	42.5995	42.6006	01:25.2001	211.267
22	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/H/F			No Time		DNQ

(C)hassis: D=Dallara | (A)erokit: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (E)ngine: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (T)ire: F=Firestone R= Rookie