Power storms to Gateway pole in Penske lock-out

Will Power will head up an all-Team Penske top four for the start of the Gateway IndyCar race after a blistering pair of laps yielded his 50th career pole.

Power will share the front row with series leader Josef Newgarden, with Row 2 the other two Penske Chevrolets of Helio Castroneves and Simon Pagenaud.

Pagenaud, fifth on track, was the first to make a major impression in his two-lap qualifying run, lapping over an average 186mph on his first lap and 187mph on his second for a new track record.

Fastest prior to the Frenchman had been JR Hildebrand (Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet) with a two-lap average of 182.499mph.

From there, only Penske drivers would lead the session.

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Castroneves was the 13th car out and already averaging over 185mph on his warm-up lap before he clocked two laps each above 187mph to go fastest.

Newgarden came out three cars later and set two laps over an average speed of 188mph to take over provisional pole.

However, Power was still to come, and the 21st and final qualifier averaged 189.709mph (305.307km/h) on his first lap and 189.575mph (305.091km/h) on his second.

The pole is his sixth of the season and 50th in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

“That’s a number that I don’t think I would have dreamed of reaching when I started my IndyCar career,” said the 36-year-old.

“Obviously driving for Penske’s definitely a big part of that and you’re given great cars week in, week out, so I’m very happy to get the Verizon (No.) 12 car on pole here at Gateway.”

Takuma Sato was the fastest Honda driver in sixth for Andretti Autosport, one position ahead of Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Honda.

The 15th of 17 IndyCar races this season starts on Sunday at 1140 AEST.

Qualifying: Gateway Motorsports Park

Pos	Driver	C/A/E/T	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total time
1	Will Power	D/C/C/F	23.7206	23.7373	47.4579
2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/C/F	23.9311	23.8610	47.7921
3	Helio Castroneves	D/C/C/F	24.0149	23.9960	48.0109
4	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/C/F	24.1530	24.0406	48.1936
5	Ed Carpenter	D/C/C/F	24.3965	24.3766	48.7731
6	Takuma Sato	D/H/H/F	24.4513	24.4124	48.8637
7	Scott Dixon	D/H/H/F	24.4873	24.4663	48.9536
8	Carlos Munoz	D/C/C/F	24.5696	24.4448	49.0144
9	Alexander Rossi	D/H/H/F	24.5769	24.4485	49.0254
10	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/H/F	24.5588	24.4801	49.0389
11	Conor Daly	D/C/C/F	24.6002	24.5041	49.1043
12	Ed Jones (R)	D/H/H/F	24.5747	24.6326	49.2073
13	Graham Rahal	D/H/H/F	24.5780	24.6480	49.2260
14	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/H/F	24.7697	24.5376	49.3073
15	JR Hildebrand	D/C/C/F	24.7475	24.5679	49.3154
16	Max Chilton	D/H/H/F	24.7441	24.6328	49.3769
17	Tony Kanaan	D/H/H/F	24.7556	24.6420	49.3976
18	Charlie Kimball	D/H/H/F	24.7400	24.6733	49.4133
19	Sebastien Bourdais	D/H/H/F	24.8272	24.6652	49.4924
20	Marco Andretti	D/H/H/F	24.8235	24.8478	49.6713
21	Sebastian Saavedra	D/H/H/F	25.3628	25.2843	50.6471

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