Pagenaud edges Power to pole in Iowa

Simon Pagenaud has edged Will Power to pole in a Team Penske sweep of the top three in qualifying for the Iowa 300.

Pagenaud was the only driver who would set a two-lap average of over 180mph, despite a wiggle through Turn 3 on his first lap in the #22 Team Penske Chevrolet.

The pole is the Frenchman’s second straight and third of the 2019 IndyCar Series as he went just under a tenth of a second quicker than Power across the two laps.

Power had been fastest until Pagenaud’s run, setting a two-lap total of 35.8418s at an average 179.589mph (289.020km/h) around the seven-eighths of a mile speedway.

Despite earning a front row start in the #12 Chevrolet, the Queenslander was not especially impressed.

“Is it any surprise that I’m second? Is it any surprise?” he laughed.

“It isn’t for me. That’s just this year. No, (the run) was actually pretty good. The car was good. All three (Penske) cars were good.”

Josef Newgarden was last driver on track and in fact bettered Power’s first lap but not his second, meaning the #2 Chevrolet will start third.

Best of the Honda drivers was Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Takuma Sato, who was significantly faster than anyone before him at the time before Car #30 settled in fourth on the grid.

The next four rows are Honda lockouts with James Hinchcliffe (#5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsport) sharing Row 3 with Alexander Rossi (#27 Andretti Autosport), while Scott Dixon (#9 Chip Ganassi Racing) qualified eighth.

There will be another practice session on Friday night (local time) before the 300-lap race is scheduled to start on Sunday at 0910 AEST (Saturday night local time).

Starting grid: Iowa

Pos	Num	Driver	C/E/T	Lap 1	Lap 2	Total time	Avg speed
							mph	km/h
1	22	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/F	17.8479	17.8976	35.7455	180.073	289.799
2	12	Will Power	D/C/F	17.9254	17.9164	35.8418	179.589	289.020
3	2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/F	17.8886	17.9813	35.8699	179.449	288.795
4	30	Takuma Sato	D/H/F	17.9605	18.2733	36.2338	177.646	285.894
5	5	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/F	18.1780	18.3532	36.5312	176.200	283.566
6	27	Alexander Rossi	D/H/F	18.2530	18.3079	36.5609	176.057	283.336
7	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/F	18.3540	18.2484	36.6024	175.857	283.014
8	9	Scott Dixon	D/H/F	18.3343	18.2957	36.6300	175.725	282.802
9	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/F	18.3063	18.3459	36.6522	175.618	282.630
10	7	Marcus Ericsson (R)	D/H/F	18.3582	18.3025	36.6607	175.578	282.565
11	88	Colton Herta (R)	D/H/F	18.3381	18.3710	36.7091	175.346	282.192
12	19	Santino Ferrucci (R)	D/H/F	18.3977	18.3178	36.7155	175.316	282.144
13	14	Tony Kanaan	D/C/F	18.3081	18.5055	36.8136	174.848	281.391
14	31	Sage Karam	D/C/F	18.5027	18.4219	36.9246	174.323	280.546
15	10	Felix Rosenqvist (R)	D/H/F	18.3883	18.5545	36.9428	174.237	280.407
16	59	Conor Daly	D/C/F	18.5098	18.5180	37.0278	173.837	279.764
17	20	Ed Carpenter	D/C/F	18.5000	18.5911	37.0911	173.540	279.286
18	98	Marco Andretti	D/H/F	18.4927	18.7047	37.1974	173.044	278.487
19	21	Spencer Pigot	D/C/F	18.5621	18.9067	37.4688	171.791	276.471
20	26	Zach Veach	D/H/F	18.6744	18.8305	37.5049	171.626	276.205
21	18	Sebastien Bourdais	D/H/F	18.7006	18.8558	37.5564	171.390	275.825
22	4	Matheus Leist	D/C/F	19.0247	19.4876	38.5123	167.136	268.979

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