Mikhail Aleshin made IndyCar history as the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports driver captured the pole for Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 at Pocono Raceway.
Mikhail Aleshin became the first Russian driver to capture an IndyCar pole position on Saturday during a wild qualifying session for the 2016 ABC Supply 500.
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Aleshin beat Josef Newgarden by 0.25 to put the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda on the pole for Sunday’s event at Pocono Raceway.
It’s the first pole of Aleshin’s career, and only the third time all season that the Verizon P1 Award has been earned by a team outside of the Big Three. Understandably, the young Russian was a bit stunned after qualifying ended.
“It’s obviously very difficult to explain what I feel now. But it’s a lot of emotions definitely,” Aleshin said through a league statement at the end of the session. “Maybe you cannot see it with my Russian face, but it’s true.
“I’m very happy for the team first of all because we’ve been through many things. We’ve been through some very difficult situations at the end of 2014. They supported me then. Then I came back last year for [a] single race, the last race in Sonoma, and finished in the top T0.
“This year, I mean, we had some good things, some difficult things – races, I mean. I think the last part of the season has been really good, and we had really good progress,” Aleshin continued. “Just the whole team all together, me, everyone else. It’s a team sport here, for sure. Every tiny thing is very important in the end result. So I’m definitely very, very happy to be here.”
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At his sponsor’s title race, Takuma Sato performed well and put the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Enterprises car third on the grid. Many of the championship contenders weren’t so lucky.
Championship leader Simon Pagenaud qualified 14th out of 22 entries, the worst starting position for him this season. Current runner-up Will Power is eighth, and third-place Helio Castroneves will start fourth. Overall, it was the worst bunch of qualifying results IndyCar fans have seen from Team Penske, but they weren’t alone in struggling.
Normally solid Scott Dixon will roll off 19th on Sunday and Ryan Hunter-Reay will start from dead last. Hunter-Reaydid not record a qualifying speed on Saturday afternoon, after suffering a nasty crash during practice.
Related Story: Watch: Ryan Hunter-Reay Spins During Pocono Practice
“I’m a bit banged up, sore, what you’d expect from a hit like that,” he said afterward. “It’s really unfortunate because this DHL Honda was a rocket here in the test just a week and a half ago.
“We came with a few different things in the car, but really we found that the real issue was just a cross-weight issue. The car was just mechanically a little bit too aggressive. We could have made qualifying, but the battle is that if you don’t make your space in line in tech, then you’re not allowed to qualify.”
Despite the major setback, Hunter-Reay remains optimistic in his team’s chances for tomorrow’s race.
“This is the location of our last win, and hopefully we can get this 28 DHL car back into Victory Lane,” he continued. “Last year we came from the back as well. Hopefully we can make it happen with Justin [Wilson] on our minds the whole way. It’s unfortunate but tomorrow’s the race and it’s 500 miles. And the backup car we went to is the car we won with here last year.”
Below are the complete qualifying results for the 2016 ABC Supply 500:
1. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 220.445
2. (21) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 220.195
3. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 220.067
4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 219.781
5. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 219.647
6. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 219.463
7. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 219.326
8. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 218.617
9. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 218.606
10. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 218.424
11. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 218.204
12. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 218.051
13. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 218.012
14. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 217.721
15. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 217.284
16. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 216.917
17. (8) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 216.689
18. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 216.263
19. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 215.337
20. (88) Conor Daly, Honda, 214.757
21. (19) Pippa Mann, Honda, 211.267
22. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, no speed
The ABC Supply 500 takes place Sunday, Aug. 21 at 3 p.m. ET with the race broadcast on NBCSN.