The Indianapolis qualifying session has set the starting grid for the fifth race of the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season. Who will roll off in what position tomorrow?
Team Penske’s Will Power, the 2015 race winner, took the pole position for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with a fastest lap time of 67.7044 seconds (129.687 miles per hour) around the 13-turn, 2.44-mile natural terrain road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in Speedway, Indiana. The pole is Team Penske’s 250th in IndyCar.
Three of Team Penske’s five drivers will roll off in the top 3 positions for tomorrow’s race in their Chevrolet cars. Helio Castroneves and Josef Newgarden will start behind Power in 2nd place and 3rd place, respectively. Team Penske’s other two drivers, Juan Pablo Montoya, who is driving in his first IndyCar race of the season, and Simon Pagenaud, the two-time and defending race winner, will roll off in 5th place and 7th place, respectively.
Chevrolet On Pole, Honda Still Solid (Again)
Scott Dixon was the highest qualifying driver of a Honda car in 4th place. Despite not taking the pole, however, Honda cars will start in nine of the top 14 positions. This is much like the race at St. Petersburg, when a Chevrolet driver (Power) took the pole, but other Chevrolet drivers only collected two of the other 11 spots inside the top 12. It is also similar to Long Beach, when a Chevrolet driver (Castroneves) took the pole, but no other Chevrolet drivers started in the top 7. Honda drivers have just three poles since the Houston doubleheader in 2014, all of which coming on superspeedways last season.
The highest qualifying Chevrolet driver that is NOT from Team Penske is Conor Daly, who will roll off in just 15th place tomorrow.
Eyes On the Rookie
The series lone full-rookie Ed Jones will roll off in 13th place in his fifth career series start driving for Dale Coyne Racing in his Honda-powered car. IndyCar.com has full qualifying results and a starting grid.
Tomorrow’s Schedule
Warm-up for the race begins tomorrow at 11:00 AM ET, and the race itself starts at 3:50 PM ET and can be seen live on ABC starting at 3:30 PM ET.
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