One year after being denied victory by a mere few feet at Kentucky Speedway, Ed Carpenter will look to go one spot further tomorrow night.
The American driver earned his first IZOD IndyCar Series pole with a two-lap average of 217.933 m.p.h. in the No. 20 Panther/Vision Racing machine, which was enough to stop championship leader Will Power (avg. of 217.829 m.p.h.) from claiming his tenth pole of the season.
Speaking of the championship, Power will take a 23-point edge over Dario Franchitti into tomorrow’s 300-mile event (8 p.m. ET, Versus). Franchitti wasn’t quite as quick as his Australian rival in qualifying and will start in 11th place after posting a two-lap average of 216.533 m.p.h.
Carpenter will try to win in the 200th event of the series that his stepfather, Vision team owner Tony George, founded in 1994. Last year at Kentucky, he came oh-so-close to a triumph but lost out to Ryan Briscoe by .0162 of a second after a great side-by-side duel with the Team Penske driver.
He’ll have some help at the front of the field, too. Dan Wheldon threw up his best qualifying effort of the season (avg. of 217.700 m.p.h.) and will start third tomorrow, directly behind Carpenter and alongside Scott Dixon (avg. of 217.533 m.p.h.) in Row 2.
There are several surprises in the rest of the top ten starters. Row 3 will feature Hideki Mutoh of Newman/Haas and Bertrand Baguette of Conquest Racing. KV Racing Technology’s Mario Moraes and Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves are in Row 4, followed by defending race champion Briscoe and Conquest’s Tomas Scheckter in Row 5.
Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay was involved in a crash during qualifying and will start 27th. He has been cleared to drive.
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Quotes from the top three
20-Ed Carpenter, Panther/Vision Racing
“I love this track and this area. I won one of my national midget races in Louisville and won a lot of sprint car races in Salem, Indiana. The southern Indiana/Kentucky region seems to be good to me for some reason. The way I kind of look at it, I’m trying to keep my career going so every minute I’m in the car, I have to do the best that I can and get the most out of it. I’m just having a lot of fun right now; the Panther team is going a great job in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It’s just a lot of fun.”
12-Will Power, Verizon Team Penske; championship leader
“My qualifying run was very straightforward. This was a typical oval run with lots of wind and low grip. It is good for the No. 12 Team Verizon car to start on the front row. I need a good result on a 1.5-mile oval this season and it’s important that we finish ahead of Dario (Franchitti) to keep the points lead. I feel that qualifying is very important but this track allows for passing and a lot can happen during the race.”
4-Dan Wheldon, Panther Racing
“It was obviously a great job by everybody at the National Guard Panther Racing team and we’ve been enjoying the good run we’ve had the last few races. The wind was gusting out there and I noticed it more in Turn Three during my qualifying run than I did this morning in the practice. This was just qualifying and we’re going to continue to work very hard in the warm-up session for the race and it’s such a great benefit to have Ed Carpenter with us this weekend in the Fuzzy’s Vodka car.
“Ed’s been a great addition and he’s really helped the team, as you can see by our performance today. It’s going to be a hectic race again and I’m excited for that. Hopefully we can go one position better than we did last race in the No. 4 car but that’s not to underestimate the competition; it’s extremely competitive out there and I’m just having a lot of fun right now.”
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Quotes in this article were taken from today’s trackside report.
