The battle for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach pole is set to start in less than an hour (LIVE, 5:30 p.m. ET on IndyCar.com; 6 p.m. ET on Versus) out in Southern California. Here are the groups that will begin the first round of knockout qualifying.
Group 1
5-Takuma Sato
6-Ryan Briscoe
8-E.J. Viso
9-Scott Dixon
10-Dario Franchitti
11-Tony Kanaan
19-Alex Lloyd
26-Marco Andretti
32-Mario Moraes
34-Mario Romancini
36-Bertrand Baguette
77-Alex Tagliani
78-Simona de Silvestro
Group 2
2-Raphael Matos
3-Helio Castroneves
4-Dan Wheldon
7-Danica Patrick
12-Will Power
14-Vitor Meira
18-Milka Duno
22-Justin Wilson
24-Mike Conway
37-Ryan Hunter-Reay
67-Graham Rahal
06-Hideki Mutoh
Earlier this afternoon, Will Power led a third practice session for Sunday’s race (3:30 p.m. ET on Versus) with a hot lap of 69.9597 seconds in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske machine. Power holds a 32-point championship edge on teammate Helio Castroneves going into this weekend.
Dario Franchitti was second-quickest in the session (70.3147 seconds), followed by Castroneves in third (70.3738), Justin Wilson in fourth (70.4007), and Ryan Hunter-Reay (70.5430).
You can follow today’s qualifying action with updates on twitter.com/estradawriting.
