Will Power may now be in prime position to claim the IZOD IndyCar Series championship lead later tonight at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.
True, the Aussie was unable to claim the pole for Indy Japan: The Final (11 p.m. ET, Versus) on the Motegi road course. That went to Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who threw down a time of 1 minute, 38.3918 seconds in the Firestone Fast Six session to win his 17th career pole.
But Power was right there with the Kiwi and will start second after posting a time of 1 minute, 38.4194 seconds. Not only that, his title rival Dario Franchitti – who holds the championship lead over Power by a mere five points going into tonight’s event – was unable to advance out of the second round of qualifying. The Scotsman will start ninth, on the inside of Row 5.
According to INDYCAR, Power was actually on point for the pole position all the way up to his final lap. But while he couldn’t nab the top spot and, more importantly in his case, the one championship point that goes with winning a pole, he still knows he’s in a good spot.
“I didn’t do what I needed to do in the last few turns but it’s still a good result,” said Power, who will have plenty of help up front tomorrow with Team Penske teammates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves starting fourth and sixth respectively.
“With all three Team Penske cars qualifying in the top six, that’s a good result for us and it’s definitely good to be starting where we are for the championship. Anything can happen in the race tomorrow, but we’re right where we need to be.”
Meanwhile, Franchitti was succinct in his assessment of qualifying.
“I just didn’t put a lap together to make the Fast Six — that’s about it,” he said. “Couldn’t put a lap together and left it until the last one and made a mistake in Turn 3. Then [James] Jakes went off in Turn 9 in front of me, covering the track in dirt. It was a combination of those two things, and we missed the tenth and a half we were needing.“
His TCGR teammate Dixon didn’t miss anything though as he went into the record books as the final pole-sitter for an IndyCar race at the Twin Ring.
“To be honest, I was up on my quick lap from Q1 by two or three tenths but then I kept losing it in the last section here in Turns 12, 13 and 14,” Dixon recalled. “It was a bit frustrating but we just got it. I think it was by a few hundredths or a few thousandths of a second. We’re on the pole and that’s what counts.”
Graham Rahal will start on the inside of Briscoe in the second row, while James Hinchcliffe and Castroneves make up the third row. Hinchcliffe trails J.R. Hildebrand by three points in the Rookie of the Year battle and is aiming to take control of it after handling problems kept him from doing that two weeks ago in Baltimore.
As for Hildebrand, he’ll have to charge from the back to maintain his ROY lead after placing 19th in qualifying.
Starting grid
Position, car #-driver, team, lap time (speed)
1. 9-Scott Dixon, Ganassi, 01:38.3918 (109.143)
2. 12-Will Power, Penske, 01:38.4194 (109.113)
3. 38-Graham Rahal, Ganassi, 01:38.5946 (108.919)
4. 6-Ryan Briscoe, Penske, 01:38.7082 (108.793)
5. 06-James Hinchcliffe, Newman-Haas, 01:38.9226 (108.558)
6. 3-Helio Castroneves, Penske, 01:38.9743 (108.501)
7. 83-Charlie Kimball, Ganassi, 01:38.7911 (108.702)
8. 18-James Jakes, Coyne, 01:38.8198 (108.671)
9. 10-Dario Franchitti, Ganassi, 01:38.8738 (108.611)
10. 26-Marco Andretti, Andretti, 01:38.9058 (108.576)
11. 5-Takuma Sato, KV-Lotus, 01:38.9194 (108.561)
12. 34-Joao Paulo de Oliveira, Conquest, 01:39.0009 (108.472)
13. 59-EJ Viso, KV-Lotus, 01:38.9562 (108.521)
14. 19-Sebastien Bourdais, Coyne, 01:38.7495 (108.748)
15. 77-Alex Tagliani, SSM, 01:39.0409 (108.428)
16. 2-Oriol Servia, Newman-Haas, 01:38.7719 (108.723)
17. 28-Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti, 01:39.0750 (108.391)
18. 22-Giorgio Pantano, Dreyer & Reinbold, 01:38.8588 (108.628)
19. 4-JR Hildebrand, Panther, 01:39.2650 (108.183)
20. 27-Mike Conway, Andretti, 01:38.9371 (108.542)
21. 24-Ana Beatriz, Dreyer & Reinbold, 01:39.4724 (107.958)
22. 17-Hideki Mutoh, AFS/SSM, 01:38.9407 (108.538)
23. 7-Danica Patrick, Andretti, 01:39.4789 (107.951)
24. 14-Vitor Meira, Foyt, 01:39.3269 (108.116)
25. 82-Tony Kanaan, KV-Lotus, 01:39.5004 (107.927)
26. 78-Simona de Silvestro, HVM, 01:39.3440 (108.097)
