IndyCar at Gateway: Team Penske’s Will Power Ties Mario Andretti For Most All-Time Poles | IndyCar

Power continued his incredible season today, in typical dominant fashion. The Team Penske driver topped the opening practice session early in the afternoon, and followed that with a blazing run in qualifying, earning his fourth pole of the season. Power’s two-lap average of 182.727 mph came as the final car on track during the session.

“Amazing, amazing,” Power exclaimed. “I’m still kind of shaking because I tried to go wide open in Turn 3 and 4 there. It got halfway around wide open and then it wasn’t going to make it, so then I downshifted and kind of floated out towards the wall. There was nothing left on the table, put it that way.”

Power will have two opportunities this season to take sole possession of the qualifying record. However, his focus is on the present. The driver of the No. 12 Chevrolet came into today with a six-point lead in the championship. That becomes a seven-point edge after earning the bonus point for pole position today. He should be in line to lead laps in the race tomorrow night, which will earn him even more bonus points as the race for the title intensifies.

Joining Power on the front row will be Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson. The Indy 500 winner broke up the Penske party as Josef Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin will start from Row 2 tomorrow. Ericsson’s two teammates Alex Palou and Scott Dixon will line up behind them in Row 3 for the race. The top six drivers in qualifying all drive for either Penske or Ganassi.

The first of those from another team could be the biggest threat to win tomorrow. Pato O’Ward has been incredible at this track. In his three starts at Gateway, the Arrow McLaren SP driver has finished 3rd, 2nd, and 2nd with 131 laps led. He has been knocking on the door, and already has a win at Barber and Iowa this season.

Rounding out the top-ten in qualifying were Takuma Sato, Romain Grosjean, and Devlin DeFrancesco. The four Andretti Autosport drivers will start 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th tomorrow with Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta in Row 6. With David Malukas, Simon Pagenaud, and Jack Harvey behind them, Honda secured 12 of the top-15 starting spots for the race.