Will Power was the final driver to take to the track for qualifying at Iowa Speedway on Saturday, but the Australian saved the best for last to take a dominant Pole Position.
The Team Penske driver took a fourth pole position of the season around the 0.875-mile oval with a time of 34.7541s to deny JR Hildebrand his maiden pole by 0.2644 seconds.
Hildebrand had earlier set a time of 35.0185s to hit the top, but the Ed Carpenter Racing driver will be forced to start on the outside of the front row following Power’s pole-stealing run. However, after crashing during practice earlier in the day, the American will not be grumbling about his first career front row start.
Helio Castroneves will line-up third on the grid for Team Penske, with the veteran Brazilian ending up 0.2833 second back on Power, while Ed Carpenter, Hildebrand’s team-mate and team boss, will start fourth.
Takuma Sato was the best placed of the Andretti Autosport quartet in fifth, but his team-mates were all outside the top ten – Alexander Rossi twelfth, Ryan Hunter-Reay fifteenth and Marco Andretti a disappointing twentieth.
Mikhail Aleshin will start sixth for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing’s Tony Kanaan, while rookie Ed Jones was an impressive eighth for Dale Coyne Racing ahead of James Hinchcliffe and Graham Rahal.
Championship leader Scott Dixon will start down in seventeenth, just behind defending race winner Josef Newgarden, while Carlos Muñoz will start at the back of the field after crashing his AJ Foyt Racing machine at turn two during his run.
Iowa Speedway Qualifying Result
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