Will Power ties the legendary Mario Andretti for the most career pole start in Indycar history. Power will lead the field for the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Clips from post qualifications press conference:
THE MODERATOR: The guy next to you just happened to pick up career pole 67, Will Power. This is his fourth pole here, fourth of the season. A little history perspective: last time we saw an INDYCAR SERIES driver, Will, pick up 67, when Mario did, you go all the way back to August 1st,1993. It’s a mark that has stood for some time. Watching you celebrate this thing, the smile…
WILL POWER: Yeah, something I’ve had my eye on for a while. I think when I got to 60, I was like, This could be possible. Yep, it’s definitely a big box to tick. But, yeah, now focusing forward on the race. That’s really the big thing on my mind, is having a good day. Yeah, everyone’s at the front, so it’s just going to be…It’s pretty typical of INDYCAR, right? It’s just going to go down to the last race. The way I see it, even on points right now, it’s that close, it can just flip. It’s going to be about who can finish ahead of who. Simple as that.
Q. Will, there’s been times you and I have talked, back when you were at 60, 61 poles, you said, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get there. Did you honestly feel that way? Now that you’ve reached your goal, is it just a huge sense of relief?
WILL POWER: When I got the double pole at Iowa, that’s when it became really realistic. The year before I had one pole. I think the year before that I had three. It was getting
increasingly harder to get pole position. I was kind of thinking, This is going to be pretty hard to beat. But the double pole at Iowa was real key. Yep, great team, great engine, great crew. That’s what I’ve had. I’ve been lucky.
No, I’m not feeling any relief because I’m so focused on the race and the championship. I can think about that later and feel good about it. Right now it’s just so important to have a good car in the race and race well, yeah, have a solid day.
Qualifying Results:
| RANK | DRIVER | CAR NO. | LAP 1 TIME | LAP 2 TIME | STATUS | TOTAL TIME | AVERAGE SPEED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Power | 12 | 24.6757 | 24.5782 | 00:49.2539 | 182.727 | |
| 2 | Marcus Ericsson | 8 | 24.7387 | 24.6929 | 00:49.4316 | 182.07 | |
| 3 | Josef Newgarden | 2 | 24.8967 | 24.6548 | 00:49.5515 | 181.629 | |
| 4 | Scott McLaughlin | 3 | 24.8303 | 24.7823 | 00:49.6126 | 181.406 | |
| 5 | Alex Palou | 10 | 24.8321 | 24.8125 | 00:49.6446 | 181.289 | |
| 6 | Scott Dixon | 9 | 24.8681 | 24.8683 | 00:49.7364 | 180.954 | |
| 7 | Pato O’Ward | 5 | 25.0059 | 24.9101 | 00:49.9160 | 180.303 | |
| 8 | Takuma Sato | 51 | 24.9341 | 25.0525 | 00:49.9866 | 180.048 | |
| 9 | Romain Grosjean | 28 | 24.9972 | 25.0237 | 00:50.0209 | 179.925 | |
| 10 | Devlin DeFrancesco | 29 | 25.0201 | 25.1104 | 00:50.1305 | 179.531 | |
| 11 | Alexander Rossi | 27 | 25.1104 | 25.0513 | 00:50.1617 | 179.42 | |
| 12 | Colton Herta | 26 | 25.0346 | 25.1474 | 00:50.1820 | 179.347 | |
| 13 | David Malukas | 18 | 25.1646 | 25.0701 | 00:50.2347 | 179.159 | |
| 14 | Simon Pagenaud | 60 | 25.1603 | 25.1815 | 00:50.3418 | 178.778 | |
| 15 | Jack Harvey | 45 | 25.1626 | 25.1800 | 00:50.3426 | 178.775 | |
| 16 | Conor Daly | 20 | 25.1575 | 25.2135 | 00:50.3710 | 178.674 | |
| 17 | Graham Rahal | 15 | 25.2192 | 25.1568 | 00:50.3760 | 178.657 | |
| 18 | Helio Castroneves | 06 | 25.2793 | 25.1815 | 00:50.4608 | 178.356 | |
| 19 | Christian Lundgaard | 30 | 25.3216 | 25.1935 | 00:50.5151 | 178.165 | |
| 20 | Kyle Kirkwood | 14 | 25.3211 | 25.2184 | 00:50.5395 | 178.079 | |
| 21 | Jimmie Johnson | 48 | 25.5457 | 25.4839 | 00:51.0296 | 176.368 | |
| 22 | Callum Ilott | 77 | 25.5697 | 25.5132 | 00:51.0829 | 176.184 | |
| 23 | Rinus VeeKay | 21 | 25.5858 | 25.5491 | 00:51.1349 | 176.005 | |
| 24 | Dalton Kellett | 4 | 25.9029 | 25.8503 | 00:51.7532 | 173.902 | |
| 25 | Ed Carpenter | 33 | 25.9511 | 25.8721 | 00:51.8232 | 173.667 |