Castroneves on Provisional Pole for Iowa Heat Races

Chevrolet dominated IndyCar qualifying at Iowa Speedway, sweeping the six automatic qualifying positions for the final heat and having the seven fastest times. Points leader Helio Castroneves assured he will pad his lead with a lap of 17.3324 seconds to put him on provisional pole. He beat out Marco Andretti and his Penske teammate Will Power. Indianapolis 500 winner and 2010 Iowa winner Tony Kanaan was fourth with James Hinchcliffe fifth and Oriol Serviá a surprise sixth.

Ed Carpenter was seventh quick and was bumped out of heat three by the final qualifier James Hinchcliffe. Carpenter will be the pole-sitter in heat two with Scott Dixon leading the field in heat one.

Behind Dixon will be former Iowa pole-sitter and fellow Honda drivers Takuma Sato and Josef Newgarden. Alex Tagliani will start fourth in heat one ahead of Sébastien Bourdais who will be making his first career start at Iowa. Bourdais' Dragon teammate Sebastián Saavedra will join him on row three for heat one ahead of two-time Iowa winner Dario Franchitti and last year's winner at Iowa Ryan Hunter-Reay. Ana Beatriz will start last in heat one after not making a qualifying attempt due to an engine change.

Carpenter is joined by rookie Tristan Vautier on the front row for heat two. Charlie Kimball will roll off from third ahead of James Jakes. Andretti Autosport driver EJ Viso starts fifth next to Simon Pagenaud who finished fifth and on the lead lap last year after starting dead last in his first career start at Iowa. Graham Rahal will start seventh next to former Newman-Haas teammate Justin Wilson with Simona de Silvestro rounding out heat two.

The top two from each heat race will advance to the final heat. All ten participants in heat three along with the third place finishers from heat one and two will receive points with winner of heat three scoring nine points and each following position receiving one fewer point. Ninth and tenth place in heat three and the third-place finishers from the first two heats will each receive one point apiece.

The Iowa heat races can be seen at 6:45 p.m. on IndyCar.com.