Andretti Autosport swept the front row for the Pocono Indy 400 Fueled by Sunoco with Marco Andretti taking his second pole position of the season as he broke the track record by ten miles per hour. His two lap average of 221.273 MPH broke the track record set by Emerson Fittipaldi twenty-four years ago. Andretti has been atop of the time sheets after every session in Pocono. Now he needs to find a way to be on top at the end of four hundred miles. Ryan Hunter-Reay starts second ahead of James Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe beat Hunter-Reay to the line two weeks ago at Iowa to collect his third win of 2013.
Will Power starts on the inside of row two with Triple Crown hopeful Tony Kanaan in the middle and Helio Castroneves on the outside. In seven starts in races over four hundred miles, Power has only two top ten finishes but has started in the top ten now six times after his qualifying efforts Saturday. Tony Kanaan looks to keep his hopes alive for the prize of $1 million for winning the Triple Crown and looks to get back in the championship hunt. A win at Pocono not only keeps his hopes alive for Fontana but will pocket him $250,000 for winning two of the three legs of the Triple Crown. Helio Castroneves leads Ryan Hunter-Reay by nine points in the championship standings as he tries to win his first career IndyCar championship.
Honda swept row three with Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato and Simon Pagenaud. Dixon is looking for his first win of 2013 as he sits seventh in standings, just one point behind Pagenaud and seven points ahead of Sato. Simona de Silvestro starts on the inside of row four in tenth position. This is the Swiss driver's first career top ten start on an oval. Joining her on row four are Frenchmen Tristan Vautier and Sébastien Bourdais. Bourdais is the only driver to have competed in every race and not score a top ten finish.
Row five features the Hondas of Charlie Kimball and James Jakes with Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Ed Carpenter starting in fifteenth position. With his fourth place finish at Iowa, Carpenter scored his second top five of 2013, only the second time he has scored multiple top fives in one season. Another top five and he would set a career high with three in one season. Josef Newgarden starts sixteenth ahead of Graham Rahal and Dario Franchitti. Franchitti reported on Twitter his team changed engines. No word on if he will served a ten grid spot penalty.
Row seven features the Dale Coyne entries of Pippa Mann and Justin Wilson with Sebastián Saavedra starting on the outside. This is not the first time Mann has out qualified her teammate. At Indianapolis in 2011 she qualified thirty-first while then-Conquest Racing teammate Sebastián Saavedra failed to make the show and at Texas last month Mann started nineteenth, one position ahead of her teammate Justin Wilson. The eighth and final row for the Pocono Indy 400 Fueled by Sunoco features three drivers who did not completed a qualifying attempt Saturday. EJ Viso starts on the inside and had an accident exiting turn one on his second lap. His first lap was good enough for fourth fastest. Ryan Briscoe starts in the middle after skipping qualifying to race in the American Le Mans Series race at Lime Rock Park. Alex Tagliani starts on the outside after having an accident exiting turn one on his first lap of qualifying.
The Pocono Indy 400 can be seen at noon ET on ABC. It is the final race broadcast for ABC. The remaining eight races will be broadcasted by NBCSN.
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