Turn one, lap one of tomorrow's Grand Prix of Baltimore will be as interesting as a turn one, lap one could ever be. Scott Dixon beat Will Power by 0.0333 seconds and the two teams involved in the controversial pit penalty last week at Sonoma will be the two teams leading the field into the first corner tomorrow afternoon. Simon Pagenaud was third, over three tenths back of both Dixon and Power with Justin Wilson starting fourth. Josef Newgarden qualified fifth and will be joined by Tristan Vautier on row three.
Graham Rahal was set to move on to the Firestone Fast Six but got into the tires in turn eight and brought out the red flag. By bringing out the red flag, Rahal lost his two fastest laps and had to drop to twelfth. Tristan Vautier got into the back of the stationary Rahal but was not penalized and was allowed to advance to the Firestone Fast Six. The driver to advance to the Firestone Fast Six in place of Rahal was Scott Dixon.
Helio Castroneves will start seventh and missed the Firestone Fast Six by 0.0863 seconds. Ryan Hunter-Reay will join him on row four. Charlie Kimball will start in ninth with Takuma Sato tenth after what has been a rough summer for AJ Foyt Racing. James Hinchcliffe will start eleventh with Rahal in twelfth after losing his fastest times.
James Jakes was seventh in group one and would start thirteenth. However his RLLR team made an engine change before qualifying to his sixth engine of the year. Jakes will serve a ten spot grid penalty and start twenty-third. Luca Filippi will start thirteenth after missing the Fast 12 by 0.0407 seconds. Dario Franchitti will start fourteenth. Tony Kanaan starts fifteenth for what will be his 212th consecutive start, breaking the record set by Jimmy Vasser, with Oriol Servià in sixteenth. Marco Andretti starts seventeenth with Simona de Silvestro joining him on row nine. Ed Carpenter qualified nineteenth with Sebastián Saavedra in twentieth. EJ Viso got into the wall during qualifying and will start twenty-first with Stefan Wilson starting twenty-second on debut. Jakes will be twenty-third with Sébastien Bourdais in twenty-fourth after clipping the tires in the chicane and breaking his suspension.
Today's qualifying session can be seen at 6:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN. IndyCar will have a morning warm-up tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. ET. The Indy Lights race will take place at 12:35 p.m. ET but air on NBCSN after the IndyCar race. NBCSN's coverage of the Grand Prix of Baltimore will begin at 2:00 p.m. ET with green flag around 2:40 p.m. ET.
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