Bourdais Wins Second Pole of 2014

For the second time in three races, Sébastien Bourdais will lead the field to the green

The Mid-Ohio track record is safe for another year as rain consumed the afternoon qualifying session but the IndyCar field maybe in trouble as Sébastien Bourdais set the fastest lap in the Firestone Fast Six session and won his 33rd career pole. With a lap of 84.1610 seconds, the Frenchman beat Josef Newgarden by more than a half-second for pole. Eighteen of Bourdais' 32 victories have come from pole position, including Toronto 1, two weeks ago where Bourdais led 58 of 65 laps. Newgarden starts on the front row for the second time this season. He finished eleventh after starting on the outside of row one at Texas.

Tony Kanaan qualified third after hovering around nineteenth position in all three dry practice sessions. Kanaan has never scored a podium at Mid-Ohio with his best Mid-Ohio finish being fourth. Carlos Muñoz made his first career Firestone Fast Six session and was the top rookie qualifying fourth with his Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay rounding out the top five. Will Power joins his fellow championship contender Hunter-Reay on the outside of row three. 

Graham Rahal led a string of four consecutive Hondas that missed the Firestone Fast Six. Rahal starts seventh with his former Newman-Haas-Lanigan teammate Justin Wilson in eighth. Simon Pagenaud qualified ninth with rookie and Houston 1 winner Carlos Huertas rounding out the top ten. Juan Pablo Montoya follows his fellow countryman in eleventh after causing a red flag and losing his fastest two laps. Mike Conway qualified twelfth, a career best for the Brit at Mid-Ohio. 

Mikhail Aleshin qualified thirteenth with Sebastián Saavedra in fourteenth. Championship leader Hélio Castroneves rounds out the top fifteen as he failed to make the second round of qualifying for the four consecutive Mid-Ohio race. Marco Andretti will join Castroneves on row eight. 

James Hinchcliffe will follow his Andretti Autosport teammate on the grid after qualifying seventeenth. Jack Hawksworth qualified eighteenth. Ryan Briscoe lost his two fastest laps from round one, group one after causing a red flag and will start nineteenth with his Ganassi teammate Charlie Kimball joining him on row ten. Kimball's averaging starting position this season is 18.2. Takuma Sato also caused a red flag in round one, group one and lost his two fastest laps. He will start twenty-first with four-time Mid-Ohio winner Scott Dixon starting twenty-second after causing a red flag in round one, group two, negating the Kiwi's two fastest laps. 

There will be a morning warm-up at 10:00 a.m. ET tomorrow. NBCSN's coverage of the Honda 200 from Mid-Ohio begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag at 3:50 p.m. ET.