Saturday, August 16, 2014

Power Wins Third Pole of 2014

The Championship Leader Padded his points lead by winning Milwaukee Pole
Will Power scored his third pole position of the 2014 season, 35th pole position of his career and first career pole at Milwaukee. The Australian picked up 1.1 MPH from lap one to lap two on his qualifying run and won the pole with a two-lap average of 169.262 MPH. Joining Power on row one will be Tony Kanaan who was nearly eight-tenths behind Power.

Juan Pablo Montoya follows his teammate by qualifying third while Ryan Briscoe follows his teammate in fourth and making it all-Chevrolet front two rows. Josef Newgarden was the fastest Honda in fifth but was followed by three more Chevrolets. Charlie Kimball qualified sixth, a career best for him at Milwaukee. His previous Milwaukee-best was eighteenth. Hélio Castroneves will find himself behind the eight-ball as the Brazilian will lose precious ground to his teammate and championship rival Power immediately when the green flag waves. Castroneves qualified seventh while Ed Carpenter qualified eighth.

Marco Andretti and Takuma Sato rounded out the top ten in the session. Scott Dixon was the final car to make a qualifying attempt and lost time on his second lap which drop him from a top ten starting position to eleventh. Justin Wilson was twelfth fastest in qualifying. James Hinchcliffe was fastest in both practice sessions prior to qualifying but an accident toward the end of the second session hurt the Canadian as he ended up thirteenth. Graham Rahal was fourteenth while Mikhail Aleshin rounded out the top fifteen directly ahead of Schmidt Peterson Hamilton Motorsports teammate Simon Pagenaud.

Jack Hawksworth was seventeenth fastest ahead of 2005 Milwaukee winner Sébastien Bourdais. Three-time Milwaukee winner Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified a career worst nineteenth as he looks to extend his Milwaukee winning streak to three consecutive.

Colombians rounded out the time sheet. Rookie of the Year leader Carlos Muñoz ended twentieth ahead of Sebastián Saavedra and Carlos Huertas. Huertas was the first driver to make an attempt and was 9.5 MPH slower than the two-lap average set by Power.

NBCSN's coverage for the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag at 3:45 p.m.