Saturday, May 9, 2015

Morning Warm-Up: 2nd Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Will Power led Chevrolet dominance in Grand Prix of Indianapolis qualifying
The story from Grand Prix of Indianapolis qualifying was the dominancy of Chevrolet and it was led by a familiar face. Will Power won his second pole of the 2015 season, 38th of his career, as he reset the track record on the IMS road course with a lap of 69.4886 seconds. The Australian was 0.227 seconds faster than New Zealander Scott Dixon who will start second. Last year, Power and Dixon made contact in turn three, which put Dixon a lap down and out of contention for a top ten finish in the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

This is the first race of the 2015 season where Team Penske did not sweep the front row. However, All four Penske drivers start in the top five. Hélio Castroneves will start third in his 300th IndyCar start. The Brazilian has won from third on the gird four times, including his first career victory at Belle Isle on June 18, 2000. Juan Pablo Montoya starts fourth. Every Grand Prix of Indianapolis has been won from fourth position. Last year, Montoya finished a lap down after contact with Graham Rahal on a restart. Simon Pagenaud rounds out the top five. The Frenchman won last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis leading six laps including the final five. Tony Kanaan starts sixth.

Sébastien Bourdais starts seventh. He started seventh in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis and finished fourth. Sebastián Saavedra starts eighth. This is the Colombians fifth top ten start on a road course in his career. He failed to complete a lap last year after stalling from pole position and being hit by Carlos Muñoz and Mikhail Aleshin. Luca Filippi starts ninth. This is Filippi's third start from ninth position this season. Stefano Coletti rounds out the top ten. It is Coletti's first career top ten start and the best starting position for a Monegasques driver in IndyCar history. The previous best was Louis Chiron, who started 14th in the 1929 Indianapolis 500.

Jack Hawksworth is the top Honda in 11th. Last year, Hawksworth led a race-high 31 laps before finishing seventh. The winner of the most recent IndyCar race, Josef Newgarden starts 12th. Newgarden is in the #21 Chevrolet for both Indianapolis races as he is sponsored by Century 21 for both. James Hinchcliffe starts from 13th. He won from 16th at NOLA. Charlie Kimball and J.R. Hildebrand round out the top fifteen. All 13 Chevrolets are starting in the top fifteen, leaving Honda with the final ten positions on the grid.

Gabby Chaves starts 16th, a career best for the Colombian. Chaves started 17th in the previous there races. Graham Rahal starts 17th with former Newman-Haas teammate Justin Wilson joining him on row nine. Ryan Hunter-Reay starts 19th. He won last year's Indianapolis 500 from 19th on the grid and finished fifth in the last race at Barber from 18th on the grid. James Jakes rounds out the top twenty.

Carlos Muñoz and Takuma Sato start on row eleven with Carlos Huertas and Marco Andretti on row twelve. Francesco Dracone rounds out the field in 25th.

ABC's coverage of the 2nd Grand Prix of Indianapolis begins at 3:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:45 p.m. ET.