Morning Warm-Up: Seventh Grand Prix of Indianapolis

Will Power looks for a record fourth Grand Prix of Indianapolis victory

Will Power picked up his 58th career pole position with a lap of 70.1779 seconds in qualifying for the seventh Grand Prix of Indianapolis and this pole position comes at Roger Penske's first race as the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Power sits nine pole positions behind Mario Andretti's all-time record. This is Power's fourth Grand Prix of Indianapolis pole position. He won each of the previous three times he has started on pole position. In his three prior victories he led 65 laps, 61 laps and 56 laps. He has won from pole position 16 times in his IndyCar career, tied for fourth all-time with Bobby Unser. Only Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt and Sébastien Bourdais has won more from pole position. This is one of four tracks where Power has three victories. The other tracks are Pocono, São Paulo and Sonoma. Power could become the 13th competitor to win five races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Current competitors with five victories at the track are Arthur Greiner, Howdy Wilcox, Michael Schumacher, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Marc Márquez.

Jack Harvey started and finished third in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis and this year Harvey will start a position better in second. Harvey fell 0.1874 seconds behind Power's fastest lap in the final round of qualifying. Harvey's average running position in this race last year was 4.635 and he spent 54 of 85 laps in one of the top three positions. Despite how well he ran last year, Harvey did not lead a lap and he has yet to lead a lap in his IndyCar career. This will be Harvey's 21st IndyCar start. Only two drivers have won their first career race in their 21st career start. Bobby Olivero did so at Springfield in a USAC Gold Crown race on August 14, 1982. Robbie Buhl did it at Loudon on August 17, 1997.

Colton Herta and Graham Rahal set up an all-American row two for this Independence Day race. Herta enters off the back of four consecutive top ten finishes and seven top ten finishes in his last nine starts. Last year, Herta made it out of the first round of qualifying on nine of ten occasions and he made it to the Fast Six on five occasions. He has qualified on one of the first two races in eight of his 21 IndyCar races. This is Rahal's best Grand Prix of Indianapolis starting position. Rahal has finished in the top ten of the second race of the season for the last five seasons. His first career victory was in the second race of the 2008 season at St. Petersburg, but it was Rahal's first start of that season. He missed the Homestead season opener after a practice accident totaled his car, forcing his withdrawal from the event. Bobby Rahal won on Independence Day in 1982.

Oliver Askew will start fifth in his second career start. Next to Askew will be fellow past Indy Lights champion Josef Newgarden. Askew scored a ninth-place finish on debut last time out at Texas. He became the first American driver to pick up a top ten finish for Arrow McLaren SP/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports since Conor Daly was sixth at the second Belle Isle race in 2015. Eighteen drivers have won their first career race in their second career start. The last driver to do so was Jim Clark at Milwaukee on August 18, 1963. Since joining Team Penske in 2017, Newgarden has finished on the podium in the second race of the season every year. He was third at Long Beach in 2017, won the Phoenix race in 2018 and was second last year at Circuit of the Americas. Newgarden has never finished in the top ten at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

Scott Dixon missed out on the Fast Six by 0.0570 second and Dixon will start seventh. Dixon is looking to become the first driver to win the first two races to start a season since Will Power did it in 2010. Since 1956, a driver has opened the season with consecutive victories on ten occasions. On seven of those ten occasions, the driver who opened the season with consecutive victories went on to win the championship. Conor Daly will make his debut with Ed Carpenter Racing in the #20 Air Force Chevrolet from eighth on the grid. This is Daly's second-best starting position in his IndyCar career. He started seventh at Toronto in 2016. Daly was sixth at Texas driving for Carlin in the #59 Chevrolet. Daly will run all the road and street course, as well as the Indianapolis 500, for Ed Carpenter Racing while running the other four oval races for Carlin. This will be the sixth different team Daly has driven for in his IndyCar career and this will be the 11th different number Daly has used in his first 52 IndyCar starts.

For the second consecutive race, Felix Rosenqvist starts ninth. Rosenqvist enters the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with four consecutive top five finishes on road/street courses and six consecutive top ten finishes on road/street courses. Last year, Rosenqvist picked up ten top ten finishes from 12 road/street course races. Max Chilton's 2020 debut will come from tenth position, the same starting position he had for the 2019 finale at Laguna Seca. This is Chilton's best starting position on this track. Chilton will run all the road and street courses and the Indianapolis 500 in the #59 Chevrolet. Chilton has not had a top ten finish in his last 30 starts. His last top ten finish was eighth at Watkins Glen in 2018.

Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay form an all-Andretti Autosport row six. Rossi has not led a lap in his last eight starts and he has only led two laps at the IMS road course in four starts. The only tracks where Rossi has led fewer laps are Phoenix, where he led one lap, and Austin, Toronto, Sonoma and Laguna Seca, where he has yet to lead a lap. He has only one start at Austin and Laguna Seca, as both those tracks were new to the 2019 schedule. The only time Rossi has won from outside the top ten was the 2016 Indianapolis 500, which he won from 11th on the grid. Hunter-Reay attempts to tie Jimmy Vasser for the fourth longest consecutive start streak at 211 races. This streaks dates back to 2007 at Mid-Ohio when he drove for Rahal Letterman Racing, replacing Jeff Simmons. During this streak he has driven for Rahal Letterman Racing, Vision Racing, A.J. Foyt Racing and Andretti Autosport. His last 131 starts have come with Andretti Autosport and 152 of his 210 consecutive starts have come with Andretti Autosport.

Patricio O'Ward will start 13th. O'Ward picked up fastest lap in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. In the previous six Grand Prix of Indianapolis, there have been five different drivers to pick up fastest lap. The only driver with multiple fastest laps is Scott Dixon, who picked up fastest lap in 2014 and 2018. Only twice has the driver who picked up fastest lap in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis finished in the top ten. Alexander Rossi was tenth in 2016 and Dixon was runner-up in 2018. Marcus Ericsson missed out on advancing to round two by 0.0340 seconds from group two and joins O'Ward on row seven. Ericsson started 11th in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis before spinning out on lap 11 in the final corner. That left Ericsson with a 24th place finish, the worst finish of his IndyCar career to date.

Santino Ferrucci qualified on the inside of row eighth. Ferrucci was tenth in this race last year. His average finish in road/street course events is 16.25 in 16 starts with his best road/street course finish being ninth. In those 16 starts, Ferrucci has been the top Dale Coyne Racing finisher three times. Spencer Pigot was strong in practice but finds himself 16th on the grid. Pigot did finish fifth in last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Pigot has never finished in the top ten in his first start of the season. This will be Pigot's first start in a Honda since the 2016 Indianapolis 500. He had made 53 consecutive starts with Chevrolet-powered cars. Pigot will be the first driver to use car #45 in a IndyCar race since J.J. Yeley at Loudon on June 28, 1998.

Takuma Sato looks to make his first start of 2020 from 17th on the grid. Sato has never led a lap on the IMS road course. The only track where Sato has more starts and has not led a lap is Mid-Ohio, where he has ten starts. After failing to make a qualifying run at Texas, Rinus VeeKay was successful on the IMS road course and ended up 18th. VeeKay will become the first Dutch driver to race in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Last year, Ed Carpenter Racing had both cars finish in the top ten. It was the first double top ten finish for the team since Iowa 2018, but it was the team's first on a road/street course since Mid-Ohio 2016. Ed Carpenter Racing has had at least one top ten finisher in six of the last seven races.

James Hinchcliffe and Simon Pagenaud share row ten. Since finishing third last year at Iowa, Hinchcliffe has one top ten finish in his last six starts with an average finish of 16.833 over that time. He has not had a top five finish on a road/street course since he finished fourth at Toronto in 2018. Simon Pagenaud had started in the top eight in every Grand Prix of Indianapolis up to this point. This is Pagenaud's worst starting position since he started 22nd at Austin last year. Like Power, Pageanud could become the 13th competitor to win five races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Álex Palou rolls off from 21st. Palou will become the second Spaniard to start the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Oriol Servià started the 2014 race driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Servià led seven laps and finished 12th from 22nd on the grid. Zach Veach ended up 22nd in qualifying. Veach had started 20th in his first two starts in this race. The Ohioan matched his best career finish in the last race. He was fourth at Texas, his best oval finish and his third top five finish in his IndyCar career. Veach's best finish at a natural-terrain road course was tenth at Mid-Ohio in 2018.

Sage Karam will make his Grand Prix of Indianapolis debut from 23rd position. Karam has three top ten finishes in 16 IndyCar starts. He was ninth on debut in the 2014 Indianapolis 500, fifth at Fontana in 2015 and third at Iowa in 2015. Karam's best finish on a road/street course was 12th in the second Belle Isle race in 2015. He has finished outside the top twenty in six of his last eight starts. Charlie Kimball ended up 24th on the grid. This is Kimball's third time starting on row 12 in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He was the fifth-place finisher in the first three Grand Prix of Indianapolis but finished 21st and 20th the next two years. Kimball did not compete in last year's race. Last year, A.J. Foyt Racing picked up its best finish in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis with Matheus Leist finishing fourth in the #4 Chevrolet. Kimball has not had a top five finish in his last 13 starts. He was fifth at Toronto in 2018.

Marco Andretti had an off on his final qualifying lap and he will have to start 25th, his worst starting position on this course. Last year, Andretti's only top ten finish on a natural-terrain road course was sixth at Austin, which was the second race of the 2019 season. Dalton Kellett rounds out the final row. Kellett will become the second driver to make an IndyCar debut in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Matthew Brabham was the first driver to do so when he drove the #61 Chevrolet for Pirtek Team Murray. Brabham was 16th on his debut. Kellett is the third Canadian to drive for A.J. Foyt Racing. Paul Tracy drove for the team at Milwaukee in 2009 and finished 17th. Alex Tagliani made three starts for the team with 17th place finishes in the 2015 and 2016 Indianapolis 500 and he was 23rd in the 2016 Grand Prix of Indianapolis.

NBC's coverage of the seventh Grand Prix of Indianapolis begins at 12:00 p.m. ET on Saturday July 4 with green flag scheduled for 12:08 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 80 laps.