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| Takuma Sato flying high at Gateway |
Takuma Sato picked up his tenth career pole position in qualifying yesterday with a lap of 24.6577 seconds for the second race of the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 from Gateway. This is Sato's fourth career pole position on an oval. His finishes in those prior three oval pole positions are 19th, 13th and 15th and he has only finished on the lead lap once in those three races. The only time Sato has won from pole position in his career was at Barber last year. Sato enters this race off the back of consecutive podium finishes. He has never had three consecutive podium finishes in his IndyCar career. He won at Long Beach in 2013 and then finished second at São Paulo. Last year, he was third at Indianapolis and the first Belle Isle race.
Josef Newgarden will start second after falling 0.003 seconds off Sato's time in qualifying. Newgarden is coming off a 12th-place finish in race one from Gateway, his worst oval finish since 13th at Texas in 2018. Newgarden had never finished worse than seventh at Gateway prior to yesterday. Newgarden has won from second starting position five times in his career, more than any other starting position.
Will Power was 0.0034 off Sato and will start third. Power has finished outside the top ten in six of eight races this season. He has finished outside the top fifteen in three of four Gateway starts. Power has won an oval race in four consecutive seasons and six of the last seven seasons. The only time Power has finished better than his starting position in 2020 was the first Road America race, when he started fifth and finished second. He started and finished second in the second Iowa race.
Patricio O'Ward was third yesterday and he will start fourth in race two. O'Ward led 94 laps before dropping to third. This was the third consecutive Gateway race where the driver who led the most laps did not win the race. This will be O'Ward's 17th start. The last driver to pick up a first career victory in a 17th career star was Will Power at Las Vegas on Easter Sunday, April 8. 2007. Mario Domínguez also scored his first career victory in his 17th career start at Surfers Paradise in 2008.
Jack Harvey starts in the top five for third time this season and this is Harvey's seventh time starting in the top ten this season. Prior to 2020, Harvey had only started in the top ten four times in his career and in the top five twice. Harvey has completed all but one lap on ovals this season, finishing a lap down at Texas.
Scott Dixon is coming off his 50th career victory, the third driver to reach that ilestone, and he will start sixth for the second Gateway race. Dixon's 50th victory came in his 329th start. That is 99 more starts than it took A.J. Foyt to reach 50 victories and 31 more starts than it took Mario Andretti. Dixon's 50th victory puts him two away from tying Mario Andretti for second all-time. Dixon's victory yesterday made Gateway the 25th different track he has won at, one off of Andretti's record for 26 different tracks won at. Yesterday, Dixon became the 11th different Gateway winner in 11 Gateway races. Dixon has clinched most points on ovals this season.
Dixon extended his championship lead to 117 points over Newgarden with yesterday's victory. O'Ward has moved up to third, 130 points back with Sato and Graham Rahal rounding out the top five, 138 points and 160 points behind Dixon respectively. Depending on how many races remain, either 12 drivers or 25 drivers are mathematically alive for the championship. If the Mid-Ohio doubleheader is rescheduled, then with six races remaining, 25 drivers have a shot at the championship. If there are only four races remaining, 12 drivers are alive entering today's race.
Marcus Ericsson rolls off from seventh position for the second race, one day after starting fourth, his best starting position of the season. Ericsson has six top ten finishes this year after having three top ten finishes all of 2019. Half of those top ten finishes have come on ovals after he had one top ten on an oval all of 2019.
Simon Pagenaud starts eighth, his best starting position since he rolled off from third at Texas in the season opener. Yesterday was Pagenaud's first retirement since Long Beach 2018 and it was only the fifth retirement for the Frenchman since joining Team Penske. The only time Pagenaud has won from eighth on the grid was last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis.
Felix Rosenqvist starts ninth, his third time starting ninth this season. Rosenqvist started ninth in the first two races of the season, spinning out of Texas and finishing 15th in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He picked up his first career top ten finish on oval yesterday with an eighth-place finish.
Colton Herta rounds out the top ten on the grid. Herta has finished in the same position in both races of the previous three doubleheaders he has participated in. He was fourth yesterday, his first top five finish on an oval. The only oval Herta has top ten finishes at is Gateway. He was ninth in last year's race.
Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay make it an all-Andretti Autosport row six. Rossi failed to complete a lap yesterday, the first time he has failed to complete a lap in a race. His fewest laps completed in a race was 36 at Texas in 2017. It has been 15 races since Rossi's most recent victory, which was at Road America last season. Hunter-Reay will start 12th for the third time this season. This is the third time he has started 12th this season. He has not started worse than 12th. The only time Hunter-Reay has won from 12th was 2003 at Surfers Paradise, his first career victory.
Oliver Askew and Álex Palou make it an all-rookie row seven. Askew has lost the head-to-head qualifying battle with Patricio O'Ward in eight of nine races including seven consecutive races. Yesterday was the first time O'Ward finished ahead of Askew on an oval. Palou has scored the fewest oval points of the drivers to start every oval race this season. He sits on 70 oval points with his most points scored in an oval race being 19.
Conor Daly will start 15th. Daly has finished in the top ten in all three of his Gateway starts. The only other track where Daly has three top ten finishes is Belle Isle. This will be Daly's final race with Carlin in the #59 Chevrolet. Santino Ferrucci starts 16th today after finishing 16th yesterday. Ferrucci has finished outside the top fifteen in three of five oval races this season. His worst oval finish all of 2019 was 12th.
Zach Veach starts 17th with Rinus VeeKay next to him on row nine. Veach suffered his second retirement of the season yesterday after the accident at the start of the race. He has not had top ten finish in his last seven races. Veach has never had more than eight consecutive races without a top ten finish. VeeKay picked up his first career top ten finish on an oval coming home in sixth.
Tony Kanaan and former Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti share row ten. Today's race comes 22 years, five months and 15 days after Kanaan made his debut at Homestead on March 15, 1998. Kanaan started 18th that day and retired after an accident on lap 33. Marco Andretti was two days removed from his 11th birthday when Kanaan made his debut and Marco's father Michael won that race at Homestead. Andretti has finished outside the top twenty in four of eight races this season.
Charlie Kimball will make his 150th start from 21st on the grid. Kimball debuted at St. Petersburg in 2011 from 23rd on the grid. Kimball's best finish at Gateway was seventh in 2017. Ed Carpenter will start 22nd, his worst starting position since starting 22nd a Pocono in 2017. Carpenter has been the top ECR finisher in two of five starts this year.
Graham Rahal rounds out the grid from 23rd position, bookending the field for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Rahal has started 19th or worse in four of the last five races and after opening the season as the top Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing qualifier in the first four races, he has been out qualified in four of the last five outings.
NBCSN's coverage of Bommarito Automotive Group 500 Race 2 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:45 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 200 laps.
