Morning Warm-Up: Gateway 2018

After qualifying was rained out, Scott Dixon will start first at Gateway

Rain washed out IndyCar qualifying on Friday from Gateway Motorsports Park and entrant points have set the grid for the Bommarito Auto Group 500. This is the first IndyCar race where points have set the grid since the second Belle Isle race in 2015 and this is the first IndyCar oval race set by points since the 2009 Kentucky race. In that Kentucky race, Scott Dixon started first and he led 95 laps, the most laps in that race. Dixon will start first tonight at Gateway Motorsports Park. Dixon had started fifth and seventh in his first two Gateway starts. Dixon has not won at Gateway and the New Zealander has won at 23 different tracks, third most all time in IndyCar history. Mario Andretti won at 26 different tracks and Dario Franchitti won at 24 different tracks. Chip Ganassi Racing has won twice at Gateway. The team won with Alex Zanardi in 1998 and Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. Alexander Rossi will join Dixon on the front row. This will be Rossi's second career front row start on an oval. He started third in last year's Indianapolis 500. This is Rossi's four front row start of the season and it Dixon's third front row start of the season. Both of Dixon's victories this season have come from the front row.

Josef Newgarden will start third with his Team Penske teammate Will Power starting fourth. The 2009 Kentucky race was won from third on the grid and Team Penske won that race with Ryan Briscoe. At the time, it was the second fastest IndyCar race in history at 200.893 MPH. It is still the fifth fastest race in IndyCar history. This is Newgarden's seventh consecutive top five start. The Tennessean has not led a lap in the last two races. He hasn't failed to lead a lap in three consecutive races since last year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis through the first Belle Isle race. This will be the 14th race Power has started inside the top five this season. Power has led a lap in four consecutive races. This is the first time since last season that Power has led a lap in four consecutive races when he led a lap from Barber to the Indianapolis 500. He has not led in five consecutive races since 2015 when he led a lap in seven consecutive races from Grand Prix of Indianapolis to Fontana. This is the first oval race since last year at Texas without a Team Penske car on the front row.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simon Pagenaud will share row three. This is Hunter-Reay's fifth consecutive start on either row two or three. He has started eight consecutive races in the top ten. This is the first time Hunter-Reay has started fifth for an oval race since Loudon 2011. Hunter-Reay won that race after it was shortened by 10 laps due to rain. Team Penske has had two top five finishers in the last two races after not having double top five finishers through the first 12 races. Team Penske has not had two cars finish on the podium since it swept the podium in last year's season finale. The last time a team swept an oval podium was Chip Ganassi Racing at Pocono in 2013. The last time Team Penske swept an oval podium was at Nazareth in 1994. Graham Rahal will start seventh for the second time in three races. This is the first time Rahal has started in the top ten on an oval this season.  He led a lap in the first three oval races this season. James Hinchcliffe joins Rahal on row four. Hinchcliffe has not started in the top five since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. All 65 of Hinchcliffe's laps led this season have occurred on the short ovals. He led 45 laps at Iowa and 20 laps at Phoenix.

Sébastien Bourdais and Marco Andretti round out the top ten. Bourdais has been running at the finish of 13 of 14 races this season. His lone retirement was in the Indianapolis 500. He led a lap in six consecutive races but has not led in the last eight races. Bourdais became the 18th driver in IndyCar history to reach 75 top five finishes in a career with his fourth place result at Pocono. Marco Andretti is coming off his 100th career top ten finish in his IndyCar career. Andretti has not had a top five finish on an oval since he finished third at Fontana in 2015. He has not had a top five finish on a short oval since he finished second at Iowa in 2012. Ed Carpenter will start 11th in his final race of the season. Carpenter finished second in the 2009 Kentucky race and he led 34 laps before finishing 0.016 seconds behind Ryan Briscoe. It was Carpenter's first career podium finish. Ed Jones joins Carpenter on row six. This is the second consecutive race Jones has started 12th and this is his fourth time starting 12th this season.

Takuma Sato will roll off from 13th position. Sato had started in the top ten in six consecutive races. He started 13th at Phoenix in April and finished 11th. Sato's third place finish at Iowa was his first career top five finish on a short oval. Spencer Pigot finished one position ahead of Sato at Iowa and he will start beside him on row seven at Gateway. Pigot has retired from two of the three races since his maiden podium finish. Tony Kanaan will start 15th. Kanaan has had at least one top five finish on an oval in 17 consecutive seasons. His best oval finish entering Gateway is eighth at Phoenix. Kanaan's last season without a top five finish on an oval was in 2000 where his best oval finish was eighth at Nazareth. He started 17th last year in this race and spun on the final pace lap. He would complete 168 laps before retiring. Zach Veach will start 16th. Veach is one point behind Kanaan in the championship and he has three consecutive top ten finishes. Veach is one of five drivers with at least three consecutive top ten finishes along with Dixon, Rossi, Newgarden and Pagenaud.

Charlie Kimball and Matheus Leist will start on row nine. Kimball finished seventh in last year's Gateway race and Leist finished tenth, two laps down in last year's Indy Lights race at the track after he had an incident with Nico Jamin. Kimball's ninth place finish at Pocono was his fifth top ten finish of the season. Last year, it took Kimball 16 races to get five top ten finishes. Leist finished 11th at Pocono, his best career finish in IndyCar. Gabby Chaves returns to competition and he will start 19th. This will be Chaves' Gateway debut. This is the fourth time Chaves has started 19th this season. His other 19th place starts were at Phoenix, Long Beach and the first Belle Isle race. Max Chilton will start 20th. Chilton has finished off the lead lap in four consecutive races and in ten of 14 races this season. Pietro Fittipaldi rounds out the grid in 21st position. The good news is for the second consecutive race Fittipaldi is guaranteed a career best finish. The bad news is it is because his best career finish is 22nd.

Rossi was fastest in both practice session on Friday with his best lap occurring in the first session. Rossi's top time was 24.4003 seconds. Dixon was second quickest with his fastest lap of 24.5872 seconds coming in final practice. Bourdais ran a lap in the first practice at 24.6339 seconds and that was third fastest on Friday. Kanaan, Jones, Fittipaldi, Veach and Hunter-Reay were all within a tenth of a second of Bourdais. Pigot and Rahal rounded out the top ten and Rahal ran 183 laps on Friday, the most of the day.

Hinchcliffe was 11th with Power the top Penske driver in 12th ahead of Andretti and Newgarden. Newgarden ran 87 laps, the fewest laps on Friday. His final practice was abbreviated after a brush with the wall. Sato rounded out the top fifteen with Pagenaud 16th. Pagenaud led six Chevrolets that rounded out the timesheet ahead of Carpenter, Chaves, Chilton, Leist and Kimball.

NBCSN's coverage of the Bommarito Auto Group 500 begins at 8:00 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 8:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 248 laps.