Morning Warm-Up: Portland 2018

Will Power continues the championship push from pole position

Will Power picked up the 54th pole position of his IndyCar career and the Australian is now in sole possession of second all-time in that category. Power took the top spot with a lap at 57.3467 seconds and that wasn't even Power's fastest lap in qualifying. Power ran a lap at 57.2143 seconds in the first round of qualifying, a new track record. The previous record was 57.597 seconds and Justin Wilson set it in 2005. Power set the fastest race lap record at Portland in 2006 with a time of 59.259 seconds. This is Power's fourth pole position of the season and this is the ninth time Power has won at least four pole positions in a season. Power has won a pole position in five different countries, two different provinces and 16 different states. He has won from pole position 15 times in his career, including in this year's Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Australian has won from pole position at 11 different circuits. Through 15 races, Power has led only 100 laps fewer and completed only 21 laps fewer than he did in both categories over the entire 2017 season.

Josef Newgarden swept the front row for Team Penske but the Tennessean was 0.3410 seconds off his teammate. This is the fifth time Power and Newgarden have started on the front row this season and second consecutive race with a qualifying session where they have started 1-2. Three of those five occasions have seen Power start ahead of Newgarden. This is the ninth time Power has been the top Penske qualifier. Newgarden has been the top Penske qualifier four times and he has been the second best Penske qualifier five times and all five occasions Power has been the driver to out qualify him. This is the eighth consecutive race Newgarden has stared in the top five. Newgarden has not led a lap in the last three races and in that span he has dropped from second to fourth in the championship and he has gone from 62 points out of the championship lead to 78 points out.

Alexander Rossi currently sits second in the championship but the American will start third in the Grand Prix of Portland. Rossi qualified 0.3894 seconds off Power. This will be the seventh consecutive race Rossi has started in the top five and he won from third on the grid at Pocono two weeks ago. Like Power, this is Rossi's ninth time being the top qualifier for his team. Rossi has gone on to be the top Andretti finish in six of the eight races where he was the top qualifier. Sébastien Bourdais will start fourth in what is the Frenchman's best starting position since third in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. This is Bourdais' sixth top five starting position in six Portland appearances. His average starting position at the track is 3.333. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Zach Veach will start on an all-Andretti Autosport row three. Hunter-Reay's previous best starting position at Portland was seventh. His best finish at the track is 12th. This is Veach's best career starting position. Only once has Portland been won from the third row. Alex Zanardi won from fifth in 1998.

James Hinchcliffe will start seventh, his best starting position since he started sixth in the second Belle Isle race. Hinchcliffe has not led a lap on a natural-terrain road course since he led two laps during a pit cycle at the 2016 Watkins Glen race. He has finished outside the top ten in the 16th race of the season in four of five seasons and his best finish in the 16th race of a season was seventh at Baltimore in 2013. Ed Jones joins Hinchcliffe on row four in eighth position, one week after he finished eighth at Gateway. This is only the fourth time Jones has started in the top ten in his career. The only time Jones has started and finished in the top ten was the second Belle Isle race in June when he started fourth and finished third. Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal will share row five. Andretti's father and grandfather won a combined five Portland races while Bobby Rahal won the 1987 Portland race.

Championship leader Scott Dixon will start 11th as Dixon has not made it to the Fast Six session on five of eight occasions this season. This is the fourth time Dixon has started outside the top ten this season. His finishes in the other three starts outside the top ten were fourth at Phoenix, second in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis and third at Pocono. Dixon has finished in the top ten in five consecutive races where he started outside the top ten. The last time Dixon started and finished outside the top ten was at Mid-Ohio in 2016 when he started 11th and contact with Hélio Castroneves took him out of the race. When the green flag falls, Dixon's championship lead will drop to ten points over Rossi and Power will be 35 points back. Jordan King joins Dixon on row six. This was the fifth time King made it to the second round of qualifying this season. However, King has finished worst than his starting position each time he has advanced to round two. King's average starting position this season is 12th.

Jack Harvey will start 13th, a career best for him and for Meyer Shank Racing. This is Harvey's first top fifteen starting position of his career. His previous best qualifying effort was 17th at Long Beach earlier this season and Harvey finished 12th that day in Southern California. Carlos Muñoz will start 14th in his first road course race of the season. Last year, Muñoz made it out of the first round of qualifying twice and he started 11th on both occasions at St. Petersburg and Watkins Glen. Like his teammate Hinchcliffe, Muñoz has not led a lap on a natural-terrain road course since Watkins Glen 2016 when he led three laps during a pit cycle. Max Chilton and Pietro Fittipaldi will start on row eight. This is the third consecutive road/street course race where Chilton has been the top Carlin qualifier. This is only the fifth time Chilton has started in the top fifteen this season. Fittipaldi started 22nd at Mid-Ohio in his IndyCar road course earlier this season.

Spencer Pigot and Santino Ferrucci will share row nine. Pigot and Ferrucci made contact in the second Belle Isle race and that contact took Pigot out of the race. Since starting tenth at Road America in June, Pigot's has not qualified better than 16th. Ferrucci started 18th in the first Belle Isle race. Matheus Leist and Takuma Sato will start on row ten. Leist started 19th at Texas in June and retired after five laps because of a fire. This is Sato's worst starting position since he stared 20th for the first Belle Isle race in June. This is the third time this season Rahal has out qualified Sato by at least ten positions and on the prior two occurrences Rahal has gone on to finish fifth in the race.

Gabby Chaves will start 21st in his first road course race since Road America. This is the fourth time Chaves has started outside the top twenty this season. Simon Pagenaud will start 22nd. This is Pagenaud's worst starting position on a road/street course since he started 23rd at São Paulo in 2013. The Frenchman has a remarkable track record when starting toward the back of the grid. He has started outside the top twenty in nine races and he has finished in the top ten in five of those races. He has started outside the top fifteen in 19 races and he has ten top ten finishes in those 19 races. However, Pagenaud has never finished better than fifth when starting outside the top fifteen.

Alfonso Celis, Jr. will start 23rd in his second career start and one position ahead of Tony Kanaan. This is Kanaan's worst starting position since he started 25th at Motegi in 2011. This is the third time Kanaan has started outside the top twenty this season. Prior to this year, he had not started outside the top twenty since the first Houston race in 2014 and this is his most times Kanaan has started outside the top twenty since 2011 when he started outside the top twenty in six races. Charlie Kimball rounds out the grid in 25th position. Kimball's best finish when starting 25th or worse was 13th in the 2011 Indianapolis 500.

NBCSN's coverage of the Grand Prix of Portland begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 105 laps.