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| Ryan Hunter-Reay's pole position took a point out of the championship fight |
Josef Newgarden will start on row two with Marco Andretti. This will be Newgarden's ninth consecutive race starting on one of the first two rows and this is the fifth consecutive top ten starting position for Newgarden at Sonoma. Newgarden enters with 484 laps led this season. He will finish with no worse than the second most laps led this season and it will be the fourth consecutive year Newgarden will end the year in at least the top three of laps led. Andretti's fourth place starting position is his best at Sonoma since he started fourth in 2009. This was Andretti's first appearance in the Fast Six since the 2014 season opener at St. Petersburg. The last time Andretti started in the top five and finished better than his starting position was at Iowa in 2012 when he started third and finished second. Andretti did start and finish third at Fontana in 2015.
Patricio O'Ward will make his IndyCar debut from fifth on the grid. The Mexican driver is responsible for Harding Racing's first appearance in the Fast Six and it is also the team's first top five starting position. This is the best starting position for a Mexican driver on debut in IndyCar history. It will be the first top five starting position for a Mexican driver since Mario Domínguez won pole position for the 2006 Houston race. Alexander Rossi rounded out the top six. Rossi had started seven consecutive races in the top five prior to this qualifying effort. He will end the season with a streak of 11 consecutive races starting in the top ten. This will be the second time Rossi has started sixth in his career. He started sixth at Pocono last year and finished third.
The 2018 season finale will be Will Power's worst starting position of the season. The Australian will start seventh. It is the first time in Power's career he will not start on one of the first two rows at Sonoma. Power has started 27 consecutive races inside the top ten. The only time Power has won from seventh on the grid was in the wet at Toronto in 2007. Power is the worst of the four championship contenders on the grid. When the green flag waves, Dixon will have 678 points while Rossi will be on 625 points, Newgarden will be on 581 points and Power will be on 563 points. Simon Pagenaud makes it an all-Team Penske row four. Pagenaud had started the last three Sonoma races from inside the top five. He could become the only driver to win three consecutive Sonoma races. Pagenaud has led 117 laps at Sonoma. The only track Pagenaud has led more laps at is Phoenix, where he has led 119 laps.
Graham Rahal and Zach Veach form an all-Ohioan row five. This is the first time the two drivers have started on the same row together. Rahal is attempting to finish in the top ten of the championship for a fourth consecutive season. He has had multiple podium finishes the last three seasons and he enters Sonoma with his only podium finish in 2018 being second at St. Petersburg. Veach will end 2018 with three consecutive top ten starting positions in races where qualifying was held. His best finish on a natural-terrain road course was tenth at Mid-Ohio. Sébastien Bourdais will start 11th, ending a streak of three consecutive top ten starting positions. Bourdais has never finished in the top five at Sonoma. Takuma Sato rounds out the entries that made it to round two. This was only the third time both Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entries made it out of the first round of qualifying this season. The other two races were Road America and Mid-Ohio. Both cars finished in the top ten at Road America with Sato in fourth and Rahal in sixth. At Mid-Ohio, Rahal came home in ninth and Sato in 17th after a spin early in the race after contact from Max Chilton.
Pietro Fittipaldi will start 13th in the final race of the season. It is Fittipaldi's best qualifying result on a road/street course this season. He finished ninth at Portland two weeks ago and Fittipaldi has equaled or improved on his finishing position in every one of his IndyCar starts. Ed Jones will join Fittipaldi on row seven. Jones had made it out of the first round of qualifying in four of the prior five natural-terrain road course races this season. The only other one he failed to advance at was the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Jones has finished outside the top ten in four of the last five races. James Hinchcliffe has not finished in the top ten in the last four races and the Canadian will start 15th, his worst starting position since he started 16th at Road America. This is the first time in Hinchcliffe's career he has not had a top ten finish in four consecutive races. Hinchcliffe's pseudo-teammate Jack Harvey will start 16th. Harvey is still looking for the first top ten finish of his career.
Spencer Pigot is on row nine for the seventh time this season and he will start 17th for the second consecutive race. Pigot is coming off a fourth place finish at Portland. It was his first top five finish on a road/street course. Tony Kanaan will make his 300th consecutive IndyCar start this weekend and he joins Pigot on row nine. This will also be Kanaan's 360th start and he will be nine behind A.J. Foyt for second most all-time. Kanaan's 300th consecutive start streak has taken place at 48 different tracks (22 ovals, 13 street courses, 11 road courses and two airports) in 22 states, four provinces and eight different countries on five continents.
Tony Kanaan will also become one of three drivers to compete again Bryan Herta and Colton Herta in an IndyCar race, as Colton Herta will make his debut from 19th on the grid. The other two drivers to race against Bryan Herta in IndyCar are Scott Dixon and Marco Andretti. Graham Rahal competed against Bryan Herta in A1GP in 2006 when Rahal ran for Team Lebanon. Sébastien Bourdais also complete against Bryan Herta in the 2002 24 Hours of Le Mans and twice in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Simon Pagenaud ran against Bryan Herta when they were on rival Acura teams in the American Le Mans Series in 2006 and 2007. Colton's IndyCar debut will come 12 years and six days after his father's final IndyCar start at Chicagoland in 2006. Bryan started 18th that day and finished 15th. His father Bryan finished ninth on debut after starting 22nd in the 1994 Indianapolis 500 driving for A.J. Foyt Racing. Bryan Herta twice started 19th in his career with the first coming at Toronto in 1995 and the other being at Lausitz in 2001. Ironically, Bryan finished 27th in both races. Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top twenty. Ferrucci has finished 20th in his last two IndyCar starts.
Sonoma will mark the sixth time Max Chilton has started on row 11 this season and Carlos Muñoz will be the sixth different driver to start on row 11 with Chilton this season. The other five drivers are Charlie Kimball, Zachary Claman De Melo, Alfonso Celis, Jr., Matheus Leist and Conor Daly. Muñoz started 22nd last year at Sonoma and finished 15th. Matheus Leist will end his rookie season with the worst starting position of his career in 23rd while Charlie Kimball joins him on row 12. This is Kimball's second consecutive race starting outside the top twenty. This is Kimball's second worst starting position at Sonoma. He started 26th in 2011 and he would finish 26th in that race. Jordan King rounds out the grid and this is the first time King has started outside the top twenty in his IndyCar career.
NBCSN's coverage of the Grand Prix of Sonoma begins after the NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas at 6:30 p.m. ET with green flag scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET. The race is scheduled for 85 laps.
