Will Power has taken his 46th IndyCar pole for Penske at Barber Motorsports Park, as championship leader Sebastien Bourdais starts outside the top 10.
Power was quickest in practice three earlier in the day and managed to translate that pace into pole, while team-mate Helio Castroneves was just a tenth off in second ahead of Simon Pagenaud who rounds out the top three.
The fast six featured three Honda-powered cars and three Chevrolet-powered cars, as Scott Dixon was top non-Penske driver in fourth ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Bourdais went off in the closing stages for the fast six shootout at Turn 8, and was unable to improve during his next run which meant he qualified 12th.
James Hinchcliffe will start sixth having been the last driver to complete a lap, while Josef Newgarden was seventh fastest despite being second quickest in practice three.
British racer Max Chilton will start from ninth ahead of Tony Kanaan, while Ed Jones will start from 11th.
Graham Rahal was slowest of all after struggling with car balance, as rookie driver Zach Veach, deputising for the injured JR Hildebrand, qualified ahead of last year’s winner in 19th place in his first time in a race car since October last year.
QUALIFYING RESULT:
| POS | DRIVER | TEAM | CAR | TIME | GAP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m06.9614s | – |
| 2 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m07.1429s | 0.1815s |
| 3 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m07.3817s | 0.4203s |
| 4 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.5817s | 0.6203s |
| 5 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.6851s | 0.7237s |
| 6 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.8710s | 0.9096s |
| 7 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m07.5941s | 0.6327s |
| 8 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.9467s | 0.9853s |
| 9 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.9788s | 1.0174s |
| 10 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m08.0305s | 1.0691s |
| 11 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m08.2034s | 1.2420s |
| 12 | Sebastien Bourdais | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m08.2726s | 1.3112s |
| 13 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.5405s | 0.5791s |
| 14 | Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.6928s | 0.7314s |
| 15 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.7033s | 0.7419s |
| 16 | Carlos Munoz | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m07.7007s | 0.7393s |
| 17 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m07.9211s | 0.9597s |
| 18 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1m07.7483s | 0.7869s |
| 19 | Zach Veach | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m08.4681s | 1.5067s |
| 20 | Conor Daly | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m08.0104s | 1.0490s |
| 21 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m08.0499s | 1.0885s |
