Will Power claimed pole position for the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at the Milwaukee Mile on Saturday. Jumping to the top spot midway through the single-car qualifying laps, the points leader’s two-lap average speed of 169.262mph could not be beaten, earning him a crucial P1 Award as the season begins to wind to a close.
The Penske driver will be joined on the front row by Target Chip Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan, who could not break the 169mph barrier but was 0.1mph quicker than P3 Juan Pablo Montoya.
Ryan Briscoe, starting fourth, took the provisional pole early in the session with a speed of 168.266mph, holding off challenges from Josef Newgarden (P5) and Charlie Kimball (P6).
Ed Carpenter will start on the inside of the fourth row in his return to the cockpit. The driver-owner announced today that his team would join forces with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing for the 2015 season. This welcome news means that two of the sport’s smaller squads will now race under one larger stable, all currently encompassing Carpenter, Newgarden and road course specialist Mike Conway.
Title contender Helio Castroneves will start alongside Carpenter for tomorrow’s race and in front of Marco Andretti and Takuma Sato. In rounding out the top ten, it also marks all of the drivers who managed to break the 167mph barrier on the historic one-mile oval.
Winner two weeks ago, Scott Dixon won’t have to come from the back of the grid this time as the veteran Ganassi driver just missed out on the top ten and will start on row six alongside Justin Wilson.
Canadian James Hinchcliffe, quick all weekend in his Andretti Autosport machine, forced his team to scramble ahead of qualifying after crashing in the final practice session. He had praised the car both before and after the incident, but he couldn’t seem to match his pace from earlier in the weekend when he took to the track as the second-to-last qualifier. He’ll start P13.
