Kiwi driver Scott Dixon seized pole position the IndyCar race at the Mid-Ohio Sports vehicle Course with a record-breaking run in practice.
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Graham Rahal, 42 points behind Juan Montoya with three races remaining, continued his impressive season with a lap of 1:06.104 in the Steak & Shake Honda and Takuma Sato was timed at 1:06.135 in the ABC Supply Honda.
Reigning series champion Will Power, driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, will join Dixon on the front row after posting a best lap of 1:04.6782. If everything falls our way, we can definitely win.
“I had this concept that, with Ohio State having won the national championship and us being in the championship battle here, it would be fun to come home and do something I haven’t done before”, Rahal said to Tim May of the Columbus Dispatch.
Montoya had a 54-point lead going into the Iowa race, so his mishap there didn’t cost him too much.
The helmet is inspired by the design Ohio State wore in the inaugural College Football Playoff, complete with the championship trophy decal on the back. Josef Newgarden, a two-time victor this season, and Charlie Kimball, who won at Mid-Ohio in 2013, will share Row 3. “What gives me confidence is knowing …that last year we did as well as we did (5th) and I don’t think our vehicle was almost as good then as it is now”.
The 90-lap event was won last year by Scott Dixon, after Sebastien Bourdais captured the pole position and the Verizon P1 Award.
Track records also have been reset this season on the streets of St. Petersburg, Long Beach and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. “I think the [Chip Ganassi Racing] team has ten wins now, there so it’s quite a milestone and obviously a place that I really enjoy”. Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year.
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Krawiec beat Scotty Pollacheck and Jerry Savoie in the first two rounds and won the $7,500 top prize in the all-star bonus race when teammate Andrew Hines turned on the red light in the final round. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats. Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them. Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place”.
