Will Power is a two-time victor of this race and he comes into this weekend on a hot streak.
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New Zealand driver Scott Dixon has claimed his first pole position of the IndyCar season after a slick last-ditch qualifying drive at Indy Toronto.
Scott Dixon used a fast final lap to snatch the pole away from Helio Castroneves at the buzzer in qualifying for Indy Toronto. He went for it at the start and was the subject of mild criticism after the race because Tagliani and second-place finisher Andrew Ranger were both pinned up against the first turn wall after taking evasive action because of Morad’s move. Dixon will have his work cut out for him as four Team Penske drivers will be lined up behind him. Power got a great start to pull away from teammate Castroneves to give Penske a 1-2 sweep.
“What we saw was it looked like we were going to catch a bit of traffic and it was a time to cut our losses”, Cindric said.
“Each lap kept getting better”, Dixon reported, “We made the timeline [sic] by a second to get the extra lap”.
The other thing that ticked him off was KV Racing’s decision to send driver Sebastien Bourdais out directly in front of him during that critical final qualifying. “It was cool by the second half of a year ago to at least be travelling to the races, giving these guys a hard time from pit wall, seeing them in autograph sessions”.
“Historically, Toronto has been a good place for me, including a win in 2014”.
The 2015 Sprint Cup champion also won the last race at Kentucky Speedway and his six wins have come in just 10 races. “We haven’t had a pole this year, but huge credit to the team they did a hell of a job this weekend”. “We’ll see what we can do”. It’s his 24th career pole.
Castroneves’ overcame an unscheduled pit stop for a flat tire to take second.
Hinchcliffe, though, pointed out that at iconic races like the Long Beach Grand Prix, the start comes shortly after the cars negotiate a hairpin turn.
Notes: Defending champion Josef Newgarden will start eighth on Sunday. Pagenaud has already served up three wins in the 2016 season.
Power previously won the event in 2007 and 2010 and took the 85-lap race on the streets surrounding Toronto’s Exhibition Place by 1.5275 seconds. The fast Honda on the grid belongs to James Hinchcliffe, who will start sixth.
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The New Zealand native, who is a two-time victor of the event after capturing both legs of the 2013 race, finished his lap in 59.9073 seconds. Newgarden commented why he enjoys racing at this venue. I always enjoy the love we get from the fans, the atmosphere we get to race in and the great racetrack with all the history that it has. “It’s, I think, time for politicians to step up and do something pretty radical about the way we let people radicalize themselves because it’s getting absolutely insane out there”. But as the cloud cover came out in that last stint, the track really kind of came to us, so we had to save fuel.
