Power Pours on Speed To Win Race 2 Pole, Continue Mastery of IMS Road Course

By Paul Kelly | Published: Oct 3, 2020

Will Power

Will Power continued to make the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course his personal playground Saturday morning, winning the NTT P1 Award for pole position for Race 2 of the INDYCAR Harvest GP presented by GMR.

Power earned his 61st career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole and the fifth of his career on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile IMS road course, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 8.9767 seconds, 127.295 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. He also won the pole for the GMR Grand Prix on July 4 on the IMS road course. Power is just six poles behind the all-time INDYCAR record of 67, set by the legendary Mario Andretti.

CLICK IT: Race 2 Qualifying Results

2014 series champion and 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner Power will lead the 25-car field to the green flag of the 75-lap race at 2:30 p.m. (ET) today, live on NBC and the Pennzoil INDYCAR Radio Network. Power finished sixth Friday afternoon in Race 1.

“We made a lot of changes last night,” Power said. “We were aware that in the first stint yesterday we were pretty weak, so we made what we needed to do. We didn’t pre-empt what the temperature and the wind would do in the race, so we certainly have a much better car, and I’m obviously stoked to be on pole again and to see what we can do today.”

Colton Herta will join Power on the front row after qualifying second at 1:09.1017 in the No. 88 Capstone Turbine #ShiftToGreen Honda, the best lap in the first qualifying group.

2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi will start third after his best lap of 1:09.2315 in the No. 27 AutoNation/NAPA AUTO PARTS Honda. Alex Palou was the top rookie qualifier, starting fourth after a lap of 1:09.1584 in the No. 55 Guaranteed Rate Honda.

Pato O’Ward rebounded from a disappointing 22nd-place finish in Race 1 Friday by qualifying fifth at 1:09.2477 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

Championship contenders Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden both struggled in qualifying this morning. Series points leader Dixon will start 15th after a best lap of 1:09.5824 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Race 1 winner Newgarden, who trails Dixon by 40 points, will start ninth at 1:09.4557 in the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.