It took 63 tries, but Josef Newgarden finally captured his first Verizon IndyCar Series pole position for the evening’s ABC Supply Wisconsin 250.
Newgarden backed up setting the pace during the race’s two practice sessions to log a 170.223 mph 2 lap average on the 1 mile oval to take his first career pole.
Starting on the outside of the front row was a surprising run for super sub Ryan Briscoe, who was 20th in this morning’s practice session and will start on front row at Milwaukee for the first time since 2009.
Chip Ganassi Racing locked out the second row with Sage Karam putting on a dazzling qualifying performance. The Nazareth, Pennsylvania native was the last car to qualify and wasted no time and delivered a career best starting spot with a 169.639 mph average. Tony Kanaan briefly held the top spot before Newgarden disposed of him and will start in 4th place.
James Jakes made it two Schmidt Peterson Motorsports cars in the top 5 with his best oval qualifying performance since Fontana in 2013 while Graham Rahal will flank him on the outside of row three.
Points leader Juan Pablo Montoya struggled with understeer and only managed to qualify in eighth place while his Team Penske teammate and defending race winner Will Power suffered from the same problem and qualified in 14th place.
Helio Castroneves will start from last place because his car was late to tech inspection and was not allowed to qualify.
Click here for the starting lineup for the ABC Supple Wisconsin 250
