Power wins pole for first Duel in Detroit

Will Power edged teammate Helio Castroneves and set a lap record in qualifying in the final minutes of the Firestone Fast Six to take the pole for race 1 at the Raceway at Belle Isle.

Power elected to wait until the final few minutes to take his shot at the pole while Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Takuma Sato and Simon Pagenaud all took to the track right away. Castroneves laid down a lap of 1:16.1200 that looked relatively safe to keep the pole but Power was not to be denied as the Aussie pulled a lap of 1:06.0941 out of his hat on his second lap of qualifying, breaking the year old track record of Takuma Sato in the process.

I had new tires and was pushing hard because they said Helio and Juan were pretty close. Fantastic job and good start to the weekend. We’ll see what magic we can do tomorrow.

– Will Power

Castroneves followed behind just -.025 off his teammate to secure team owner Roger Penske a sweep of the front row at his home race. Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya reared them with a third place qualifying effort and Takuma Sato carried the flag for Honda in fourth place.

Simon Pagneuad made it four Penske cars in the Fast Six and ended up in fifth place and Sebastien Bourdais ended the day in sixth place.

Scott Dixon barely missed the Firestone Fast Six and will roll off seventh on the grid tomorrow while rookie Stefano Coletti turned the best qualifying performance of his young IndyCar career and will start eighth while Marco Andretti and James Jakes fill out an all Honda fifth row.

Tristan Vautier made the most of his opportunity with Dale Coyne Racing and nearly made the Firestone Fast Six, only to be bumped out at the last second and will start 11th.