Pagenaud turns up heat with Iowa pole
NEWTON, Iowa — IndyCar Series points leader Josef Newgarden has spent much of the season holding off a hardcharging Alexander Rossi.
Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud looks poised to make the chase for the championship a three-car affair.
Pagenaud moved 22 points closer to Newgarden, a fellow Team Penske driver, after leading 80 of 85 laps in a dominant win Sunday in Toronto. Pagenaud trails Newgarden by just 39 points and Rossi by 35 heading into tonight’s race at Iowa Speedway, and Pagenaud put further pressure on the two drivers ahead of him in the standings on Friday by winning the pole position for the second week in a row.
The 35-year-old Frenchman beat Will Power, also of Team Penske, and Newgarden to capture his third pole of 2019 and his 13th overall.
“I’m definitely happy to be ahead of my teammates,” said Pagenaud, who posted an average speed of 180.073 mph during qualifying. “Josef is my competition this year, so I’ve got to grab any points I can get. Be aggressive, show authority.”
Pagenaud hit a bit of a wall after his memorable win at Indy in late May. He went four straight races finishing no better than sixth, a run that threatened to nullify the points advantage he had picked up, but the No. 22 Chevrolet team found something in last weekend’s performance in Canada.
Pagenaud could be tough to beat in Iowa, too, if he can carry over the speed he had in qualifying.
Iowa is just the third oval track on the circuit this season, with Pagenaud (Indianapolis) and Newgarden (Texas) taking the first two races. No one has ever won an IndyCar race from the pole in 12 tries at Iowa’s 0.875-mile short track, but Pagenaud is on a roll.
“Traffic plays a big role in this race,” Pagenaud said. “It’s about having a good car in traffic, a good car on long runs. Most of the time it finishes under smashand-dash at the end with a late yellow (caution flag).”
Newgarden wasn’t happy despite qualifying third in a performance he flatly said “wasn’t good enough.”
The Hendersonville, Tennessee, native has had plenty of success at Iowa, though, including one of the most dominant runs in recent memory. He led 282 out of 300 laps, a record that still stands, to win in Newton three years ago for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Newgarden said he had trouble with the track’s first turn Friday, “but the car was good. … We should have what we need, I think, for tomorrow.”
Takuma Sato qualified fourth, with James Hinchcliffe fifth as he aims to win the Iowa race for the second straight year.
Rossi will start sixth in the Andretti Autosport No. 27 Honda. He has been nearly as hot as Pagenaud of late, winning at Road America on June 23 before finishing third last weekend.
“The Penske cars have looked really strong, which is unfortunate,” Rossi said.
Like much of the country, Iowa is expected to get slammed by extreme heat today. The forecast calls for temperatures in the mid-90s when the green flag drops, with a “real feel” temperature roughly 10 degrees higher.
“It tends to amplify understeer, especially in qualifying when it’s hotter,” Newgarden said. “It amplifies tire wear, too. That’s the biggest thing.”
NASCAR qualifying
LOUDON, N.H. — Brad Keselowski topped qualifying at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Friday for his first NASCAR Cup Series pole since 2017.
The Team Penske driver turned a fast lap of 136.384 mph in the No. 2 Ford Mustang to edge Kyle Busch, who briefly held the top speed before Keselowski bumped him.
“We’re happy with that effort. It certainly bodes well for our shot to get those stage wins and of course the overall race win come Sunday. But we still have to go earn it,” said Keselowski, who has three victories this season. “So you’re happy for it. You take a breath and you celebrate it, and you get your head back down and go to work.”
Busch was second at 136.311 mph. That kept him just ahead of his older brother Kurt, who is coming off his first victory of the season after edging Kyle last Saturday night at Kentucky Motor Speedway.