O'Ward ninth IndyCar pole winner this year
The IndyCar championship race faces a major shakeup at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, where the top title contenders struggled and Pato O'Ward won the pole to match a series mark set in 1961.
O'Ward became the ninth different pole winner through nine races this season — the first time that's happened in 61 years — and the Arrow McLaren SP driver now has a shot at the IndyCar points lead.
The modern-day record for different drivers winning the pole to start a season is 10 in 1952.
“This is huge man, it's a track position race,” O'Ward said of the difficulty to pass on Mid-Ohio's 13- turn, 2.258mile course. “It's a long race. A lot can happen but we have a great starting position.”
The championship leaders will start today's race mired in deep traffic. Marcus Ericsson, Will Power and Josef Newgarden all failed to advance out of the first group of qualifying, then reigning series champion Alex Palou was knocked out of the second round.
• With a masterful pass of pole winner Kyle Larson on the final lap of overtime, Ty Gibbs won the NASCAR Xfinity Henry 180 at Road America.
Larson took the white flag in the lead, but Gibbs had a better run down the frontstretch and dogged Larson's No. 17 Chevrolet through Turns 1 and 2. Gibbs took advantage of an opening to the inside in Turn 3 and powered his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota past Larson for the lead and the win.
The victory was Gibbs' first at Road America, his fourth of the season and eighth in 34 career starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
“This is just awesome,” said Gibbs, who had just beaten the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion headto-head. “I can't believe it. This is just wonderful.”
•It took 151 attempts for Carlos Sainz to earn his first Formula One pole. Now he'll chase that elusive first win.
But starting alongside Sainz on the front row today at the British Grand Prix will be defending F1 champion Max Verstappen, a year removed from the crash with Lewis Hamilton that turned their title fight into a bitter rivalry.
Verstappen was booed by some in the crowd after Saturday's action-packed qualifying session in the rain, and said he could barely hear his on-track interview questions over the jeers.
“If they want to boo, they do that. For me, it's not going to change anything,” he said. “Maybe some of them don't like me, but that's fine. They all have their own opinions. I don't care.”
Sainz set the fastest time late in the third qualifying session to edge Verstappen by just .072 seconds. It was the seventh pole in 10 races for Ferrari this season, though Sainz teammate Charles Leclerc had earned the first six poles prior to Sainz's surprise run.
“First pole position, it's always special, and especially to do it in Silverstone in the wet,” Sainz said. “Kept it cool through the session and toward the end I decided to push.”