Will Power wins pole again at St Pete for IndyCar opener

ST PETERSBURG: Will Power won the pole for IndyCar’s season-opening race at St Petersburg, proving he still is the best driver at navigating the temporary street circuit. It was a record seventh pole in eight years at St. Pete for Power, who also won the pole for this race last year. He’s a twotime winner at St. Pete and will try for win No. 3 in Sunday’s opener.

Power ran the course Saturday in his Team Penske Chevrolet with a lap of 1 minute, 1.0640 seconds (106.118 mph). “It takes obviously a very good team,” the Australian said. “Very happy to be on pole. Can’t believe it’s now seven times.”

Power did not race in last year’s opener. He became ill after his qualifying lap and IndyCar ultimately benched him for the race because of concussion-like symptoms.

It turned out Power had an ear infection, and not racing in the opener likely cost him a chance to win the championship. Power finished second in the IndyCar standings last year to Team Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud. Scott Dixon qualified second Saturday in the new Honda that Chip Ganassi Racing is fielding this year, followed by James Hinchcliffe. New Penske driver Josef Newgarden qualified fourth while Takuma Sato, now driving for Andretti Autosport, and Tony Kanaan round out the final six for Sunday. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Penske group, despite two drivers in the top four. Reigning series champion Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves failed to advance to the second round of qualifying. Pagenaud will start 14th, Castroneves 16th. Although a Chevy won the pole, Honda qualified nine drivers in the top 12. The manufacturer has been overshadowed by Chevy since Chevy returned to IndyCar in 2012. One Honda driver who had expected better qualifying results but failed to get it was Marco Andretti, who qualified 15th. Andretti is trying to be looser in the car and stop overthinking the decade of struggles he’s had searching for success.

“This is hard to swallow, Andretti said. “This one hurts. We’re faster than this - last year we went to the back of the field and had the pace to come back through, so we’re going to have to do that.” The third turn of the circuit was reconfigured Thursday evening, the day before Indy cars hit the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit. What once was a fast, sweeping right-hand turn now has curbing that changed the apex and made the corner a traditional braking area. Also, 180 feet of wall on the drivers’ left side was moved back almost 40 feet. “I would say turn three is going to be the biggest difference on passing,” Graham Rahal said. “Turn three is obviously so much tighter now with a brake zone there and stuff. It will be interesting to see.”

The track has retained its character, although it was repaved last month, with new asphalt on about 70 percent of the circuit. “It’s definitely different,” Kanaan said. “I was expecting there to be a little more grip and for it to be smoother. In other words, I was expecting us to lose a little of the beauty of this track.”—