The Penske juggernaut rolls on.
Will Power won the pole at Watkins Glen International on Saturday to lead a sweep of the top three spots by Team Penske, which extended its IndyCar Series record of consecutive poles to eight. It also was the fifth straight pole at Watkins Glen for Penske, which has yet to post a series win in five tries at the storied road course.
“I got the car the way I like it for qualifying,” Power said after capturing his fifth pole of the season. “It's just three quick drivers, three good engineers, and a good group of people working together. We just have to make sure we convert it during the race.”
Power covered the 11-turn, 3.4-mile course in one minute 29.3164 seconds at 135.832 mph and was followed by teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.
“We're really pumped,” said Castroneves, who barely missed his fourth pole at The Glen. “It's just a matter of now, make it happen. We have three chances to win this race. Hopefully, one of us will be able to make it.”
Defending series champion Dario Franchitti was fourth, followed by rookie Takuma Sato, who earned his top qualifying spot of the season, and defending race winner Justin Wilson.
Paul Tracy of Toronto, whose qualifying gaffe cost him a starting spot in the Indy 500, will go off 12th in his first start of the season.
Alex Tagliani of Lachenaie, Que., struggled in qualifying 19th and will start on the 10th row next to Dan Wheldon.
“It's not good, but the positive is that we made improvements from (Friday),” Tagliani said. “If we have a good car for the race the rest won't matter. We'll have to go out and have good strategy, fight to move up front and have a good result.”
Danica Patrick, fresh from a one-week stint in NASCAR, struggled and will start 21st in the 25-car field for Sunday's Camping World Grand Prix. Adam Carroll, an up-and-coming driver from Northern Ireland, will start 10th in his series debut.
Qualifying on road and street courses is a three-step process. Initially, the drivers are split into two groups for 15-minute segments, with the top six in each group advancing to the next segment. The six fastest in that grouping of 12 then advance to a 10-minute shootout to decide the first three rows.
Castroneves topped the first group followed closely by Marco Andretti, Briscoe, Wilson, Carroll, and Mario Moraes. That relegated Andretti Autosport teammates Tony Kanaan and Patrick to starting spots deep in the field. Kanaan will go off 13th.
Franchitti won the second session, which started slowly. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won at Watkins Glen two years ago, spun off course braking into turn eight during the first minutes of the session. That brought out a full-course caution, cost Hunter-Reay his two fastest laps, and he was unable to rebound and advance.
Dixon also missed making the final six, barely, finishing 0.09 seconds behind Sato for the final slot.
“It was a tough session,” said Dixon, who won the first three IndyCar Series races at Watkins Glen. “The car, speed-wise, should have been in the top six. I didn't get it all together.”
If anybody was going to knock Power out of the top spot, it was Castroneves. But he slid wildly off course into the gravel pit alongside turn eight as the checkered flag was waving, ending his last chance.
“I wanted that pole position,” Castroneves said. “It was a shame. It would have been very close. When they (his crew) told me two-tenths (behind), I said, ‘I gotta do something really crazy here.’ Unfortunately, it was a little too much.”
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