IndyCar: Castroneves steals Ganassi’s thunder with pole at Iowa

While Chip Ganassi Racing dominated Iowa Speedway throughout practice, it was Team Penske-Chevrolet driver Helio Castroneves that landed pole with a two-lap average that eclipsed pre-session favorite Tony Kanaan by 0.3mph.

The No. 3 Penske driver clocked two very consistent 183.4mph laps to head a three-row domination by Penske and Ganassi drivers, on a weekend when it's expected passing will be harder than we're used to seeing in the Iowa Corn Indy 300.

Third fastest was championship leader Juan Montoya with Scott Dixon’s Ganassi-Chevy fourth. Meanwhile Simon Pagenaud and Will Power were separated by just 0.002sec and will start fifth and sixth.

Last year’s Iowa runner-up Josef Newgarden was seventh for CFH Racing-Chevrolet but the Bowtie brigade wasn’t quite as dominant as we saw yesterday evening. Marco Andretti will start eighth while Andretti Autosport-Honda teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won this race last year in a brilliantly opportunistic manner, lines up ninth.

The talk of the session – other than someone being able to eclipse Kanaan – was Sebastien Bourdais’ half-spin in the KV Racing-Chevy, which saw him drifting through the exit of Turn 2 and glancing the wall, to the detriment of his lap times and his rear bodywork. He will line up last.

Race coverage on NBCSN starts at 7.00pm local time (8pm Eastern) with the green flag due to wave at 7.50.

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