INDYCAR: Power kicking himself for squandering pole

Will Power was left kicking himself after squandering a likely pole position for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The Penske driver was fairly confident he had a pole-winning car having led the last two practice sessions and easily making it to the final part of qualifing. But he caused a red flag in the pole shootout by sliding down the escape road at Turn 9 and stalling, losing his two fastest laps as a result. That left him sixth on the grid as teammate Helio Castroneves swept to pole.

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"I locked up and went down the runoff and then I didn't get it spun around and then I put it in reverse and then I stalled," Power said. "It's always something for me in qualifying. We never seem to get it right.

"It's unfortunate. We were very quick. But I always seem to screw qualifying at Long Beach up in some way.

"It's fine. We can win from there and have a good race."

Power won the 2012 Long Beach race from the 12th starting position.

"This race can be very straightforward like it was last year or really mixed up like in previous years," Power said.

Power's race engineer David Faustino said the team's strategy for the race will be determined by the leader, because it is still starting close enough to the front that alternative tactics would not be beneficial.

"Everybody always has something that happens to them in a race weekend but it seems a lot worse when it happens when it counts," Faustino said. "We had three great practice sessions up to that point. I think we had a car that could fight for the pole but Scott Dixon also had some speed there.

"All four of our cars were capable of winning the pole as well as two of the Ganassi drivers. We don't have the best pit box here, so unfortunately that affects you in this race.

"It's a street course race – it could either be smooth sailing or complete chaos."

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Originally on Autosport.com