INDYCAR: Pagenaud on pole for Indy GP

Simon Pagenaud winning the pole position for Saturday's Angie's List Grand Prix of Indianapolis wasn't a surprise but rest of the Fast Six turned out to be a refreshing mix of hungry, young drivers.

Charlie Kimball, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe, Josef Newgarden and Jack Hawksworth ousted the usual suspects at the front as six different teams shined during qualifying on Friday afternoon.

Pagenaud, threatening to make a runaway of the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, continued his mastery by taking quick time in his Menard's Dallara/Chevy with a lap of 1:08.686 around the IMS road course.

"It's pretty fun right now," said the 31-year-old Frenchman who already owns two victories and two runner-up finishes in 2016. "I'm in a zone right now and (engineer) Ben Bretzman gives me a monster car and we're just really clicking as a team.

"We had some good strategy thanks to Kyle Moyer. We only ran one lap in Q1 and two in Q2 so we had fresher tires for Q3. I'm really confident and I've got the best car out there."

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Chip Ganassi's four-car armada only had one representative as Kimball put together his best-ever effort to take the second starting spot in his Tresiba Chevy after Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan missed the Fast Six.

"I didn't quite put the perfect lap together and that's what it would have taken to beat Simon," said Kimball after running 1:08.981. "But it was pretty darn good and my guys have really been on it so I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings."

Rahal, who battled Pagenaud for the win at Alabama last month, continued to carry Honda's flag by posting the third-best lap in his Steak & Shake Special.

"To be fast here you've got to be on the edge all the time and a tenth of a second can cost you five or six spots, so I'm proud of this team," he said. "We only ran one set of reds in Q3 because we wanted to keep another set for tomorrow but I've got a good car. Honda has three cars in the top six, so that's the first time it's happened in a while and they just keep fighting."

Hinchcliffe, whose 2016 season ended against the IMS walls last year in practice for the Indy 500, bounced back in a big way by qualifying fourth in the Arrow Honda after missing the entire first session on Thursday.

"That's a real testament to this team," he exclaimed. "You can't give away any practice time in this series and it's really difficult here since we don't have much data and we don't test."

Newgarden lines up fifth in the Preferred Freezer Chevy for Ed Carpenter while Hawksworth had his best showing of the season for A.J. Foyt by claiming the sixth slot in his ABC Honda.

Power, the defending champ of this race, starts 12th while 2014 Indy winner Ryan Hunter-Reay is 17th as Andretti Autosports continues to struggle.

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