INDYCAR: Pagenaud leads Penske 1-2-3 qualifying

Simon Pagenaud came out on top with pole position for the first of two races this weekend at the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit as he led a Team Penske 1-2-3. The championship-leading Frenchman was fastest in his No. 22 Chevy (1m14.9166s), blowing away the previous track record, and edging a frustrated Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Chevy (1m14.9285s).

"The track is awesome," Pagenaud said after taking his third pole of 2016. "It's a real street fight out there. The team is just doing incredible. Glad we could keep the momentum going; last weekend wasn't what we wanted but we're back. It's an awesome feeling today."

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Castroneves lost out to Pagenaud by just 0.0119 seconds. Castroneves, who has won three times at Belle Isle, set the new track record in Segment 2, breaking the record set last year by Will Power (1m14.6899s).

"Simon just nipped me over there," the Brazilian said. "Good job by the entire organization. Simon got the pole, I'll get the win, no problem."

Juan Pablo Montoya completed the all-Penske top 3 (1m15.5659s) while Will Power, the fourth member of the Chevy-powered team who was fastest in the lone morning practice session, missed the Firestone Fast Six and will start ninth (1m15.7142s).

Power ran into trouble, literally, trying to advance out of the Top 12. After owning a half-second advantage over the filed during Friday morning practice, Power hit the wall twice (once on primary Firestones and once on reds) trying to advance out of the top 12 in his Verizon Chevy.

"Pushing too hard," said the 2014 Indycar champ, who will start ninth.

After winning the Indianapolis 500 last weekend, only five Hondas made it through to the Firestone Fast 12. Of those five, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports' James Hinchcliffe was the best, placing fourth (1m15.7708s) ahead of 2015 Detroit Round 1 winner Carlos Munoz (1m16.3897s), who was the only Andretti Autosport driver to end the session with a smile. 

Defending series champion Scott Dixon completed the Fast Six in his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy (1m16.4613), but was unable to explain the 1.5447-second gap to Pagenaud.

"I don't know what happened on the last run," he said. "The car was horrible. We fell off almost two seconds."
Of the other notable results, Indy 500 front-runner Josef Newgarden dealt with a deflating tire once he switched to Firestone Reds and was left in an uncharacteristic 14th.

Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi was extremely disappointed after he and two other Andretti Autosport teammates – Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti – got stacked up and failed to post laps with a clear track.

"That was not what we were looking for," Rossi said. "To be [15th], [17th], and [19th] is pretty bad. We need to deal with it and suck it up and hope things improve."

Hunter-Reay and Andretti then got into a heated exchange on pit lane – which required Michael Andretti to separate the two – where the team owner's son expressed an expletive-filled belief the 2012 series champion blocked him. Hunter-Reay will roll off 15th, ahead of Rossi in 17th and Andretti in 19th.

Click here for full qualifying results.