INDYCAR: Dixon sets record, claims Glen pole

Scott Dixon decimated the Watkins Glen IndyCar lap record with a 1m22.5259s lap that went a full 5.6063 seconds below the 1m28.1322 set by Ryan Briscoe in 2009. The New Zealander’s No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi entry led an all-Chevy top eight as the Bowtie left Honda teams searching for speed.

“I was expecting it to be over six seconds; I think all of us were a little shocked,” Dixon said of his new record. “The track was faster this morning in the cooler conditions and we thought we’d pick up at least 8/10ths of a second on Reds, which didn’t play true for some reason. It’s just so fast.”

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As every driver has remarked at some point this weekend, the staggering speeds at Watkins Glen border on the surreal.

“I don’t know what the average speed is, it’s gotta be just below 150mph, which is race pace at Milwaukee, so it’s pretty crazy to be averaging those speeds,” Dixon added. “The G loads, especially in Turn 10, 11, Turn 5, I haven’t seen that for quite some time on any road course.”

Team Penske’s Will Power was able to qualify second (-0.0483), but it was only made possible by one of many contentious calls made by IndyCar’s race control team. Schmidt Peterson Motorsport’s Mikhail Aleshin was sixth fastest in the Firestone Fast 12, but was judged to have impeded a car and had his fastest lap taken away which dropped the Russian out of the Fast Six and promoted Power into the final group. SPM teammate James Hinchcliffe was handed the same penalty in the first round of qualifying, and was just as livid after the decision took him out of the Fast 12.

Once in, Power was able to salvage the session and will start alongside Dixon for Sunday’s race.

With Power locked in a battle with teammate Simon Pagenaud for the championship with two races remaining, Dixon, who has a remote chance of holding onto his current title, said he would “definitely remind [Power] that he has a lot more to lose” and suggest letting the No. 9 car lead into Turn 1 at the start.

Behind Power, Sebastien Bourdais qualified a fine third for KVSH Racing and said he ran out of strength by the second of three qualifying stages.

“The car’s been good all weekend, but I faded physically in Q2; we had to change the steering on the car because I couldn’t turn it anymore,” Bourdais told RACER. “And when the arms fall off, the neck falls off and everything goes to s**t. It wasn’t ideal. This track is ridiculous. We know we’re good and we’re close, so that’s what matters.”

Penske’s Helio Castroneves and Ganassi’s Tony Kanaan completed the top five.

Of those who impressed or underwhelmed, Ganassi’s Max Chilton delivered his best road course qualifying performance of the season with sixth, Pagenaud was unexpectedly far down in seventh after missing the one additional lap he needed to get the most of out of his Firestone reds, AJ Foyt Racing’s Jack Hawksworth maintained his competitive form with ninth – which also served as the best among the Honda runners – and RC Enerson, in only his second event, qualified 11th in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda while teammate Conor Daly was a disappointing 17th.

All four Andretti Autosport cars were 15th or lower, and Texas winner Graham Rahal was stunned to end the afternoon no better than 20th after the series took away his two fastest laps for impeding.

“I’m very disappointed with the ruling,” Rahal said. “We obviously have a fast race car but we’re going to have to put our heads down and try to come from behind. There is a lot of work to be done. We will give it all we can to try to come up with good strategy to help us make our way to the front.”

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