Will Power knows he has some ground to make up if he wants to win his first Championship this season. He took a step in the right direction today, winning the pole for Sunday’s race at Mid-Ohio.
This is Will’s third pole of the season, and his first since Brazil. He gains one more point on Ryan Hunter-Reay and Helio Castroneves in the overall Championship standings.
The top two drivers in the standings failed to make the Firestone Fast Six. Hunter-Reay will start eighth, and Helio had bigger problems, severely bruising his hand before qualifying began.
In the morning practice session, Helio he ran into the back of Mike Conway as they were exiting pit lane. Conway moved to get out of Helio’s way, but he didn’t have time to react to the move, and ran into the rear end of his car. The steering wheel struck Helio’s hand. He was icing it and taking medication, but he was checked and released from the infield care center with no broken bones.
Dario Franchitti will start alongside Power on the front row. Behind them it is Simon Pagenaud, Alex Tagliani, Scott Dixon, and Ryan Briscoe. Sebastien Bourdais, Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, and Josef Newgarden round out the rest of the top ten.
Chip Ganassi has dominated the last five years at Mid-Ohio. Dixon has won three of the last five races, and has never finished outside of the top five. Franchitti also has a win here, and has finished on the podium in every race.
The 85-lap event at Mid-Ohio airs on ABC at 12:30 pm ET. The green flag will drop at 1 pm.
Born and raised 30 miles west of the greatest race track in the world.
Chad Smith
