INDYCARNATION

EDMONTON, Alberta – Will Power shook his head in mock disbelief. The drivers who have earned all six PEAK Performance Pole Awards on street/road courses this season will compete in Group 1 of the first round of IZOD IndyCar Series qualifications July 24.

Sorry about that, Will, but though the division is about as harsh as Edmonton in February, it was a blind draw among the 25 drivers entered in the Honda Indy Edmonton.

"It will be the toughest qualifying session of the year," said Power, who noted that drivers might have to use a set of Firestone alternate tires just to advance to Round 2.

It certainly will stir up the starting grid for the July 25 race on the City Centre Airport circuit.

Two groups are drawn for street/road course qualifying during the initial drivers meeting of the weekend. Thirteen cars for this race are in Group 1 for the 15-minute first session and 12 are in Group 2. Only the top six in each group, according to best lap time, move to the second round on the 1.973-mile, 14-turn course. From Round 2, another 15-minute session, the top six by lap time advance to the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six shootout that determines the pole winner and first three rows for the 95-lap race.

Power has participated in each of the Firestone Fast Six segments and earned four pole starts. He’ll be joined in Group 1 by – among others -- teammate Helio Castroneves (five appearances in the Firestone Fast Six), Justin Wilson (five appearances, won pole last week at Toronto) of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti (three appearances, won pole in Brazil), Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe (two times in the Firestone Fast Six) and Alex Tagliani of FAZZT Race Team (one shootout appearance).

No wonder some were calling this the “Group of death” (World Cup term). Eight of those Group 1 drivers were among the top 12 on the time chart in the afternoon practice session July 23.

Power, the defending race champion, topped the field with a best lap of 1 minute, 1.6689 seconds (115.176 mph) in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car. The top 11 cars were separated by less than a second.

"It's great to see the Verizon car on top in practice, but I'm not quite happy with it," said Power, who is seeking his third consecutive victory. "The Penske team is very strong again here and with how competitive the field is now we have to work extra hard. We're feeding off each other and see if we can be 1-2-3 again tomorrow."

Briscoe was two-tenths of a second behind and Castroneves was third with a best lap of 1:02.0152. Franchitti (1:02.0357) was fourth.

Among the drivers in Group 2 are Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon and Andretti Autosport’s Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay – all with three Firestone Fast Six appearances. Dixon (1:02.1086) was quickest of the group on the combined practice time sheet.

Takuma Sato, driving the No. 5 Lotus KV Racing Technology car, jumped to fifth (1:02.0608) in the final minutes. Wilson, the pole sitter at Toronto, was seventh (1:02.2572) in the No. 22 Z-Line Designs car and E.J. Viso (1:02.4789) was eighth in the No. 8 PDVSA KV Racing Technology car.

"We have a pretty complete car after the first day," said Viso, whose is in Group 2. "The grid is so tight and this is one of those places that you have to push so much harder to pick up positions. You have to go over the limit sometimes. Putting all of the sectors of the track together is difficult, too. This is a bumpy and unstable track, so it is very hard to run consistent laps here."

Paul Tracy, who has finished fourth and sixth the past two seasons at Edmonton, was ninth quick (1:02.5559) in the No. 15 Make-A-Wish KV Racing Technology car. Kanaan (1:02.6513) was 10th in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car.

 

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