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Aleshin Speeds To His First IndyCar Pole

Pole winner Mikhail Aleshin all smiles as he proudly holds Russian flag. [Joe Jennings Photo]

Pole winner Mikhail Aleshin all smiles as he proudly holds Russian flag. [Joe Jennings Photo]

By Joe Jennings

Long Pond, Penna. – Russian driver Mikhail Aleshin topped the 22-car Verizon IndyCar Series field as qualifications set the field for Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 at the Pocono Raceway. He toured the 2.5-mile oval at a two-lap average speed of 220.445 miles per hour

Driving the SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Racing Honda, Aleshin scored his first-ever IndyCar pole and it comes in his 31st series race.

“It is very difficult to say how I feel right now,” the 29-year old driver said. “There a lot of emotions right now, but you can’t see it with my Russian face. This is really good for the team as we have been through a lot of things, particularly in 2014 and then I came back last year for a single race. This year we have had some good things and some difficult races, but now we seem to be making progress. This is a team sport and every little thing counts. Right now I am very happy to be here.”

Aleshin also set fast time in the opening round of practice.

As qualifying wound down, Josef Newgarden made a valiant run for the pole but came up short at 220.195 mph. He was driving the Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet fielded by Ed Carpenter Racing.

Said the Tennessee native, “I just didn’t have enough speed and I probably needed to trim the car out more. Those Hondas are tough. The weather was not a factor to me, and I thought it was pretty consistent throughout the session.”

Takuma Sato timed third fastest with Helio Castroneves, James Hinchcliffe and Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi next in line.

They were trailed by Will Power, Tony Kanaan and Ed Carpenter.

Driving a repaired car, Juan Pablo Montoya managed a 15th fastest time. Scott Dixon had a slow day, ending up 19th on the speed chart.

In the lone practice session preceding qualifications, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Charlie Kimball and Montoya were involved in single-car crashes. No injuries were sustained but Hunter-Reay’s 2014 Indianapolis 500 winning car was too damaged to be repaired. For back-up, his Andretti Autosport team had to prepare a car recently used during a test at Watkins Glen, but it wasn’t ready in time to qualify, so the 2015 race winner will start last on Sunday.

Sunday’s ABC Supply 500 will be telecast on the NBCSN at 3 p.m. ET.

ABC Supply 500 qualifying results
LONG POND, Pa. – Qualifying Saturday for the ABC Supply 500 Verizon IndyCar Series event on the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, aero kit-engine, and speed:
1. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 220.445
2. (21) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 220.195
3. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 220.067
4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 219.781
5. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 219.647
6. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 219.463
7. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 219.326
8. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 218.617
9. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 218.606
10. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 218.424
11. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 218.204
12. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 218.051
13. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 218.012
14. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 217.721
15. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 217.284
16. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 216.917
17. (8) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 216.689
18. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 216.263
19. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 215.337
20. (88) Conor Daly, Honda, 214.757
21. (19) Pippa Mann, Honda, 211.267
22. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, no speed

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