Castroneves Takes IndyCar Pole At Long Beach

No. 3 of Helio Castroneves smoothly negotiates the tricky hairpin turn. [Joe Jennings Photo]

By Joe Jennings

Long Beach, Calif. – Featuring a smooth run around the 1.968-mile street course, colorful driver Helio Castroneves took the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third Verizon IndyCar Series race in 2016. His speed in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet was a rapid 105.547 miles per hour in a time of 1:07.1246.

For the Brazilian, he chalked up his 47th career pole, second consecutive at Long Beach and the third overall. With his 47th, he’s in fourth place on the all-time list two behind Bobby Unser.

“Qualifying was a little bit strange, but at end of the day, it showed that our team is very consistent. All four of us work closely together and very hard. As they say, it is better to be lucky rather than good,” the flashy driver said. “I will take this one. We have a fast car and are consistent. I am happy that finally our plan paid off, and we are starting in the right position.”

To gain the pole, the Castroneves team used two sets of red tires in qualifications.

Qualifying second, 0.3209 seconds back, was Scott Dixon in the Target Chip Ganassi Chevrolet.

“We were a lot better than we were this morning, and once we got the car dialed in, it was much better,” Dixon commented. “It was a scenario where we just kept adding front wing in the car to get the car going faster. I think we had the speed to go for the pole, and it should be an interesting race tomorrow.”

Row two qualifiers were Simon Pagenaud and Tony Kanaan with teammates Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Power next in line.

Power triggered a red flag when he spun to a stop in the final round of qualifications. As a result, his two best lap times were disallowed and he did not take part in the last two minutes of the Firestone Fast Six runs.
Said Power about the miscue, “I just locked up and did not want to take a risk by damaging the car. At least, I am not starting far back like the last couple of years.”

Chevrolet-powered cars earned the top-six starting positions with all four Team Penske cars in the mix.

James Hinchcliffe and Takuma Sato gave Honda its best showing by qualifying seventh and eighth.

Twenty-one cars qualified with Jack Hawksworth and Marco Andretti bringing up the rear.

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