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Power Zips To Pole At Long Beach

Long Beach, Calif. – Will Power cruised to the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, the fourth race of the IZOD IndyCar Series season.

Driving one of the three Team Penske cars that were among the six fastest qualifiers, Power smoothly traversed the 11-turn street course at an average speed of 102.206 miles per hour. He gained his third consecutive pole, one short of the record held by Helio Castroneves and Billy Boat.

“I am happy with the pole,” Power said. “My plan was to get through on black tires in the first session, but in the second session we were on used blacks. In the final, we had new reds. At this track you’ve got to be so brave to get a lap. You have to be on the limit or go a little bit over it, but it’s so easy to hit the wall.”

Ryan Hunter-Reay had the second fastest speed of 101.573 mph, and he drove one of the four Andretti Autosport entries. Second is his best start since 2008 when he won at Watkins Glen.

“It was a pretty good run for us,” he said. “We have been working on the car and things have been steadily progressing. I think today we just took the next step. We didn’t fuss with the car in qualifying, and just kept throwing tires at it. Unfortunately, we weren’t brave or bold enough, and I don’t think we were strong enough so save a red set like Will (Power) did at the end.”

Third fastest was road-racing expert Justin Wilson at 101.510 mph and fourth was Helio Castroneves, the winner at Barber Motorsport Park a week ago. His speed was 101.433 mph.

Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan were the fifth and sixth-place qualifiers.

Seventh and eighth fastest drivers were Alex Tagliani and Scott Dixon with Marco Andretti and Dan Wheldon rounding out the top-10 qualifiers.

Dario Franchitti slipped to 12th in qualifications and Danica Patrick struggled to attain the 20th fastest time.

Twenty-four cars qualified for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

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