Photo Credit: Chris Jones/IndyCar
Helio Castroneves, driver of the No. 3 Auto Club Chevrolet, was quickest in qualifications for the Toyota Long Beach Grand Prix with a 1:07.124 as his best time and was awarded the Verizon P1 Award.
“I’m very happy, first of all, for the AAA car,” Castroneves said. “We’ve been good all weekend long. We’ve been working together all weekend long. I would say Team Penske probably had the upper hand. They say it’s better to be lucky than good and we planned very well. Will (Power) was definitely in a league of his own and he seems to be putting out phenomenal laps, but in the end putting on red tires, you saw (Scott) Dixon up there, you saw (Tony) Kanaan up there and Juan Pablo (Montoya) and Simon (Pagenaud), so it was a mix. But, I’ll take it. Definitely thank AAA and the entire Chevy team. They did a phenomenal job. And hey, it’s the right spot to start, so let’s keep it.”
Scott Dixon, driver of the No. 9 Target Chevrolet, is the reining Long Beach Grand Prix champion and will roll off the grid in second place. Simon Pagenaud, driver of the No. 22 PPG Chevrolet, is looking forward to a solid race to extend his points lead. He will start in third place.
Tony Kanaan, driver of the No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet, is looking for his first win of the season and will start in fourth place. Juan Pablo Montoya, driver of the No. 2 Verizon Chevrolet, is looking to bounce back after the second race of the season and take back the points lead. He will start fifth.
Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet, had a little set back in qualifications’ when he tapped the wall and ran off course. He is looking to bounce back and will start sixth.
“I kind of went a bit deep and didn’t want to take a risk and hit the wall and tried to spin it back around.,” Power said. ” I thought it was all over then anyway because once you cause a yellow you lose your best two laps. But that’s okay. I always seem to start way back. It’s not way back this year. It’s a lot better than the previous two or three years. At least I’m in the top six.”
James Hinchcliffe, driver of the No. 5 Arrow Honda, is looking forward to turning his season around this weekend. He was the fastest Honda in qualifications and will start the race in seventh poisiton.
“Today was a really good day,”Hinchcliffe said. ” We rolled off the truck with a good car on Friday and I’m really proud of the Arrow Electronics guys for the prep that they did, because the car was a rocket right from the get-go. We’ve just been making little tweaks to it, trying to get into a position to be fighting for the Firestone Fast Six, and we did. We finished seventh. We kind of [lost out] a little bit with the way that the Timing and Scoring system failed, but it is what it is. We’re starting on the inside, which is great. It’s such a turnaround from the race in Phoenix two weeks ago. There are a lot of reasons to be happy today and I’m proud of the guys.”
Rounding out your top-10 for qualifications is Takumo Sato, Josef Newgarden, and Carlos Munoz.
1. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevrolet, 105.547 mph.
2. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevrolet, 105.045.
3. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Chevrolet, 104.587.
4. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevrolet, 104.503.
5. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevrolet, 104.333.
6. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevrolet.
7. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 105.52.
8. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 105.382.
9. (21) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Chevrolet, 105.343.
10. (26) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 105.325.
11. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 105.245.
12. (19) Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 104.24.
13. (18) Conor Daly, Dallara-Honda, 104.57.
14. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevrolet, 104.738.
15. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevrolet, 104.486.
16. (98) Alexander Rossi, Dallara-Honda, 104.67.
17. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 104.366.
18. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 104.417.
19. (8) Max Chilton, Dallara-Chevrolet, 103.603.
20. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 104.199.
21. (27) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 103.876.
