Simon Pagenaud resumed his assault on the Verizon IndyCar Series championship, capturing the Verizon P1 Award today to put him on pole position for the first race of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans.
Pagenaud's fast lap in the Firestone Fast Six, the last of three rounds of knockout qualifying on the 2.35-mile Raceway at Belle Isle Park temporary street course, was a crisp 1 minute, 14.9166 seconds (112.926 mph) in the No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevrolet. He edged teammate Helio Castroneves by 0.0119 of a second and led a Team Penske sweep of the first three qualifying positions at the event that team owner Roger Penske operates.
"I knew the car would be good here because of the way it was in Long Beach (where he qualified third and won the April 17 race)," said Pagenaud, whose first of seven career Indy car wins came at Belle Isle in 2013. "Just great that we could extract the lap time out of it.
"Obviously there was a bit of strategy on our side with the Firestone tires," he added. "We chose to go on the black Firestone tires (in the Firestone Fast Six). They're working really well for us and it paid off, so I'm really, really delighted."
Pagenaud, who had a three-race winning streak snapped when he finished 19th in the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on May 29, earned his fifth career Verizon IndyCar Series pole position and third this season. The 32-year-old Frenchman hasn't started worse than third on any road or street course in 2016. He took a 57-point championship lead into this weekend, which features the only doubleheader on the 2016 schedule.
Castroneves, a three-time Belle Isle race winner, shattered the track record in the second segment of qualifying with a top lap of 1:14.6899 (113.268 mph) in the No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. It was more than 1.5 seconds speedier than the old track record established a year ago by Team Penske's Will Power, but Castroneves couldn't match the lap in the Firestone Fast Six and will go off second in Saturday's race (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC and Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network).
"I was supposed to do that track record on the last one, not the first one," joked Castroneves, who earned the first of his 29 career Indy car wins on Belle Isle in 2000. "But at the end of the day, you don't pick and choose. ... At least starting on the front row is always good, so we'll go get them tomorrow."
Juan Pablo Montoya will start third in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet with a final-round lap of 1:15.5659 (111.955 mph). James Hinchcliffe, the 2016 Indianapolis 500 pole sitter in the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda, broke the Penske run up front by qualifying fourth (1:15.7708, 111.653 mph).
Row 3 will consist of Indy 500 runner-up Carlos Munoz in the No. 26 Magneti Marelli Honda (1:16.3897, 110.748 mph) and reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (1:16.4613, 110.644 mph). Both are past Belle Isle winners, Munoz in the first race of last year's Dual and Dixon in 2012 when a single race was run.
Twenty-two cars are slated to take the green flag Saturday. American Alexander Rossi, who won the Indianapolis 500 five days ago, will start 17th Saturday in the No. 98 NAPA Auto Parts/Curb Honda. The second race of the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit takes place Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC and Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network).
Turns for Troops program earns funds to benefit injured military
United Rentals, which debuted its primary car sponsorship on Graham Rahal's No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda this weekend for the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, announced today it had reached an agreement to become the official equipment rental company of INDYCAR and the Verizon IndyCar Series.
An important component of the sponsorship is the Turns for Troops program that will see United Rentals donate $50 for every lap Rahal completes in the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series season to SoldierStrong, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping American military veterans.
Turns for Troops will aid veterans with major injuries sustained while serving their country. The program will fund access to education, state-of-the-art rehabilitation programs and technologies that address a variety of combat-related injuries. The program has already earned more than $40,000 with Rahal completing 811 laps in the first six races.
"It's not about me, it's about United Rentals and everything that they are doing," Rahal said. "Being an American and as passionate as I am about supporting the military in general, without a doubt, it feels good. Anything that we can do to help veterans is key.
"Everything they do for us, the sacrifices that they make, even if they do come back from war completely healthy, I think mentally there are still challenges. So we're working with SoldierStrong now, and previously with National Guard and even before that working with K9s for Warriors to help them with PTSD, it feels only right to give back as much as we can."
To learn more about the program and opportunities to directly support SoldierStrong, visit www.turnsfortroops.com.
Andretti Autosport adds Magneti Marelli as sponsor, technical partner
Andretti Autosport has added Magneti Marelli, a global advanced systems and component supplier for the automotive industry, as a sponsor and partner.
Magneti Marelli is the primary sponsor on Carlos Munoz's No. 26 Honda for this weekend's Chevrolet Dual in Detroit presented by Quicken Loans and an associate sponsor of Marco Andretti's No. 27 Snapple/United Fiber & Data Honda for the remaining races on the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule.
Magneti Marelli and Andretti Autosport will also collaborate on development and engineering projects to optimize the team's performance.
"We are proud to support a top global motorsport team such as Andretti Autosport," said Stephane Vedie, president and CEO of Magneti Marelli Holding USA, "which is involved in some of the most interesting racing challenges in the world, like the Verizon IndyCar Series, FIA Formula E championship and Global Rallycross, and have just achieved a fantastic result in the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500.
"Also, Magneti Marelli has a cross-expertise and a strong commitment in all the main motorsport championships on a global scale. We believe we can bring in this technical partnership the best of our know-how and experience, that goes from motorsports to road cars and vice-versa."
