Dario Franchitti earns Iowa IndyCar Series pole by winning third heat race
Dario Franchitti will start Saturday night's IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway from pole position after winning the final qualifying heat race at the 7/8th mile oval
Franchitti (Ganassi) started from second on the grid behind Marco Andretti, but passed the Andretti Autosport driver around the outside on lap five to take the lead.
Andretti lost another place to Penske's Helio Castroneves a couple of laps later, but the Brazilian was unable to make any dent in Franchitti's lead and settled for second, which is still enough for a front-row grid spot on Saturday. Franchitti's margin of victory was 1.4 seconds.
James Hinchcliffe passed the Penske Dallara-Chevroletss of Will Power and Ryan Briscoe to move into fourth early on, but found himself under pressure from Briscoe as the race entered its final laps. Briscoe got close enough to have a look down the inside with five laps to go, but could not make the move stick. The Australian will start alongside compatriot Power on the third row, with Andretti's Ryan Hunter-Reay and Ganassi's Scott Dixon occupying row four.
Tony Kanaan was the big mover in the opening heats, going from fourth place to win heat two.
Kanaan (KV Racing Technology) passed Dale Coyne's Justin Wilson for third on the first lap, and then waited for the lead battle between polesitter Rubens Barrichello (KV) and Alex Tagliani (Bryan Herta Autosport) to be decided in the Canadian's favour ahead of him before making his next move.
His chance came when Barrichello lost speed immediately after being passed by Tagliani, but while the Formula 1 veteran was unable to prevent Kanaan from passing him, he was able to hold on to finish third.
Earlier, the first 30-lapper was dominated by Ganassi's Graham Rahal, who finished 6.2s clear of Josef Newgarden (Sarah Fisher Hartman). The cars ran almost the entire race in their starting order before Panther's JR Hildebrand passed EJ Viso (KV) for third with three laps remaining, moving himself one row further up the grid in reward.
The first two heat races determined the grid order from the fifth row back for the main race. But both Kanaan and Rahal are facing 10-place gird penalties for unauthorised engine changes, as are Viso and Schmidt Hamilton's Simon Pagenaud.
Heat one results - 30 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Graham Rahal Ganassi DW12-Honda 9m00.6441s 2. Josef Newgarden Fisher DW12-Honda + 6.2134s 3. JR Hildebrand Panther DW12-Chevy + 6.5594s 4. EJ Viso KV DW12-Chevy + 7.4531s 5. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy + 8.3586s 6. Mike Conway Foyt DW12-Honda + 10.8144s 7. Ed Carpenter Carpenter DW12-Chevy + 13.4036s 8. Takuma Sato Rahal DW12-Honda + 18.5671s Heat two results - 30 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Tony Kanaan KV DW12-Chevy 8m59.4932s 2. Alex Tagliani Herta DW12-Honda + 3.1255s 3. Rubens Barrichello KV DW12-Chevy + 6.0818s 4. Justin Wilson Coyne DW12-Honda + 7.9310s 5. Charlie Kimball Ganassi DW12-Honda + 10.0818s 6. Katherine Legge Dragon DW12-Chevy + 13.7490s 7. James Jakes Coyne DW12-Honda + 14.0032s 8. Simona de Silvestro HVM DW12-Lotus + 1 lap 9. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt DW12-Honda + 1 lap Heat three results - 30 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi DW12-Honda 9m16.9203s 2. Helio Castroneves Penske DW12-Chevy + 1.4671s 3. Marco Andretti Andretti DW12-Chevy + 5.1884s 4. James Hinchcliffe Andretti DW12-Chevy + 5.9813s 5. Ryan Briscoe Penske DW12-Chevy + 6.5813s 6. Will Power Penske DW12-Chevy + 7.3542s 7. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti DW12-Chevy + 7.8433s 8. Scott Dixon Ganassi DW12-Honda + 9.2963s Starting order: 1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi DW12-Honda 2. Helio Castroneves Penske DW12-Chevy 3. Marco Andretti Andretti DW12-Chevy 4. James Hinchcliffe Andretti DW12-Chevy 5. Ryan Briscoe Penske DW12-Chevy 6. Will Power Penske DW12-Chevy 7. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti DW12-Chevy 8. Scott Dixon Ganassi DW12-Honda 9. Tony Kanaan KV DW12-Chevy* 10. Graham Rahal Ganassi DW12-Honda* 11. Alex Tagliani Herta DW12-Honda 12. Josef Newgarden Fisher DW12-Honda 13. Rubens Barrichello KV DW12-Chevy 14. JR Hildebrand Panther DW12-Chevy 15. Justin Wilson Coyne DW12-Honda 16. EJ Viso KV DW12-Chevy* 17. Charlie Kimball Ganassi DW12-Honda 18. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy 19. Katherine Legge Dragon DW12-Chevy 20. Mike Conway Foyt DW12-Honda 21. James Jakes Coyne DW12-Honda 22. Ed Carpenter Carpenter DW12-Chevy 23. Simona de Silvestro HVM DW12-Lotus 24. Takuma Sato Rahal DW12-Honda 25. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt DW12-Honda* * Will take 10-place engine change penalty before start
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments