Qualifying: Taylor's fourth pole

The pole was Taylor's fourth of the season, tying a record set last season by AJ Foyt IV. Taylor also started from the pole at Phoenix, Nashville and Kentucky. Taylor, the series points leader, earned the pole with a fast lap 188.472mph in the Panther Racing entry.

"It was really good," said Taylor, who has won six of the 10 Infiniti Pro Series races this season. "This morning the wind and the heat really changed the track. It put a lot of push into the car. We were a little bit worried about it, so we were a bit conservative for qualifying. I bet we could've gone a little bit quicker. It's one of those things. At this point in the year, you don't want to end up making a mistake and end up in the back of the field."

Carpenter posted a fast lap of 188.459mph in his A.J. Foyt Racing car.

"Mark has had a pretty dominant year, a year everyone dreams about," Carpenter said. "Mark and I have been duking it out by the thousandths. He's got four poles, and I've got three. He's obviously got a lot more wins than me. I've tried to beat him quite a few times and just came up very short. Hopefully, I'll get a couple of the breaks these last two races and steal some of his steam."

Aaron Fike qualified third at 188.013mph.

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Qualifying: Taylor's fourth pole

Mark Taylor posted his record-tying fourth pole position of the season to earn the top starting spot for Saturday's California 100, an IRL Infiniti Pro Series race at California Speedway