Iowa IndyCar: Helio Castroneves leads qualifying before heats

On an afternoon where several drivers smashed the track's previous single-lap record, Castroneves went to the top with an average of 185.687mph.

Best of the rest were Marco Andretti (184.766mph) and Will Power (184.240mph).

Under this weekend's system, the top six from the single-lap session get an automatic pass to Saturday evening's third heat race, which in turn will determine pole for the full-length race on Sunday.

They also start that heat in qualifying order, and with Tony Kanaan, James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia rounding out the top six, Chevrolet has secured the first three rows of the third heat.

The remaining places in the 10-car final heat will be determined by the outcome of the first two heat races.

Heat one will be for cars that finished in even-numbered positions between eighth and 24th in single-lap qualifying, meaning that Scott Dixon will start that race from pole, while Ed Carpenter will take that honour in the second heat for cars in odd-numbered positions. The top two from each will advance to the final heat.

Unlike last year, this year's heat races will be worth championship points, starting with nine points for the pole winner.

"There's points on the line, and a good chunk of them, too," said Hinchcliffe. "[The heat race] is going to be tough, and it's going to be hot.

"[But] more than anything it's a test session for us to see what the cars are going to do tomorrow."

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Time      Gap       Heat pos
 1.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     17.3324s            H3: 1st
 2.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   17.4188s  +0.0864s  H3: 2nd
 3.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     17.4685s  +0.1361s  H3: 3rd
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         17.5186s  +0.1862s  H3: 4th
 5.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   17.5642s  +0.2318s  H3: 5th
 6.  Oriol Servia         Panther/Chevy    17.5849s  +0.2525s  H3: 6th
 7.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  17.6056s  +0.2732s  H2: 1st
 8.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    17.6345s  +0.3021s  H1: 1st
 9.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    17.6378s  +0.3054s  H2: 2nd
10.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda       17.6463s  +0.3139s  H1: 2nd
11.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    17.6573s  +0.3249s  H2: 3rd
12.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     17.6697s  +0.3373s  H1: 3rd
13.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      17.6781s  +0.3457s  H2: 4th
14.  Alex Tagliani        Herta/Honda      17.6871s  +0.3547s  H1: 4th
15.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy   17.7363s  +0.4039s  H2: 5th
16.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     17.7918s  +0.4594s  H1: 5th
17.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    17.8323s  +0.4999s  H2: 6th
18.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     17.8784s  +0.5460s  H1: 6th
19.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      17.9503s  +0.6179s  H2: 7th
20.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda    18.0224s  +0.6900s  H1: 7th
21.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda      18.0566s  +0.7242s  H2: 8th
22.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   18.0853s  +0.7529s  H1: 8th
23.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         18.4236s  +1.0912s  H2: 9th
24.  Ana Beatriz          Coyne/Honda                          H1: 9th