Friday, June 14, 2013

Marco Andretti Wins Milwaukee IndyFest Pole

Friday afternoon saw only one name on top of the time sheet at the end of each IndyCar session: Marco Andretti.

Andretti won his third career pole and second at Milwaukee with an average speed of 170.515 MPH. Andretti Autosport put all four cars in the top five with Will Power spoiling the party late and breaking up what would have been a 1-2-3-4 sweep for Andretti Autosport. James Hinchcliffe tied his best career starting position in second just ahead of Power in third with Ryan Hunter-Reay and EJ Viso rounding out the top five.

Sebastián Saavedra will start a career best sixth ahead of Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan in seventh. Chevrolet swept the top seven positions but Honda took the next six positions on the grid. Josef Newgarden was the fastest Honda in eighth ahead of the Schmidt Peterson Hamilton cars of Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier. Scott Dixon was just outside the top ten with the Brits James Jakes and Justin Wilson behind him. Sébastien Bourdais starts fourteenth in his first trip to the Milwaukee Mile since he won there in 2006. Takuma Sato starts fifteenth with Alex Tagliani joining him on row eight. Last year's Milwaukee pole sitter Dario Franchitti rolls off from the seventeenth position with points leader Helio Castroneves starting on the outside of row nine.

Two drivers returning to IndyCar this weekend make up row ten. Ryan Briscoe and Ana Beatriz start nineteenth and twentieth respectively. Ed Carpenter and Charlie Kimball make up row eleven with Graham Rahal and Simona de Silvestro rounding out the field.

Coverage of tomorrow's Milwaukee IndyFest begins at 4:00 p.m. ET on NBCSN with green flag scheduled around 4:40 p.m. ET.