Barber: Munoz wins Indy Lights pole

Carlos Munoz

Carlos Munoz was quickest in both practice sessions for the Legacy Indy Lights 100 on Friday. On Saturday he backed that up with pole position in the No. 26 Dialy-Ser car for Andretti Autosport.

Jack Hawksworth will start second in the No. 77 followed by Sage Karam in the No. 8 and Gabby Chavez in the No. 7.

Zach Veach in the No. 12 Andretti Autosport car rounded out the top-5.

The top-6 drivers were within 1-second of each other.

INDY LIGHTS QUOTES:

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 Dialy-Ser-Andretti Autosport): "It's been tough. It's not easy because the guys out there have been really quick. I felt comfortable since the beginning, yesterday I was first two times in practice 1 and practice 2, now in qualifying, I have to maintain that in the race. I think we have a better car for the race than for qualifying, so that's good. My team gave me a great car and I'm really happy for the second consecutive pole position." (About racing at Barber): "It's quite difficult to pass here. I think the main point of the race is that it's a long race, so the tires – last year they went away really quick so it's going to be a problem for all of us. I will have to handle the tires really well. But I think we have a really good car and hope to continue to victory tomorrow.

JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson c/w Curb-Agajanian): ""So this is Barber, this is one of the two road courses that we go to in Indy Lights, it's a really, really cool track and a slot of elevation changes, a lot of smooth. We start on the start/finish straight down on Turn 1, then it slightly goes down as you turn into the first left corner, then the left hander slightly off camber and slightly downhill so its slightly off camber. Then you get a little bit of more throttle until you get into Turn 2, which is just a short chute and build up as much speed as you can to get into the corner to get yourself as far around as possible. Then on the exit you have to be really patient on the throttle because otherwise the thing is just going to want to steer so you have to be patient on the throttle. Once you get to throttle you get to throttle clean and off the corner it really seems like a never ending corner. Get a good run into the next straight and then you have a little kink in the straight then you come into the only real hard braking corner on the circuit which is Turn 5, a hairpin, a good stop of the car. Then go through Turn 6,7,8 complex and into 9 which is a real fast chicane, which is a quick, quick fast right which leads you to another chicane and then another tight right. Then down the long straight, which is flat out in qualifying but can cause a few issues in the race, as the tires get worn out it can be a little bit slippery through there. Down into the final complex, which is a left right, which has a massive dip and is kind of like being on a roller coaster really, a really tight corner where you downshift in the middle and then back on the throttle down over the hill down the fast right which is just about flat. Then heavy braking for the final right hander, which then leads you onto a left."

ZACH VEACH (No. 12 K-12/Andretti Autosport): "We got caught on a little bit of bad luck today. We were sitting around P4 and P5 for most of the morning. On our first tire run, we wanted to be a little more conservative with that set to take into Long Beach. Our second run was supposed to be our big run of the day, but we got out there and the red flag came out. We didn't really get to put in the laps for that we wanted for that run, but I think that we are still in good shape. It's not where we would like to be, but we are one spot up from where we were last race. Hopefully we can keep this going into long Beach and Indy. I want to thank the guys for working so hard and K 12, because this weekend has gone really well so far."

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