Dixon wins pole for IndyCar Grand Prix at The Glen

Scott Dixon continues to top the time charts at The Glen

With a new track record of 1:22.5259, Scott Dixon edged Will Power by 0.05 seconds for pole position in tomorrow's IndyCar Grand Prix at The Glen. It was the 25th career IndyCar pole position for the driver of the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

Sebastien Bourdais will start third with Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan rounding out the top-five. Rookie Max Chilton will start a career best sixth tomorrow.

Championship leader Simon Pagenaud failed to make the Firestone Fast Six for the first time in 2016 and will start seventh. Juan Pablo Montoya completed a Chevrolet sweep of the top-8, with Jack Hawksworth as the lead Honda in 9th.

James Hinchcliffe was livid after he was penalized for interfering with the lap of Will Power and lost his fast lap.

"There's no question we should have been in there. IndyCar can't read their own rulebook," Hinchcliffe told TV.

"They haven't penalized us improperly in like a week so we were probably overdo for it. At a track where it's going to be tough to pass, it's really disappointing. We put a lot of work into the aero car, made it a lot better than yesterday and we had P4 in that session.

"We lost our fast time on an incorrectly enforced rule."

"I didn't stop moving forward, but the yellow came out anyway, so that is their mistake.

"Even if a yellow flag does come out, all cars in that sector must slow down at least 15% from their best sector time. Will (Power) clearly power didn't do that because they didn't think it was a yellow because it wasn't a big deal. So he should have been penalized if I was penalized."

Dale Coyne Racing’s rookie RC Enerson continued to impress on Saturday, with the young American qualifying 11th for what will only be his second Verizon IndyCar Series start.

The 19-year-old even surprised himself by making it to the second round of qualifying thanks to a fast lap of 1:23.9250 in Round 1. The driver of the Boy Scouts of America car was sitting right outside of the Top Six until his final lap of the 10-minute first round session.

Enerson went on to register a fastest lap of 1:23.9907 in Round 2 of qualifying which would initially place him sixth. After spending most of the second round in eighth place, he ended up 11th on the starting grid.

Teammate Conor Daly wasn’t as fortunate during the first round, getting a drive-through penalty for a violation of the pit exit blend line that cost him track time and a possible chance at making it to the second round.

Daly’s fastest time of 1:24.2606 initially placed him sixth, but being the first driver to take the checkered flag, he would soon find himself ninth in his group and 17th on the starting grid once everyone completed their final lap.

The Dale Coyne Racing drivers will have a 30-minute warm up session to fine tune their Honda-powered machines at 10:30am Sunday morning.

The penultimate race of the season will be televised live on NBCSN starting at 2pm ET with the IndyCar Grand Prix at The Glen going green at 2:37pm ET on Sunday, September 4, 2016.

QUOTES

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA (No. 2 PPG Automotive Refinish Team Penske Chevrolet): "We missed by a little bit, but the PPG Automotive Refinish Chevy has been good all weekend so far. All of the cars are so close and the margin for error is really small. The conditions for the race should be great tomorrow and we're looking forward to it."

HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet): "Good car, good team. Obviously everyone in our team shares a lot of information, we're able to collect and able to put it together. It was great with this situation about the red tires and the black tires. It's always interesting, and, well, at the least we're able to do good lap times on the reds, and sounds like the blacks were the way to go. Just got to take a chance, and our group decided to go with the reds, and that's the best we could do."

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "It was an incredibly frustrating day at the office. Honestly, the spin is irrelevant. We're not advancing because of the decisions INDYCAR made. It's just really disappointing. We put a lot of work into the Arrow Electronics car and made it a lot better from yesterday and we had P4 in that session. The guys did such a good job and we're going to be starting way further back than we deserve to be for really no reason. The next step is to make a wicked fast race car and pass them all."

MIKHAIL ALESHIN (No. 7 SMP Racing Schmidt Peterson Honda): "I think that I did all that I could. I thought that I just needed to let the other drivers go so that I could have a clear lap. I knew that Montoya was behind me so I moved to the right. You can see it on the replay. They're far away and I'm moving to the right. INDYCAR gave me the penalty when I had two identical laps and I was in the top six. They didn't take only one lap, they took away two fastest laps, even though I moved to the right. I think it's not very fair. I have no words. I'm just sorry for my fans because I did all I could and the team did a fantastic job to bring the SMP Racing No. 7 car up there but here we go. We're going to forget about today and fight for tomorrow."

MAX CHILTON (No. 8 Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "I'm over the moon for Gallagher Chip Ganassi Racing with a Firestone Fast 6 start. I qualified a bit better in Iowa, but this is my first appearance in the Firestone Fast 6. I'd say I had to put a lot more effort into this qualifying effort than I did Iowa though with how physical of a circuit this is. It's literally pushing as hard as you can from green flag to checkered flag. I'm just really proud of the team and happy with our result."

SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet): "I was surprised the red tires weren't faster. I don't know what the average speed is around here, but it's really fast. We tested here before but had some rain and were limited to just a few hours. We kind of evolved the car through other tracks we've run at and did the best we could with baseline setups from tracks like Road America and Mid-Ohio. It's good to see a few of my teammates up there in the top six and hope we can take the fight here to everyone tomorrow at The Glen."

TONY KANAAN (No. 10 NTT Data Chevrolet): "Great effort by the team today – three cars in the Firestone Fast Six isn't bad at all. With how competitive the series is this year, getting up front in qualifying definitely isn't an easy task. We split the strategy a little bit in the last round. We went out on scuffed reds and the other two Ganassi cars went on blacks. It didn't pay off quite as well as we would've liked, but we're happy with the No. 10 NTT DATA being up front in the top five."

SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS (No. 11 Team Hydroxycut-KVSH Racing Chevrolet): "It was a pretty exciting session for the Hydroxycut – KVSH Racing Team. It started off about as bad as it could. It was the bad red surprise, which is becoming annoyingly familiar for us unfortunately. It is always the same process. You set your car up with what you're given, which is the black (primary) Firestone tires and they're great. We can always make them work. Then for qualifying you get the "candy surprise" (the red alternate tires). We can't extract any performance out of them. We just get movement, understeer, it disconnects the car…it's a mess. So, I don't know what is going to happen tomorrow in the race, to be honest, but for sure the Hydroxycut/Chevy machine is quick on black tires. It's too bad we didn't put the car on pole, but my bad. I made a mistake and then ran out of gas because we did an extra lap which was not accounted for. So it is what it is. Nevertheless, when you are close to Scott (Dixon) and Will (Power) at these kind of tracks you know you've done a good job. It's our best qualifying position of the season, so we'll take it."

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "It's very important to start up front, definitely, considering the championship situation. I felt pretty comfortable around here. Really enjoy the track. Obviously I was really grateful to get in the Firestone Fast Six there and have a shot at it. You know, unfortunately on my final lap, starting it, my engine just died in the last corner there. Definitely cost us some time, but starting on the front row is definitely better than where we were."

TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): "It was a disappointing session for us. After today's practice we made some changes and the car was pretty good but on edge. We had a little issue with the HANS device which wasn't in place correctly so I had to pit and that made us a little bit hassled. But then on my hot lap, I just simply lost it in Turn 7. I feel bad for the boys because they made a good car. Hopefully we have a good performance tomorrow."

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda): "I'm very disappointed with the ruling. We obviously have a fast race car but we're going to have to put our heads down and try to come from behind. There is a lot of work to be done. We will give it all we can to try to come up with good strategy to help us make our way to the front."

CONOR DALY (No. 18 Jonathan Byrd's Hospitality Honda): "The car was good. That's the nice thing. The Jonathan Byrd's Hospitality car was really fast and it felt good on the Firestone reds. I haven't seen the pit lane exit violation. I was just following (Ryan) Hunter-Reay out in front of me. I don't feel like I crossed any lines so to have something like that destroy a qualifying session, again is pretty disappointing. It's a shame because even though we got one final lap the car was coming to us quite well. At least we have a fast car, it's just upsetting to be starting near the back."

RC ENERSON (No. 19 Boy Scouts of America Honda): "That's crazy to make it to the second round in only my second Verizon IndyCar Series qualifying. I didn't expect it with the way the weekend was going. We were running towards the back a bit, trying to figure things out but these guys hit it with the car right on. We still have a little bit of work to do on what we want to do for race set up but starting 11th, I'm OK with that! We can't really do much better than that right now. We got into the second group and anything else was a bonus!"

SPENCER PIGOT (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka Chevrolet): "The day started off really well. I thought third practice was the best session we've had. We were really close to the front and the car was feeling really good. This afternoon in qualifying, we put the reds (alternate Firestone tires) on and it was a little trickier. I made a pretty big mistake on my clean lap at the end of the session and never got a chance to put one together. It's unfortunate, the guys gave me a great car. I know we're fast, but a mistake prevented us from showing that in qualifying."

JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 21 Fuzzy's Ultra Premium Vodka/ECR Chevrolet): "We have the best in the business here – great cars and great mechanics. I'm really grateful for the work of the Fuzzy's Vodka guys for getting us back out after this morning. In qualifying, we just struggled. Everyone's kind of scratching their heads a little bit, it might be a temperature thing but the black tires seem to be more favorable now. It was tough in the first run, we made it by the skin of our teeth which was good. We were hoping we could have made the Firestone Fast Six but it just didn't happen."

SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 22 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevrolet): "The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Chevy has consistently picked up speed and we're really happy with it. We missed the Firestone Fast Six by just a little, but that's how competitive the Verizon IndyCar Series is. If everything is not practically perfect, then someone else will be a little faster. I like our prospects for the race tomorrow, though. We're in good shape."

CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 hhgregg Honda): "I feel like we're getting worse and worse. We changed some stuff but we just didn't get it right. The reds didn't affect us, maybe for the lap time but it was really hard to go through the group. Tomorrow we have to be a little aggressive on the strategy and hope that it works."

MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 27 United Fiber & Data/Snapple Honda): "We didn't get to really show what we had – even though I think wrung-out we're not very good. I think honestly the only one I could have beaten was my teammate (Carlos Munoz). I was on a lap to beat him but then it went yellow. So we could have been 16th instead of 18th… but big deal."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 DHL Honda): "We just haven't been able to find the grip. It's been very inconsistent. You really have to lean on the car. It's not really giving us what we want. None of the (Andretti Autosport) cars have been very happy this weekend. I had high hopes coming in here. We had a pretty decent test and then we came off qualifying fourth at Mid-Ohio – top Honda – you'd think we'd come in here, to another road course and be able to transfer that. I really want to get a good result here for DHL over the weekend. We still have a shot, but we've been struggling with the car. Again tonight, we're going to make some big changes to it and we'll see how it goes. It's great to be here at Watkins Glen and seeing all fans turn out. This facility is amazing and this is my 200th start so we hope to have a good weekend. Hopefully we get this ship turned around and find that paddle."

JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 41 ABC Supply AJ Foyt Racing Honda): "It was an interesting qualifying session, there was a lot of drama obviously in the first one. We did the one lap on reds (alternate Firestone tires) and then we were on our second lap when the red (flag) came out. We crossed the line and we thought we were through (to the next round) and then we were out. Earlier in the session, when I was on a flyer on my first set of reds, Graham (Rahal) stopped in the middle of Turn 10 so he drew a penalty as he should. We obviously then transferred. It was pretty decent but again maybe we were just on the wrong place on the track. (Will) Power just kept backing up a little bit, and perhaps we could have gone a couple of tenths quicker and got P7. Overall a pretty decent day. The car was good and we've been pretty competitive all weekend so we'll see what we can do tomorrow."

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet): "I'm really disappointed with how our qualifying ended today. The No. 83 Tresiba Chevrolet was really fast, but that red flag on our fast lap really messed up our chances to move on. That lap was shaping up to be a pretty good one and I'm just upset we weren't able to finish it. I feel really bad for the 83 guys – they gave me such a good car this weekend and we didn't get a chance to show what it could do. The silver lining is that we'll have an extra set of tires that some of the faster guys won't have, but we'll definitely have our work cut out for us. I'm confident that the car will be fast again tomorrow and we can move through the field quickly."

ALEXANDER ROSSI (No. 98 Castrol Edge/Curb Honda): "We made big improvements overnight and had a top-five car this morning. The first run on blacks (primary tire) felt about as I expected it, but on the reds (alternate tire) we completely lost the balance. It's very surprising, very disappointing and a huge mystery at the moment."

RESULTS