Honda Indy 200 Notebook | Pagenaud on pole, Dixon drops
LEXINGTON - For the second time this season, Simon Pagenaud stamped his name into the IndyCar record books.
His fastest lap in Saturday's final qualifying round clocked in at 1:03.8700, breaking Scott Dixon's time for best qualifying lap at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course at 1:04.5814.
And it turns out he did it all on a bad back.
Pagenaud said in a Saturday's press conference that he hurt it during Friday's practice runs. He said the pain was so severe when he woke up Saturday that he wasn't sure he'd be able to compete in the qualifiers.
"We don't know yet what it is exactly," Pagenaud said. "I was in Turn 1, the third lap in on Friday, and then all of a sudden it was like somebody jammed a knife in my back. I've been struggling to drive, honestly."
But his ability to perform through the pain gave him his sixth pole of the season. Pagenaud enters Sunday's Honda Indy 200 with a 47-point lead over the rest of the field.
Graham Rahal returns to Mid-Ohio hungry for another win
Here are the full results of Saturday's qualifying rounds for the Honda Indy 200.
1. Simon Pagenaud, 1:03.8700, 127.271 mph; 2. Will Power, 1:03.9381, 127.135 mph; 3. Josef Newgarden, 1:04.1200, 126.775 mph; 4. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 1:04.3265, 126.368 mph; 5. Charlie Kimball, 1:04.3644, 126.293 mph; 6. Graham Rahal, 1:04.4697, 126.087 mph; 7. Helio Castroneves, 1:04.4300, 126.165 mph; 8. Juan Pablo Montoya, 1:04.5141, 126.000 mph; 9. James Hinchcliffe, 1:04.5796, 125.873 mph; 10. Mikhail Aleshin, 1:04.6084, 125.816 mph; 11. Scott Dixon, 1:04.6554, 125.725 mph; 12. Alexander Rossi, 104.8082, 125.429 mph; 13. Max Chilton, 1:04.7752, 125.492 mph; 14. Tony Kanaan, 1:04.5885, 125.855 mph; 15. Carlos Munoz, 1:04.8621, 125.324 mph; 16. Sebastien Bourdais, 1:04.5967, 125.839 mph; 17. Jack Hawksworth, 1:05.0196, 125.021 mph; 18. RC Enerson, 1:04.6576, 125.721 mph; 19. Spencer Pigot, 1:05.1891, 124.696 mph; 20. Takuma Sato, 1:04.8354, 125.376 mph; 21. Marco Andretti, 1:05.1997, 124.675 mph; 22. Conor Daly, 1:05.1098, 124.848 mph.
Dixon drops
No driver enters the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on Sunday with a better record than Scott Dixon. But the five-time Honda Indy 200 winner ended up on the outside looking in during Saturday's qualifying sessions as he was knocked out in the second round.
"We waved off our last run and we thought we were going to be safe where we were in the Target car," Dixon said after he was eliminated. "Obviously, there at the end I said the track was getting faster on the radio and they didn't hear me, so it was just a bit of miscommunication, unfortunately. The times just picked up from there when it continued to dry out and that was it. The car has been fast all weekend, so it's disappointing not to get through, but we have a fast race car for tomorrow, that's for sure."
Charlie Kimball, the only driver from Chip Ganassi Racing to make it into the Firestone Fast Six, said he was surprised to see his teammate fall all the way to 11th place in qualifying.
"I was shocked," Kimball said. "… Around here, it's abnormal, which makes me really nervous for tomorrow because when Scott drives angry, he drives really fast."
Will Power, who had the second best time of the day, said he thinks the light rain that sprinkled onto the track midway through qualifying had an effect.
"He's always so fast here, you would expect him to be vying for the pole," Power said. "But yeah, it was a tough session because it was sprinkling, you could almost go, well, I'm going to pit because it's not going to go any faster. But yeah, you've got to stay out there."
Getting into the Christmas Spirit
Graham Rahal and Conor Daly toured the RV and family campgrounds surrounding the racetrack on Saturday afternoon to pick the winners of the "Christmas in July" campground decorating contest.
The two drivers visited each of the six sites for a meet-and-greet and autograph session, and were all given free T-shirts. The two groups that won ("The Island of Misfits Toys" based out of Ontario, Canada, and "The Party Pole" from Dover, North Canton and Indianapolis) won rides in the Honda Pace Car on Sunday morning, while the runners-up were all given free Honda-branded camping supplies.
"The whole objective of this entire thing is to get people excited, get people involved in the camping and really build up all the parts of this race weekend. Even a lot of the sites we didn't go to, there were plenty of people who did the 'Christmas in July' and who knows what we'll come up with next year? It was a lot of fun."
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