Ryan Hunter-Reay (pictured) got the bonus point for winning the pole and the $10,000 check, but the IZOD IndyCar Series championship points leader won't start the Edmonton Indy from the front row.
Hunter-Reay, who slipped into the Firestone Fast Six by .0285 of a second ahead of Will Power, picked up his first pole of the season and second of his Indy car career with a best lap of 1 minute, 17.2338 seconds (103.664 mph) in the shootout on the 2.224-mile, 13-turn City Centre Airport circuit.
He'll incur a 10-grid spot penalty, however, the result of an unapproved change of the Chevrolet engine following his victory on the streets of Toronto two weeks ago.
"It was great we picked up a championship point for the pole, but too bad we will be starting 11th instead of first because of the engine change," said Hunter-Reay, who takes a 35-point lead over Power into the 75-lap race (2 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and TSN2). "Tomorrow will be really interesting for everyone.”
He will move up at least two spots when the official starting grid is published following the morning warm-up. The No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car of Scott Dixon, which qualified eighth, will receive a 10-grid spot penalty for using the sixth Honda engine of the season (under the engine manufacturers' agreement five fresh engines is the limit). Additionally, the Chevrolet engine in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car was swapped out following qualifications, which will set Power back 10 spots. He qualified seventh.
Dario Franchitti, who started from the pole in each of Hunter-Reay's victories the past three races, will share Row 1 with Ryan Briscoe. Franchitti, driving the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, was .0108 of a second off the pace in attempting to earn his 30th Indy car pole.
"I think we got within a hundredth or something, but didn’t quite manage to put the lap together so it’s good that we start in the front row," said Franchitti, who's finished third the past two years at Edmonton. "It’d be nice to have a decent race because we’ve had some good qualifying performances but we’ve had incidents and all kinds of crazy stuff happening, so it’d be nice to have a day free of incidents and try to have a good result."
Takuma Sato, the 2011 pole winner, and Alex Tagliani will be on Row 2, while Helio Castroneves and Power will occupy Row 3. It was Sato's best qualifying effort of the season.
The last time a grid-spot penalty was enforced because of an engine change, Briscoe earned the pole at Long Beach and finished seventh in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske car.
Hunter-Reay had qualified second, seventh and sixth in his three-race winning streak on a diverse set of racetracks (the flat Milwaukee Mile, the .875-mile Iowa Speedway oval and the tight Exhibition Place course).
“I am really happy with that pole (and) we even saved a set of Firestone reds for (the race)," said Hunter-Reay, driving the No. 28 Team DHL/Dr Pepper car for Andretti Autosport (which had the pole winners in all three Indy car events this weekend).
Power blistered the track record in the first round of qualifications. But the 2011 and '09 race winner was bumped in the second round as rain pelted the eastern edge (Turns 1-4), which prompted crews to switch to the Firestone Firehawk intermediate rain tire. On the final lap of the 10-minute session, Power missed the cut by .0285 of a second to Hunter-Reay.
“Tough finish for the Verizon car. I thought we had a fast car but we didn’t play the weather correctly," Power said. "It sprinkled enough to use the wets but then created a dry line pretty quick. I should have known better there as the fastest laps were coming at the end. Tomorrow will be a great challenge and we need to have a good result.”
Power laid down a lap of 1:15.9508 (105.416 mph) in Round 1 -- 2.6 seconds quicker than the 2011 pole time set by Sato.
The course dried enough for the Firestone Fast Six participants to put the Firestone alternate tires back on.
"The track was constantly changing throughout the sessions," Hunter-Reay said. "Putting on a clear visor helped so I could see the wet spots. It was really hard to come to the decision to run on the used reds in the final round, but it was the right thing to do. We hadn’t been on a wet track all weekend so it was kind of a guess on what line to use and going over the bumps when it is wet it is very tricky."
