IRL Nashville: Wheldon takes second pole of season
GLADEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Dan Wheldon made sure he will start in front of Marlboro Team Penske rivals Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves. Wheldon turned a lap of 203.293 mph at Nashville Superspeedway and won the pole for Saturday night’s Firestone Indy 200, making him the first IndyCar Series driver with consecutive poles this season.
Hornish, who passed Wheldon on the white flag lap and won at Kansas two weeks ago, just missed on his fourth pole this season. The series points leader instead will start beside Wheldon on the front row.
“Everyone at Team Chip Ganassi Racing is very motivated to try and beat these orange and white cars,” Wheldon said.
“They’ve been very competitive the past couple of races. The series now I think is so close that if you sit back, you’re going to be fourth or fifth right now. We just came here with some improvements that we thought would be good from Kansas and just seem to have rolled off the truck faster.”
Wheldon, the defending series champion, currently ranks fourth in the points race and is only 43 points behind Hornish. Wheldon led 45 laps at Kansas before being passed and finishing second.
“There’s no points for the pole, but I think … going into this race I’m more confident in the race car than I was in Kansas. It’s that same guy next to me and starting to be a bit of a trend. He beat me at Kansas, and we need to put that right,” Wheldon said.
Scott Dixon will start third despite blowing the gearbox in practice, then having something stick during his warmup as the last driver in qualifying. His team made the repair, and he took full advantage of his one lap, going 202.194 mph to push Castroneves down a spot to fourth.
“The shift-pod was in the wrong position. It was stuck on neutral,” Dixon said. “We ended up doing about 140 mph. Luckily, the guys got it sorted, and we got to go out and do one lap for qualifying. Third’s better than last.”
Dario Franchitti, the defending champion who lives in Tennessee and considers this his home track, will start fifth alongside Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan. Danica Patrick was the second driver out in qualifying and will start 10th, matching her highest start this season.
Wheldon won a series record six races with Andretti Green Racing in 2005. He has only one victory since joining Ganassi among five top-five finishes, including coming in second at Motegi in Japan and at Kansas.
Hornish and teammate Castroneves, who will start fourth, each have three victories this season. But Wheldon said Hornish is not a driver who makes mistakes that will cost him position, leaving winning as his only option if he wants to repeat as the IndyCar Series champ.
“I’d love to be a consecutive champion, and the only way I can do that is by winning a lot of races out of these next six. I’ve just got to take every chance that I can get and make sure we capitalize,” Wheldon said.
He turned the fastest lap in the second practice session, going 202.497 mph on the only concrete track the series visits. The third driver on the 1.33-mile oval, he squeezed a little more speed out of his Dallara and was the only driver to top 203 mph.
This is the last of three night races on the IndyCar Series’ schedule. Castroneves won June 10 at Texas, while Hornish took Richmond on June 24.
Hornish, who took the points lead with his last victory, said he wasn’t sure if the team took enough downforce off the car for qualifying with a lap of 202.362 mph. But for someone who has yet to win on this track after finishing second each of the past two years, he’s just happy to be up front.
“We’re here to win the race. That’s the main thing for us,” Hornish said.
“It’s always a little bit tough to pass here. The main thing is making sure you have a good handling car and good pit stops, and Team Penske has done that for me the past two races.”