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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Carpenter Snags Shock Pole
Ed Carpenter and Panther Racing earn a surprise pole at Kentucky. Championship leader Will Power starts second.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted September 03, 2010  
Ed Carpenter clearly knows his was around the Kentucky oval, scoring his first IZOD IndyCar Series pole today. ((Vision Racing)
It's only fitting that the stepson of IRL founder Tony George will lead the field the the green flag tomorrow to start the 200th IndyCar race.

Ed Carpenter, always a threat on the ovals, scored his first IZOD IndyCar Series pole position today at Kentucky, out pacing championship leader Will Power with an average speed of 217.933 mph.

"I love this track and this area," he said. "I won one of my national midget races in Louisville and won a lot of sprint car races in Salem, Ind. The southern Indiana/Kentucky region seems to be good to me for some reason. The way I kind of look at it, I’m trying to keep my career going so every minute I’m in the car. I have to do the best that I can and get the most out of it. I’m just having a lot of fun right now; the Panther team is going a great job in addition with the Vision Racing part of it. It’s just a lot of fun."

Power came close to earning his second oval pole position of his career, clocking an average of 217.829 mph, but Carpenter moved his No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka Panther Racing Dallara-Honda to the point in the latter stages of time trials for the Kentucky Indy 300.

Rain added to a highly altered track surface for qualifying, with the majority of the drivers complaining about wind gusts and not having enough grip.

While most drivers made it through the loose qualifying conditions unscathed, Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay clouted the wall, and his teammate, 2004 series champion Tony Kanaan, came close to matching the impact, but just managed to keep his 7-Eleven car off of the barriers.

Dan Wheldon, second-place finisher at Chicago last weekend, will start directly behind his teammate, Carpenter, adding to his late season momentum.

"It was obviously a great job by everybody at the National Guard Panther Racing team and we’ve been enjoying the good run we’ve had the last few races," he said. "It’s such a great benefit to have Ed Carpenter with us this weekend in the Fuzzy’s Vodka car. Ed’s been a great addition and he’s really helped the team, as you can see by our performance.

"It’s going to be a hectic race again and I’m excited for that. Hopefully we can go one position better than we did last race in the No. 4 car but that’s not to underestimate the competition; it’s extremely competitive out there and I’m just having a lot of fun right now.”

In a reversal of qualifying fortunes at Chicago, Target Chip Ganassi's Scott Dixon posted the fourth fastest speed, while his teammate Dario Franchitti was relegated to 11th. At Chicago, it was Franchitti starting second and Dixon 15th.

Back to one car this weekend, Newman Haas impressed with Hideki Mutoh, while the real shocker in qualifying, Conquest Racing's Bertrand Baguette, took an amazing sixth-place starting position with an average speed of 216.988 mph.

"I must admit I was a bit surprised with our speed," said Baguette. "It’s faster than I thought it would be because we didn’t do any qualifying runs in practice. I made a small mistake on my second lap that cost us some speed so I didn’t think at the end of my qualifying laps that we would end up P6 on the grid."

Conquest's strong form continued with Tomas Scheckter, back for his second race with the talented but underfunded team, claiming 10th.

Mario Moraes led the KV Racing trio, placing seventh, while Takuma Sato took 14th and E.J. Viso earned the 22nd-best speed.

Behind Moraes, the two remaining Team Penske entries of Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe took eighth and ninth, with the aforementioned Scheckter closing out the top-10.

With Hunter-Reay's accident and Kanaan's poor qualifying run, the fortunes for the other two Andretti Autosport drivers weren't much better. Marco Andretti led the four-car squadron with a run to 15th, while Danica Patrick slotted in two spots behind in 17th.

Hunter-Reay, who was unhurt in the accident, described what took place leading up to his crash.

"We took a pretty aggressive approach to qualifying. The track gripped up and definitely got looser. That, combined with the changes we made - the car was just too loose. It gave me a little warning sign down in turns three and four, and then coming into (turn) one it did a big wiggle and that was it."

Patrick did her best to remain positive despite having so many positions to make up in the race.

"I know as a whole team we thought our cars were better than how we qualified today. I was having a solid run on the first lap until turns three and four where I had a major washout. I'm not sure if the strong wind played a part in it or what. During tomorrow night's race I'm going to have to be patient and work the GoDaddy car through the field to get the result we want."

Of the other frustrated drivers after qualifying, Paul Tracy will start 23rd, sandwiched between the crash prone Venezuelan tag team of Viso and Milka Duno.

Graham Rahal, bristling after qualifying 25th, commented that his No. 66 Sarah Fisher Racing entry was lacking 7 mph in top speed compared to his teammate, Fisher, who piloted the No. 67 Dollar General car to 21st in qualifying.

Rahal, who is filling the seat normally occupied by Jay Howard, likely vindicated the English rookie who has never qualified better than 21st in the No. 66.

Qualifying Friday for the Kentucky Indy 300 IZOD IndyCar Series event on the 1.48-mile Kentucky Speedway, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, and speed.

1. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 217.933
2. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Honda, 217.829
3. (4) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 217.700
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 217.533
5. (06) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 217.374
6. (34) Bertrand Baguette, Dallara-Honda, 216.988
7. (32) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 216.879
8. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 216.857
9. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 216.600
10. (36) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda, 216.589
11. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 216.533
12. (14) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda, 216.434
13. (77) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 216.391
14. (5) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 216.265
15. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 216.173
16. (22) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 215.944
17. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 215.820
18. (19) Alex Lloyd, Dallara-Honda, 215.272
19. (78) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Honda, 215.003
20. (2) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 214.948
21. (67) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda, 214.813
22. (8) EJ Viso, Dallara-Honda, 214.595
23. (24) Paul Tracy, Dallara-Honda, 214.270
24. (18) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 213.343
25. (66) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 212.364
26. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 210.831
27. (37) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, No speed


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