Marco Andretti Storms To Fontana Pole

Marco Andretti has taken his first pole of the season at the IZOD IndyCar World Series finale at the Auto Club Speedway, as the 2012 season draws to a thrilling conclusion with the MAVTV 500. Andretti will start tomorrow’s race alongside the Penske of Ryan Briscoe, as their respective team-mates battle for Championship glory.

Marco Andretti was the third driver to take to the track during the qualifying session, after reigning Series Champion Dario Franchitti and team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay. The 25-year-old American driver remained fastest throughout the remainder of qualifying session, taking his first pole since Milwaukee in 2008. Ryan Briscoe, who ended the opening practice session of the weekend fastest, will line-up alongside Andretti for tomorrow’s race. This will be the Australian driver’s fifth from-row start of the season, after narrowly missing out on pole by +0.0032 seconds.

Championship leader Will Power qualified 3rd for the race, however the Australian driver will start further down the order after incurring a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change. Powers’ fellow Championship contender, Ryan Hunter-Reay, suffered his worst qualifying performance of the season and ended the session way down in 17th position. The American driver’s woes will continue, with the Andretti Autosport driver also set to incur a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Josef Newgarden has qualified a personal best 4th for the race, and will move up to 3rd on the grid once Will Power serves his grid penalty. Newgarden was the 16th driver to set a time during the session, and immediately went 4th fastest.

Only two drivers failed to set a time during the session, with Simona de Silvestro and Justin Wilson both unable to take to the track due to ongoing work on their respective cars. de Silvestro suffered an engine related issue during the first practice session prior to qualifying, and Wilson spun and made contact with the wall at turn 2 during the same session.

There will be one final practice session later this evening under the floodlights, before all the intention switches to tomorrow evening’s 250-lap finale. With passing relatively easy around the 2-mile oval, the race is still anybody’s to win and is poised to be a thrilling conclusion to what has been a highly entertaining 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Speed
 1.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     216.069
 2.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske Dallara-Chevy       216.058
 3.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       215.940
 4.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda       215.919
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      215.391
 6.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        215.226
 7.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           214.877
 8.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy      214.749
 9.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    214.684
10.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       214.409
11.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi Dallara-Honda      214.015
12.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     213.726
13.  Rubens Barrichello   KV Dallara-Chevy           213.527
14.  Katherine Legge      Dragon Dallara-Chevy       213.308
15.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda      213.282
16.  Takuma Sato          Rahal Dallara-Honda        213.222
17.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     212.773
18.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  212.533
19.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      211.999
20.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      211.531
21.  Sebastian Saavedra   AFS/Andretti Dallara-Chevy 210.619
22.  EJ Viso              KV Dallara-Chevy           210.134
23.  Wade Cunningham      Foyt Dallara-Honda         209.526
24.  James Jakes          Coyne Dallara-Honda        208.056
25.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM Dallara-Lotus
26.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda

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