----Qualifying for the Iowa Corn Indy 250 was filled with big surprises as Takuma Sato scored his first pole, the first IZOD IndyCar Series pole for KV Racing-Lotus and the first pole for a Japanese driver in IndyCar Series competition. After running the second-fastest lap in practice this morning, Sato's two-lap average of 180.375 mph was good enough for pole and left the ex-F1 driver on an emotional high after losing his father last week.
“I want to say a big thank you to the whole team, the fans, the sponsors and everyone who has supported me,” he said. “It is a fantastic achievement. I knew we were going to be competitive because of last year and this morning I was truly comfortable in the car. I could feel where we needed to be with the setup for qualifying. Working so closely today with the three KVRT – Lotus drivers, working so closely with my engineers, we had a great answer. The mechanics also did a great job preparing the car. I am very pleased with today’s result.”
Danica Patrick once again led her four-car Andretti Autosport team, qualifying second for Saturday's race. Patrick's average speed of 180.210 earned the Go Daddy driver her first front row starting position since the Nashville oval in 2008, but she wasn't happy to miss out on the top spot by such a small margin. "I'm trying to think what I could have done to be on pole, to be honest," she said.
Sato's KV Racing-Lotus teammate Tony Kanaan qualified third in his GEICO-sponsored machine, continuing the form that nearly earned him the win last weekend in Milwaukee. Another surprise came in fourth position as rookie JR Hildebrand earned his best starting spot to date, posting an average speed of 179.569 in the National Guard-sponsored car.
“We got the ole girl a little loose there in practice, so we made a bunch of changes during the break and obviously rolled out there in qualifying and felt pretty good," said the Indy 500 runner-up. "We’re excited about what we had in qualifying there and even more excited about what we can have in the race."
A small sense of normalcy was maintained when Will Power placed his Verizon Wireless Team Penske car fifth on the grid, the best of the five combined cars from the dominant Penske and Ganassi teams. Like Patrick, Power wanted more from Friday's qualifying session at Iowa. "We have to have [a better day tomorrow]," he said emphatically. "We have to find a few things. We'll see what we can do tonight."
Penske's Ryan Briscoe qualified in 10th and Helio Castroneves, who also struggled in qualifying last weekend, was the slowest of the three teammates in 13th. "We just pushed as much as we could," he said with a touch of frustration. "We hope it’s better for the race."
Dario Franchitti qualified sixth, his worst oval starting spot since Kentucky last year. "I wasn't happy with the run," said the defending series champion. "The balance wasn't good and we struggled with both ends of the Suave car. I don't think it was as bad as Scott [Dixon's car] but I think both our cars just missed it today in qualifying. We'll be better."
If Franchitti was disappointed in sixth, his teammate had a particularly miserable qualifying run, ending up 23rd while reaching back a decade to match his worst starting position. "The Target car was just really loose and it was a pretty bad attempt," said Dixon. "I almost spun on the out lap and the first timed lap. We are just way too loose and it was not what we're looking for."
Starting P23 ties the Kiwi's worst starting spot on an oval, but as his Ganassi team noted, the last time Dixon started 23rd--10 years ago at Nazareth--he went on to win his first Indy car race.
Toronto's James Hinchcliffe secured his best starting position of the season--which was the theme for the day for many drivers--and was surprised to qualify seventh after encountering mechanical problems in practice that limited his running to just 20 laps before qualifying. "To go straight into qualifying without having done a flat out lap yet in practice was a little challenging but Newman/Haas gave me a great car," said the rookie driver who finished sixth at Milwaukee. "I was surprised by our performance to be honest; it was pretty much on edge but we put up a decent time."
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway will start eighth and ninth for Andretti Autosport, placing three cars in the top 9. "Last year, we qualified 12th and we were up to the top five within the first 10 or 15 laps, so hopefully we're headed in that direction again," said Hunter-Reay. "The guys did a great job preparing the car and we're looking forward to getting things going tomorrow night."
Conway, who has struggled mightily on ovals so far this year, was slightly pleased to be toward the front of the field. "The car felt OK," he said. "It felt pretty 'stuck.' It felt similar to this morning. I thought there would be a little more speed there, but it was OK. Hopefully, we'll be able to race well from there tomorrow night."
The final member of the Andretti team, Marco Andretti, was somewhat indifferent with his qualifying run to 17th. "After running well with the Venom car in the morning warm-up, I was a bit disappointed with the qualifying results. I think there's a bit less grip on the track than last year and some of that could be in the tires. We're sliding more this year for sure and just weren't able to get the speed we needed in qualifying."
Oriol Servia, coming off a podium performance at Milwaukee, was expecting more from his car at Iowa. “I’m a little disappointed in the run. We were flat, easy flat actually so we expected to be a little faster. The Telemundo car honestly felt great in traffic in practice today and that’s what matters here. We just wanted a little more speed but will have to wait until tomorrow.”
Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson did well to qualify 12th, while Ed Carpenter, after fighting an ill-handling car all weekend at Milwaukee, made a strong run to start 14th. Alex Tagliani, paired with his third engineer in four races, will start 15th for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
A number of drivers were disappointed to run slowly in qualifying, including E.J. Viso, whose teammates will start first and third. The PDVSA-sponsored driver will start 19th, one spot ahead of Graham Rahal. After starting 12th and finishing second a week ago, Rahal will have a lot of work to do to match that performance in Iowa. Charlie Kimball, his teammate at the Ganassi 'G2' operation, will start 21st. Of the four combined Ganassi entries, three are starting 20th or worse.
Only 24 cars participated in time trials after the 26-car entry list was reduced by one when HVM pulled Simona De Silvestro's entry after IndyCar's medical staff did not give her clearance to drive, and Conquest Racing's Sebastian Saavedra did not make a qualifying attempt.