NEWTON, Iowa – Will Power and Team Penske achieved something that is believed to be an IndyCar Series first. They won two poles in the same session in the same day for the two different races.
Simon Pagenaud is the last driver to win poles for both races at a doubleheader at Detroit in 2016, but those came in two different qualification sessions.
Power’s pole runs for Saturday’s Hy-VeeDeals.com 250 and Sunday’s Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300 came in the same qualifying session.
In IndyCar’s unique qualification format, each driver in Saturday morning’s time trials took two timed laps. The first lap would determine the qualification lineup for Saturday’s race and the second timed lap would set the field for Sunday’s race.
Power’s first lap around the 0.894-mile Iowa Speedway was 178.199 miles per hour in the No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet. That earned Power the 65th pole of his career.
Lap 2 was 178.013 mph for the 66th pole of his career.
That leaves him just one pole behind Mario Andretti’s all-time career record for most poles with 67.
“Two poles in one day in one session in one series, I’m not sure Team Penske has ever done that before,” said Team Penske President Tim Cindric. “It took him a while to get pole No. 65, but he checked that box for pole No. 66 really quick, about 18 seconds later.
“You look at history and all that has taken time to accumulate. Any time you mention something next to Mario Andretti, that’s a big deal.
“Hey, records are made to be broken, right?”
Power didn’t break any records Saturday, but he did set a first with the two poles in one session for two different races. He also has come within one pole of tying Andretti.
More importantly, it can help him close the gap on points leader Marcus Ericsson in the battle for the NTT IndyCar Series championship.
Power is second in the standings, 35 points behind Ericsson, who starts 12th on Saturday and 15th on Sunday.
“This qualifying session, all season, I was like, ‘This is where I can really make some damage, I can really, really put myself in a position to get there,’” Power said. “That was a big step for me.”
Power won the pole on a very hot Iowa Speedway track surface. The temperature is expected to peak at 100 degrees later Saturday, but it was already hot when the session began at 9:30 a.m. Central Time.
Power was the next last driver on track and in mastered the hot racing surface.
“It was messy,” he said. “I was bottoming a lot, skipping up the track. I was surprised I was the quickest. I was wheeling it as much as you could. I was leaving nothing on the table.
“I just put everything into it, overdrove it a little bit. But, yeah, pretty good.”
Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden was second fastest in Saturday’s race at 177.782 mph in the No. 2 Chevrolet. He was followed by Conor Daly’s Chevrolet at 177.478 mph, Pato O’Ward’s 177.421 mph and Scott McLaughlin’s 177.253 mph.
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson was 15th out of 26 drivers at 175.205 mph as he prepares for the third and fourth oval races of his IndyCar career.
For Sunday’s race, Power will once again start next to Newgarden, whose fast lap was 177.904 mph. He was followed by Colton Herta’s Honda at 177.525 mph, Daly’s Chevrolet at 177.287 mph and Takuma Sato’s Honda at 177.278 mph.
Johnson will start 13th out of the 26 drivers after running a lap at 175.812 mph in the No. 48 American Legion Honda for Chip Ganassi Racing.
As for Power, he has never won at Iowa Speedway, but has improved his chances with two poles in back-to-back races.
“I felt like you had to start in the top 10 to have a good race,” Power said. “It seemed a little difficult to pass. Although cars can fall off a lot. You can make some positions up; you can make some positions up with strategy.
“But leading is obviously easier. You can queue off other people when they pit. If you have a bit of a lead, you pit early, you’re not going down two laps, you’re only going down one. Good spot to be in.”
Power is within one pole of the record for most poles in a career and could get that as early as next Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for the Gallagher Grand Prix.
Power also has 41 career victories. Nine more could get him to 50, making him the fourth driver ever to reach that level behind AJ Foyt’s 67, Mario Andretti, and Scott Dixon with 52.
“Never say never,” Power said. “Fifty is a lot these days. That’s a lot more years. At best you can win three a year unless you’re having a fantastic year. Yeah, I don’t think I could get to 50. 45 is realistic.
“But, yeah, no, just going to keep chipping away here. That’s all we can do. You can’t think about when you might stop or any of that stuff. You just got to keep chipping away, racking up results.
“Yeah, if I got to 45. Even where I’m at, like, I’m happy. I just could never have imagined getting more than 40 wins in a career.
“When you get your first win, you think, Wow. Forty-one wins in, you’ll take that.”