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Will Power saved his best for last at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.The Australian recorded the quickest lap time of 1:05.6662 -  only three-tenths of a second off the Indy car circuit record set by Dario Franchitti in 1999 and matched by Gil de Ferran in 2000 -  on his final lap of the 10-minute session Firestone Fast Six session to win the pole for Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, enters the 85-lap race in third place in the championship standings -- 25 points behind the front-running Ryan Hunter-Reay.Dario Franchitti will join Power on the front row, while Simon Pagenaud and Alex Tagliani qualified third and fourth, respectively. Tagliani's No. 98 Team Barracuda-BHA car will serve a 10-grid spot penalty for an unapproved engine change.Scott Dixon qualified fifth and Ryan Briscoe was sixth.DAY 2 NOTEBOOK:A.J. Foyt Racing, in conjunction with Starting Grid principal Chris Miles, announced that 22-year-old Chase Austin will drive an A.J. Foyt Racing entry in the 2013 race through a partnership with American Honda. Race Day is May 26.Last year, Austin was the first African-American to compete in Firestone Indy Lights for Willy T. Ribbs Racing, including a start at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Firestone Freedom 100.Ribbs (1991, '93) and George Mack (2002; started 32nd and finished 17th) are the other African-Americans to take the green flag in "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." In an event-record 35 starts as a driver, Foyt won the 500 Mile Race in 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1977. He also started from the pole four times and, following his retirement from driving in 1993, his team won the race in 1999 with driver Kenny Brack."My son (team director) Larry and I have watched Chase drive and we want to give him a chance," said Foyt, whose team runs a full-season IZOD IndyCar Series car with driver Mike Conway and ABC Supply as the primary sponsor. "What I like about him is that he has driven all types of race cars with different horsepower in his career, and I believe that's important when evaluating talent. He's done a real good job in the Lights series, and I believe he can qualify for the Indy 500 with Honda on board."Austin, from Eudora, Kan., added a 10th place in the Firestone Freedom 100 at Indianapolis in May and recorded a career-high eighth place at Iowa Speedway in June with Juncos Racing."For me to say that I am anything other than excited about this opportunity to compete in the Indianapolis 500 with A.J. Foyt Racing and Honda next year would pretty much be an understatement," said Austin, who started competing in go-karts when he was 8. "However, at the end of the day, I will have a job to do and that is what Chris and A.J. will be expecting out of me."I want to thank my parents, my family and friends who have been supporting me all these years, and a big thank you to Chris for believing in me and providing this incredible opportunity. I cannot wait to spend more time with A.J. When I met with him in Iowa, he started sharing some of the best stories. I really don't know what to expect come May, but you can bet we will have a lot of fun."The program is the continuation of a three-year motorsports diversity initiative between Starting Grid and American Honda."It is incredibly gratifying for me to have Starting Grid associated with such an American racing icon," Miles said. "I am extremely proud for Chase to receive this tremendous opportunity to race for A.J. Foyt Racing as well. Chase has performed admirably with his limited experience in open-wheel cars, and I am completely confident in Chase's ability to settle into the big cars with no problem."Words simply cannot express how appreciative I am for American Honda's support of our motorsports diversity initiatives over the past two years, and I am thrilled to have the defending Indy 500 winning engine powering us toward history."***Dragon Racing's Katherine Legge is at Mid-Ohio to support her teammate Sebastien Bourdais and spot for TrueCar Racing's Shea Holbrook in the World Challenge race.***IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized #3 Castroneves 10 grid positions for an unapproved engine change following qualifying. With the penalty, the following cars will have grid penalties for Sunday's race: #3 Castroneves and #98 Tagliani.IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POLE QUALIFYING:IZOD IndyCar Series Pole Qualifying consists of three segments. In Segment One of qualifying, each group receives 15 minutes of track time. The fastest six cars from each group advance to Segment Two, while the remaining cars are assigned positions 13-26. Group One drivers will occupy the odd-numbered positions (13, 15, 17...) while Group Two drivers will occupy the even-numbered positions (14, 16, 18...) based on their fastest lap times.During Segment Two, the 12 advancing cars receive 10 minutes of track time. The fastest six advance to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout while the remaining six cars are ranked in positions 7-12 based on their fastest laps.During the Firestone Fast Six, the six cars receive 10 minutes of track time, with a guarantee of five minutes of green flag time. Each car receives one additional set of Firestone Firehawk tires for use during this final segment. At the end of the session, the cars are ranked 1-6 based on their fastest laps.Any driver who causes a red flag during any of the groups will lose their two quickest laps.The time line for qualifying today is at between Turns 9 and 10.The lap record is 1:06.6993 set by Scott Dixon in Q2 in 2009. Fastest Lap this weekend: #18 Justin Wilson 1:06.3018 (Practice #2, Saturday morning).At 11 a.m., the ambient temperature was 80 degrees with a relative humidity of 68 percent. Skies were cloudy. The track temperature was 104 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.11 a.m. - GREEN. Session 1, Group 1.11:15 a.m. - CHECKERED. Advancing to Session 2 are: #18 Wilson, #98 Tagliani, #9 Dixon, #28 Hunter-Reay, #77 Pagenaud and #22 Wilson. #18 Wilson set the IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying record with his lap of 1:06.1029.11:20 a.m. - GREEN. Session 1, Group 2.11:35 a.m. - CHECKERED. Advancing to Session 2 are: #7 Bourdais, #12 Power, #10 Franchitti, #2 Briscoe, #26 Andretti, #67 Newgarden. #7 Bourdais set the IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying record with his lap of 1:05.9031.11:45 a.m. - GREEN. Session 2.11:55 a.m. - CHECKERED. Advancing to Firestone Fast Six are: #9 Dixon, #98 Tagliani #12 Power, #10 Franchitti, #77 Pagenaud and #2 Briscoe. #9 Dixon set the IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying record with his lap of 1:05.8055.At Noon, the ambient temperature was 85 degrees with a relative humidity of 65 percent. Skies were cloudy. The track temperature was 110 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.12:05 p.m. - GREEN. Firestone Fast Six.12:13 p.m. -- #10 Franchitti is fastest at 1:06.4702, then #12 Power sets fast lap at 1:05.666212:15 p.m. #12 Power lowers fastest lap at 1:05.6564. CHECKERED. #12 Power wins the pole with a lap of 1:05.6474, which is the IZOD IndyCar Series qualifying record at Mid-Ohio.IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING NOTES:This is Will Power's third pole of 2012 and his second pole at Mid-Ohio. It is the 27th pole of his Indy car career, tying Al Unser for ninth on the all-time list.Dario Franchitti qualified second, it is his fourth front row start at Mid-Ohio. He started on the pole here in 1998 and 1999, started second in 2010Simon Pagenaud qualified a season-best third. His previous best as was fourth at Long Beach and Belle Isle.Alex Tagliani qualified fourth. He has qualified in the Firestone Fast Six in every session this season since Belle IsleScott Dixon qualified fifth. He has started in the top-six at Mid-Ohio in every start at the track since 2007.IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES:WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "I am so tired after this session I am shaking, this place is so physical.  I really think my Verizon car is better on used tires - there is so much grip and the Verizon 12 Chevy has so much downforce around this place that it is so fun to drive, it is amazing.   This session today is the hardest I have tried all year - I just kept pushing and pushing, I had to. It is the most that I have put into a lap.  We needed that pole and it is so important to start up front to keep pushing, if we have a chance for the Championship.SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "Not a bad session. We got everything we could out of the GE car. I thought I did a good lap. Good enough obviously. We beat Will's time there. That's the sixth front row start in a row so hopefully we can turn it into a result tomorrow. Qualifying has been the relatively easy part so hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow." (What are you expecting tomorrow?): "It is going to be interesting. Especially if it rains. If not we still have the push to pass. With the delay and everything with the 5 seconds you are going to see passing in Turn 4. Very tight fuel window. I think you'll see a very interesting day out there. It's so close. I mean there was one-tenth that covered the whole top 6 in qualifying two, can't get much closer than that."DARIO FRANCHITI (No. 10 GE Reveal Honda): ""The car was good. Having to run Q3 on the same set of tires they were pretty much gone already. We tried to make a few changes, but the front tires were worn. I think we have something in the back pocket, which will be good for our starting spot."RYAN BRISCOE (No. 2 PPG Automotive Refinishes Team Penske Chevrolet): ""We were struggling with understeer today. We made changes for the Fast Six and I just couldn't carry the speed. We're at a handicap here; I'm think one of three on an older Chevy spec engine, which is significantly slower on the straights. It was a good run, though. I'm happy with the good starting spot for tomorrow."SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy Lotus-HMV Racing Lotus): "Qualifying was the same as how it's been going which is not good because we're always starting in the back. But, I think we have a strong race car. We worked really hard to make that happen. We'll see what happens tomorrow in the race. It's disappointing because everybody is working so hard and we can't really do anything right now."GIORGIO PANTANO (No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Honda): "We were supposed to have a better qualifying session but it's just learning for me in this race. Everything is new since it's my first time here. Each time I've jumped in the car I've been able to improve. Tomorrow will be a tough race but the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing team has given me a good car so I just need to keep up the momentum."GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 38 Service Central Honda): "We are disappointed. We've had the pace all weekend but the car would just not turn. We had the tougher group for sure, but we just didn't put ourselves in a good enough position. We'll look to make improvements for tomorrow. Overall, I'm looking forward to my home race at Mid-Ohio."MIKE CONWAY (No. 14 ABC Supply Co./A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): ""It's been a frustrating weekend so far. We came away with a good test here last week but now this weekend the car was the same but completely different. It's lacking overall grip--just not getting the tires to work. We've got to keep working at it and try to get it better."E.J. VISO (No. 5 CITGO-PDVSA KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): ""I can't complain about the balance of the car. The car has pretty good balance and is a fun car to drive, however there is no grip. There is no way we can go any faster than we are right now. We are losing a lot of valuable time because of the lack of grip, which is so important especially with such a competitive field."RUBENS BARRICHELLO (No. 8 BMC/Embrase - KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "We have made the car a little better and I felt I was able to go slightly faster, however it's like walking on a tightrope. The balance is very tight, it is what it is. I'm consistently getting better, but unfortunately the car is still not where we would like it to be."TONY KANAAN (No. 11 GEICO/Mouser Electronics- KV Racing Technology Chevrolet): "The car was improved from the morning practice to qualifying. It just wasn't a big enough improvement, so we will have to work that much harder in the race tomorrow."JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): "It was an OK session for us. I think we're in the hunt for sure, but it's just very tight out there. I didn't really get a great lap in during the second session. I think we did a good job of getting as close as we could we just need a little bit more. It's going to be a tight race for sure and we've got to get to work for tomorrow."ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): ""We were able to improve a little today but not as much I would have liked. We lost a lot of time yesterday with the braking issues. So that kind of put us behind the eight ball for the weekend. But I thought we would pick up more time after the morning practice. It's not where we want to be right now. We'll have to make some changes with the car for Sunday's race. It is always a tough race physically here. It wears out a driver and mistakes can happen a lot at Mid-Ohio."TAKUMA SATO (No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda): "I'm disappointed in the qualifying result especially since I like the circuit and had a good record the past two years here. It's a shame that we didn't have good speed to go to the next stage of qualifying. The field is very competitive as usual in Mid-Ohio. We made good progress so we made a big improvement from the practice session. Our lap time delta is really ramping up but it wasn't enough to progress to the next stage. It was only a couple of tenths but we needed a little bit more. We will take the experience from qualifying and the practice sessions and continue to work on it tomorrow."JUSTIN WILSON (No. 18 Sonny's BBQ Honda): "The car just misfired on us during the Firestone Fast 12 today. It is a shame because we really had a great race car. The Sonny's BBQ team has done a fantastic job giving me a fast car. We were P1 yesterday in practice, P1 again in practice this morning and P1 during first round qualifying today. And we were running P1 during the Firestone Fast 12 when the car misfired which dropped us all the way back to P12. I am pretty confident that we would have made it into the Firestone Fast Six and possible had a shot at winning a pole today. All we can do is bounce back tomorrow and run our race. It will be interesting to see if it will be a wet or dry race tomorrow. We set a new track record after the first round of qualifying which just goes to show how great of a race car we have here at Mid-Ohio this weekend. I think we have a legitimate shot at winning the race tomorrow."JAMES JAKES (No. 19 Boy Scouts of American Honda): "Today was really frustrating for us, because yesterday we had one of the fastest cars on track. I knew that qualifying today was going to be key, and I'm not quite sure what happened. The Boy Scouts of America team has worked incredibly hard to give me such a fast car and for some reason we've had trouble translating that through qualifying. We'll keep looking at the data and working to get our car back up to the leader board so we can put on a good show tomorrow."JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 Team GoDaddy.com Chevrolet): "It's a bummer for us to start so far back tomorrow. We ran well in the test here and I know the Go Daddy Chevy is competitive - but we just weren't able to get the lap put together during qualifying today to get us back into the Firestone Fast Six. The car has more speed it in and we were on pace today to advance, but got held up in traffic behind Ed (Carpenter) and just didn't get the lap we needed. It's a shame but just means we'll have to keep fighting and that's what we do best. The crew and I will work hard tonight and do our best to advance during the race tomorrow."RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda Chevrolet): "The race is going to be very close, and I thinks it's going to be interesting. It will take qualifying laps for the whole race because the field is so tight. We're disappointed not to make the (Firestone) Fast Six, but we expected the field to be close because of the open test here (last week). We're going to make the most of it tomorrow. It really feels like a home race for us with the Pelotonia colors on the car. We've had a lot of enthusiastic fans that have let us know they're happy we're raising awareness for the cause."MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 26 Team RC Cola Chevrolet): "We were just shy on front grip - just a little off on the front wing - and that made it difficult to really turn in the time we needed. Had we advanced into the next round, we could have had a real shot at the front with a change. We've been fast in each session, so I expect we'll be fast in the race."SUNDAY'S SCHEDULE:8:05 - 8:35 a.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series warmup11:10 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. - USF2000 Race #2Noon - Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Pre-Race12:30 p.m. - Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (85 laps), ABC (Live).