FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS QUALIFYINGThis is a 45-minute qualifying session, with drivers ranked by their quickest overall lap any time during the session. No limit on laps. The fastest car will win the $5,000 Sunoco Pole Award.At 9:25 a.m., the ambient temperature was 74 degrees with a relative humidity of 83 percent and winds from south at 9 mph. Skies were mostly cloudy. The track temperature was 82 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.Track record: James Hinchcliffe, 1:06.3497 (March 2010). Fastest lap this weekend: #7 Gabby Chaves, 1:06.8431 (Practice 2).9:25 a.m. - GREEN.9:40 a.m. - 15 minutes into the session, fastest lap so far is #26 Munoz with lap at 1:06.9277.9:55 a.m. - 30 minutes into the session, fastest lap so far is #26 Munoz with lap at 1:06.4124.10:08 a.m. - #77 Hawksworth sets his personal best lap at 1:06.4402, but it is not fast enough to take pole.10:10 a.m. - CHECKERED. #26 Munoz wins the pole for the St. Petersburg 100.FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS SUNOCO POLE QUALIFYING NOTES: This is Carlos Munoz' second pole in Firestone Indy Lights. He previously won the Sunoco Pole Award at Edmonton in 2012. Jack Hawksworth qualified second, the first front-row start of his Firestone Indy Lights career. Peter Dempsey qualified third, his best starting position at St. Petersburg (previous best was 5th in 2011) and his ninth top-five start in 17 starts. Gabby Chaves and Zach Veach qualified fourth and fifth, respectively. It is both drivers first top-five start in Firestone Indy Lights. Three different teams are represented in the top-three qualifying positions. The top eight qualifiers are separated by less than .9 of a second.FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS POLE WINNER QUOTE:CARLOS MUNOZ (No. 26 Dialy-Ser-Andretti Autosport): "It was a tough qualifying. It was really hard. We were really close to each other they told me in the radio. I was pushing 200 percent. I gave everything on the track. I'm really happy to have the first pole of the season, so I hope it's a good year like this. Now the most important thing is the race. It's 45 laps, so it's quite a long race. It's easy to make a mistake here, but I think I'll have a good car for the race. The thing is to push and to think a lot, it's a long championship so a good result would be fine."FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS QUOTES:JACK HAWKSWORTH (No. 77 Schmidt Peterson c/w Curb-Agajanian): "It was an entertaining session. Forty-five minutes, I've never done a qualifying session that long before. It was like a practice session at first, then you go for your times at the end, so you're in a different mindset throughout the qualifying. The guys did a really great job from yesterday improving the car. We worked hard yesterday night to go through everything and yeah, I think good job all around. Shame we couldn't quite get it done at the end although still pretty much on pace. Guess we have to go out and do it in the race."GABBY CHAVES (No. 7 Schmidt Peterson c/w Curb-Agajanian): "Our qualifying session didn't end up how we wanted, but we are starting on the second row. We'll be able to chase down the leaders and show some speed during the race. This is a long race and we'll have a good shot at a solid finish."SAGE KARAM (No. 7 Schmidt Peterson c/w Curb-Agajanian "The qualifying session was pretty good for the first race of the year. We definitely would have liked to have done better. We struggled a little bit during practice and qualifying, but we're going to work hard and hopefully run near the front during the race." Qualifying Saturday for the St Petersburg 100 Firestone Indy Lights event on the 1.8-mile St Petersburg Street Circuit, with qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, time and speed in parentheses:
1. (26) Carlos Munoz, 01:06.4124 (97.572)
2. (77) Jack Hawksworth, 01:06.4402 (97.531)
3. (5) Peter Dempsey, 01:06.6309 (97.252)
4. (7) Gabby Chaves, 01:06.7122 (97.134)
5. (12) Zach Veach, 01:06.8347 (96.956)
6. (8) Sage Karam, 01:06.9612 (96.772)
7. (2) Juan Pablo Garcia, 01:06.9934 (96.726)
8. (4) Jorge Goncalvez, 01:07.2773 (96.318)
9. (22) Ethan Ringel, 01:08.3130 (94.857)
