Will Power earns his fourth consecutive pole

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Saturday, March 23, 2013) - Will Power earned his fourth consecutive pole for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg -- and the inaugural Verizon P1 Award.Power posted a best lap of 1 minute, 1.2070 seconds in the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six session that culminated the three rounds of knockout qualifications for the IZOD IndyCar Series race on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit. It bested his 2012 pole lap (1:01.3727).While that might have been expected, the Firestone Fast Six lineup and the remainder of how the starting order for the season opener shook out was a bit surprising. Takuma Sato, competing for his third team in the past three seasons and making his 50th series start, will start on the front row for the first time since Edmonton in 2011. Driving the Honda-powered No. 14 ABC Supply car for A.J. Foyt Racing, he tied Mike Conway (Baltimore 2012) for the team's best qualifying effort in many years. Simona de Silvestro, entering her fourth IZOD IndyCar Series season and making her first start for KV Racing Technology and with Chevrolet power, qualified for her first Firestone Fast Six and will start on the inside of Row 2. It's a career best (previous best of seventh in 2010 at Edmonton). Tristan Vautier, the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights champion, kicking off his IZOD IndyCar Series career with a Firestone Fast Six appearance and starting sixth in the No. 55 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car. He won the Firestone Indy Lights and Star Mazda races at St. Petersburg in the past two years.Five different teams are represented on the first three rows of the grid for the 110-lap race (noon ET March 24 on NBC Sports Network).Also on March 23, Jack Hawksworth, who earned the 2012 Star Mazda Championship, won in his Firestone Indy Lights debut for Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian Motorsports after leaders Carlos Munoz and Gabby Chaves tangled while battling for the lead.Munoz, the Sunoco Pole Award recipient in the No. 26 Dialy-Ser-Andretti Autosport car, was battling Chaves in the No. 7 Schmidt Peterson with Curb-Agajanian car entering Turn 1 of Lap 11 when they made contact. Hawksworth made his way around the scene to take the lead, which he held the remainder of the 45-lap race.Hawksworth led Peter Dempsey across the finish line by 4.9 seconds for the fourth consecutive victory at St. Petersburg for a Schmidt Peterson car. The past three winners (J.K. Vernay, Josef Newgarden and Tristan Vautier went on the win the series title).DAY 2 NOTEBOOK:Alex Tagliani listened intently to Charlie Lemon describe how he's overcome so much - mentally and physically - in the two years since an IED destroyed the vehicle he was riding in while deployed in Iraq with the 3rd Armored Calvary.Army SPC Lemon lost both legs in the incident and he endured months of rehabilitation at San Antonio Military Medical Center. Back living in the Tampa area, Lemon is a volunteer for Wish For Our Heroes, which assists military members facing hardship.Tagliani approached Wish For Our Heroes following the INDYCAR karting event at Anderson RacePark a few weeks ago, inspired by Lemon's story and the organization's mission, and agreed to offer his 2013 Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race-worn helmet with a Wish For Our Heroes logo on the back for auction. Proceeds will benefit the charity. The helmet auction can be found at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Alex-Tagliani-One-of-a-Kind-WISH-for-OUR-HEROES-Helmet-to-Raise-for-Military-/151016275899?They met on pit lane of the St. Pete street circuit following the first IZOD IndyCar Series practice session."(Lemon) is a tremendous young person that required some help from the Wish For Our Heroes foundation," Tagliani said. "I can't donate all my helmets. But when it makes sense and when it (hits) my heart, it's something I can do."Lemon will serve as the grand marshal for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on March 24."That was definitely a touching moment," Lemon said. "It really shows that they care and they're looking out for us."

QUALIFYING FOR THE VERIZON P1 AWARD:Qualifying for the Verizon P1 Award consists of three segments. In Segment One of qualifying, each group receives 10 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 in Turn 12.At 2 p.m., the ambient temperature was 78 degrees with a relative humidity of 82 percent. Skies were partly cloudy. The track temperature was 108 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.Track record: Sebastien Bourdais, 1:00.928 (February 2003). Fastest lap this weekend: #12 Will Power, 1:01.4467 (Practice 2).2:05 p.m. - GREEN. Session 1, Group 1.2:15 p.m. - CHECKERED. Advancing to Session 2 are: #3 Castroneves, #6 Saavedra, #27 Hinchcliffe , #1 Hunter-Reay, #22 Servia and #25 Andretti.2:25 p.m. - GREEN. Session 2, Group 2.2:29 p.m. - IZOD IndyCar Series officials have penalized #16 Jakes with a drive-through penalty for a pit speed violation.2:35 p.m. - CHECKERED. Advancing to Session 2 are: #12 Power, #14 Sato, #11Kanaan, #78 de Silvestro, #10 Franchitti and #55 Vautier.2:45 p.m. - GREEN. Session 2.2:55 p.m. - CHECKERED. Advancing to Firestone Fast Six are: #12 Power, #14 Sato, #78 de Silvestro, #3 Castroneves, #27 Hinchcliffe, #55 Vautier.3:05 p.m. - GREEN. Firestone Fast Six.3:12 p.m. - #12 Power sets fastest lap at 1:01.3158.3:15 p.m. - CHECKERED. #12 Power wins Verizon P1 Award for Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING NOTES:         This is Will Power's first pole of 2013 and the 30th pole of his Indy car career. He has won four consecutive poles here at St. Petersburg.         Takuma Sato qualified second, his best start at St. Petersburg. His previous best was 11th which he's done twice. It is the second-straight road/street race that A.J. Foyt Racing has qualified second.         Simona de Silvestro qualified third, her career-best start in the IZOD IndyCar Series.         James Hinchcliffe and Helio Castroneves qualified fourth and fifth, respectively, for the second consecutive year at St. Petersburg.         Tristan Vautier qualified sixth for his first start at St. Petersburg.

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES POST-QUALIFYING QUOTES:

WILL POWER (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet): "I thought it was going to be very tight. It's very tight on new tires but we made a few changes for the last run and it was good to see some new people up there. Like Simona, that's very cool, but I always knew, everyone always knew she was quick. Sato, we all know he's fast, so that's what you would expect." (About what to expect from the race tomorrow): "I think it will have a lot to do with the weather. It depends on how the weather is, and it's a pretty straightforward race. It's great for us, if not, it's just going to be one of the typical mixed-up IndyCar races where no one knows who's going to win. We just have to be smart and keep heading towards what we've wanted for a long time, which is a championship."SIMONA DE SILVESTRO (No. 78 Nuclear Entergy Areva KVRT Chevrolet): ""It's awesome. The whole weekend has been going really well for us and It's really cool to finally get the results we wanted. Thanks to KV Racing Technology for giving me the opportunity. And the whole Nuclear Clean Air Energy campaign to be supporting me after the year we had last year. It's cool to get the results. It's unbelievable. We were right there with Will and Sato who are usually are always up there and it's fun to be up there with them."HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet): "Unfortunately, we had some issues yesterday and today we made some mistakes and at this point in the game, you can't make mistakes. Fifth is the same position we started last year, and hopefully, we can finish in the same position as last year."TRISTAN VAUTIER (No. 55 Florida Lottery c/w Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda): "I think looking at everyone, I think the chassis, we all struggled so much with the balance that there's so much work on this side that I don't really focus on whether my engine is the best or not. I am happy with what we have. We have a lot of work on the car so we focused on that. Honda has been good." (Don't you win your debut race?) "I did the last two championships I did. Obviously, this one will is a little bit tougher, I think as the times should show. It did happen in the last two championships I did, but this one is going to be much tougher."TAKUMA SATO (No. 14 ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing Honda): "Between Will and I it's always getting close for us this weekend and unfortunately no we didn't get the fastest. I am really glad for the team to get the 2nd position for the season-starter. it's really perfect."(Night and day between this year and last year) "Well obviously the team worked really hard over the course of the winter testing and and I've done the preparation as much as I could. The last three weeks testing, including Sebring and Barber, have been very very progressive. So I think we made a good improvement and I'm really happy to show the improvement over the course of the qualifying. We had a good car on the long runs so hopefully tomorrow we will be challenging for the winning."RYAN HUNTER-REAY (No. 1 DHL Chevrolet): "This morning we got aggressive with the setup and we tried some things that didn't really work, so we went back on it for qualifying and didn't quite hit the sweet spot. We were only a couple tenths off. Looks like we were less than a tenth off from being in the Firestone Fast Six. As usual it's tight - if you miss it by a hair, you're going to be on the outside looking in. Eighth is in the top 10 - we can start from there and still race for the win. Optimistic about that, just disappointed that we didn't get the DHL Chevy into the top six."SCOTT DIXON (No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): "We have just been a bit behind in getting the Target cars up to speed here this weekend for some reason. I keep finding myself fighting understeer in the car. We have another day to work on it and will definitely be working on some solutions before morning warm-up tomorrow."DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda): ""We had a slow start to the weekend but we are moving in the right direction. But it's frustrating not being up there where we want to be. We're struggling with the car a bit and made some small gains today. I think we'll be able to improve both cars a bit over night. I had a car that had too much oversteer in the first session, and we tried something to correct that and it just produced understeer. We'll continue to work hard and see what we can come up with for the Target car tomorrow."TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Hydroxycut KVRT-SH Racing Chevrolet): "It's a shame. We had very good momentum going on the #11, the Chevy power was great and the Firestone tires help up well. I had a Top-Five car, but we made a minor change between the qualifying sessions that did not go our way, leaving us back in 11th on the grid. Well, tomorrow is another day and I'm sure we'll be fine when the green flag flies."CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen Honda): "It was a pretty good qualifying effort. It was the first time we've run red's this year. We have a really good race car and we're further ahead than where we were this time, last year. The field is so competitive, I think it's going to be about strategy, running smart-laps and getting the fuel mileage you need in the race tomorrow. I have a lot of confidence in the No. 83 NovoLog FlexPen crew, especially in pit lane, so we'll be good."JOSEF NEWGARDEN (No. 67 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing Honda): "We had an OK qualifying session. It would have been great to advance. I think we lost a little bit of time from the practice session to qualifying. This is the first race of the season and we have a lot to learn. Hopefully, we can learn a few more things in the warm-up session that will help us in both the race and the other street courses we're going to later this season."SIMON PAGENAUD (No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda): "We had some control issues on the throttle during qualifying. Last year we started 16th with an engine change and this year we are stronger. I believe that the tough moments make us stronger. We had a difficult weekend but I'm very happy with the handling of the car. I hope we have a strong race and put on a good show for the fans."ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Fuzzy's Vodka/Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet): "That was the first time we had been on the red Firestone tires, so we are still learning how they handle them. We have been talking about how we can use the reds in the race too. The grip level is good with red tires but they change later in the stint. We just need to see how we can be prepared for the race. We are getting some good grip on the rear tires, but we had some understeer in the low speed corners. So we need to work in that area for Sunday. Boy, it is competitive out there. There was just over one second in the top 12 in the that first qualifying group. That makes it hard to move up when the field is that tight. This is just a highly-competitive series."JUSTIN WILSON (No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda): "I've got to thank everyone at Dale Coyne Racing for working so hard this weekend. We've not been quick enough, but we've kept plugging away, trying to figure out how to make the Sonny's Bar-B-Q Honda work with the new Firestone tire. We're mid-pack right now, but hopefully we can keep making improvements. Our focus now is on having a strong race tomorrow."ALEX TAGLIANI (No. 98 Barracuda Racing Honda): ""We're still working to find that balance out there on the Barracuda No. 98. Firestone has brought us a new tire this year for the street circuits and it feels like we need to keep working to find what this tire likes compared to last year's. Overall, it has been great to get back from the offseason, and looking forward to a strong race tomorrow."   E.J. VISO (No. 5 Team Venezuela/Andretti Autosport/HVM Chevrolet): "Well it was a tough day today especially with the morning we had. Something failed in the practice session this morning, and we could only get a couple laps - it was tough to recover. Qualifying didn't go the way we wanted either and we're missing a lot of downforce in the car which made the car understeer like crazy. I'm happy for my teammates, though, they did a good job; James (Hinchcliffe) is starting top six. I really think tomorrow will be a good day. There are plenty of variables that can affect us, including the weather, but I totally trust the strategies that Andretti is going to put together for tomorrow's race.MARCO ANDRETTI (No. 25 RC Cola Chevrolet): ""We had a good team effort today. I would have liked to see something in the Firestone Fast Six, but it takes so much to get everything right. The tires are pretty finicky, so that can make things pretty interesting for days like this. We will make some adjustments tonight, and come back tomorrow ready to go."JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 27 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet): "It was sort of the big first challenge for the weekend for us was our first qualifying of the year. It's a big unknown, and obviously it was the Firestone Reds because we had no opportunity to test on them or practice with them. The first time you get to drive them is really when it counts in qualifying. So to go out there and get a start for the GoDaddy car, we're pretty pleased. I would have liked to have seen a few more of my teammates in the Fast Six, but we'll get together tonight and put our heads together and try to make a good race car, because, obviously, we didn't quite have enough in qualifying. Will was outrageously quick to get on the pole and everybody. It's a good group up here for the Fast Six. So just happy to be in the first two rows of the first race."

The 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season opens with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg March 24 on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. The race will be televised live at noon (ET) by the NBC Sports Network (Verizon FiOS 90/590, DirecTV 220, DISH 159 and AT&T UVerse 640) and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network, on SiriusXM (Channel 211) and www.indycar.com. The 2013 Firestone Indy Lights season begins March 23 on the streets of St. Petersburg. The race will be broadcast by NBC Sports Network at 11 a.m. (ET) on March 24, immediately preceding the IZOD IndyCar Series race broadcast. IZOD INDYCAR SERIES PRACTICE #3:At 10:15 a.m., the ambient temperature was 73 degrees with a relative humidity of 92 percent. Skies were cloudy. The track temperature was 85 degrees, according to Firestone engineers.10:25 a.m. - GREEN.10:30 a.m. - RED FLAG. #18 Beatriz and #67 Newgarden are in the runoff area in Turn 8 and in need of assistance. Both cars are re-started by the Holmatro Safety Team and return to the pit lane10:34 a.m. - GREEN.10:38 a.m. - RED FLAG. #5 Viso makes contact with the wall between Turns 9a and 10. Car comes to rest at the entrance to Turn 10. Car has heavy damage to the front and right side. Viso climbs from the car without assistance from the Holmatro Safety Team.10:51 a.m. - GREEN.11 a.m. - CHECKERED.


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