Franchitti Repeats Milwaukee Pole Run
Indianapolis 500 champion Dario Franchitti gave Honda its third consecutive pole of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season Friday at The Milwaukee Mile, with a run of 168.737 mph around the flat mile oval, the oldest operating race track in North America. Franchitti will lead the 25-car starting field to the green flag for the second consecutive year at Saturday’s Milwaukee IndyFest.
Franchitti won last year’s Milwaukee race from the pole, leading a race-high 161 of 225 race laps. He also won here in 2004, and has finished sixth or better in his last six starts at “The Mile”. Previous Honda-powered poles this year include Scott Dixon at Detroit; and Alex Tagliani at Texas Motor Speedway.
Justin Wilson posted the second-fastest qualifying run in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda-Dallara. It is his best qualifying effort of 2012, and follows his victory last week in Texas. Josef Newgarden led the rookie field today at Milwaukee, qualifying seventh for Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing.
Television coverage for Saturday’s first short oval race of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series will air on ABC, starting at 1 p.m. EDT.
Dario Franchitti (#10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) pole qualifier, his 1st pole of 2012 and 27th career IndyCar pole; pole qualifier and race winner here in 2011: “We struggled in both practice sessions. But afterwards we got together with [engineer Chris] Simmons, Scott [Dixon] and the rest of the #9 car guys and came up with [a chassis set-up] that was much better. On my qualifying run, I just kept my foot in it and managed to hang on. I’m really proud of the team and the job they did today,