Sato Leads Honda Qualifiers at Gateway
• Indianapolis 500 champion Takuma Sato will start sixth in final oval race of 2017
• Championship contender Scott Dixon starts seventh
• Saturday night contest starts at 9 p.m. EDT

MADISON, Ill. (Aug. 25, 2017) – Indianapolis 500 champion Takuma Sato led Honda qualifiers Friday as the Verizon IndyCar Series returned to Gateway Motorsports Park, and will start Saturday night’s final oval race of the season from sixth.

Scott Dixon, currently second in the Drivers’ Championship and in search of his second victory of the season, will start his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda from seventh. Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe, driving for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, rounded out the top 10 qualifiers for Honda and will start ninth and 10th, respectively.

Television coverage of Saturday night’s 248-lap race, the final oval event of 2017, starts at 9 p.m. EDT on the NBC Sports Network.

Takuma Sato (Andretti Autosport Honda) Indianapolis 500 winner, qualified sixth today: “This is a high-commitment racetrack. In terms of top speed, here is a lot slower than at Pocono [where the series raced last week], of course, but in terms of commitment it really helps the driver at the same time. The track got better and better as the sun set and it cooled, but I think we should be happy under the circumstances with sixth and being the top Honda.”