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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Lanigan Racing's Rahal Letterman swept Saturday to first place qualifiers for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by AmFirst, while Takuma Sato won the NTT P1 award and his teammate Graham Rahal are qualified in second place.
Sato, in the No. 30 Mi-Jack / Panasonic Honda, earned its eighth-place career in the NTT IndyCar Series by clocking a lap of one lap, one minute, 8.5394 seconds (Firestone Fast Six), the last of three qualifying qualifying rounds on the permanent 17 km road course of Barber Motorsports Park. Rahal, driving the No. 15 Honda One Cure, was second in 1: 08.6971 (120.529 mph).
HONDA INDY GRAND PRIX OF ALABAMA: Unofficial qualification results
The RLL duo will lead the squad of 24 cars up to the green flag during Sunday's 90-lap race, the 10th edition of the NTT IndyCar Series that will take place on the rolling technical circuit of Alabama. This is the first time Rahal has qualified for an Indy car double since Bryan Herta and team co-owner Bobby Rahal made the feat at Long Beach in 1998.
Scott Dixon, reigning champion and five-time series champion, will start third after a lap of 1: 08.8081 (120.335 mph) on PNC Bank's Honda Chip Ganassi Racing # 9. Dixon has been on the podium seven times nine times at Barber, but has never won the race.
James Hinchcliffe, who had the fastest lap in qualifying, qualified fourth in the Honda Arrow 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports with a lap of 1: 08.8476 (120.266 mph).
Dale Coyne Racing with Sebastien Bourdais (Vasser-Sullivan) finished fifth in the No. 18 SealMaster Honda (1: 09.0189), ahead of Spencer Pigot, who reached the Firestone Fast Six for the first time in four years and qualified sixth Chevrolet Ed Carpenter Racing No. 21 (1: 09,6074).
The Penske Team and Andretti Autosport drivers were remarkably absent from the Firestone Fast Six. Will Power, who won the NTT P1 Award in the first two races of the season, was the best qualifier for Penske in seventh, with teammates Simon Pagenaud in the 14th and Josef Newgarden in 16th. It was the first time since the Long Beach race in April 2014 that no Penske Team drivers qualified for the last qualifying lap.
Alexander Rossi was the best qualifier Andretti in eighth position.
Newgarden is the two-time winner of the Barber race and takes an 18-point lead over rookie Colton Herta, who became the youngest winner in the history of the Indy car with his victory on March 24 at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.
A final 30-minute warm-up session at Barber will take place at 12:10. AND Sunday and livestreams on INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold. The race coverage starts at 16:00. on NBCSN, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app and Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR radio network.
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