Carlos Munoz claimed his first IndyCar pole position on Friday during qualifying for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Munoz qualified with a two-lap average speed of 217.137 mph to pick up Andretti Autosport's first pole position of the season, edging out Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon at the top of the timesheets.
Despite having an early slot in qualifying, Munoz was able to eke the maximum from his no. 26 car to beat his previous best starting position of second at the 2013 Indianapolis 500.
Dixon came closest to toppling the Colombian, but fell 0.2 mph shy in second place. Helio Castroneves finished just behind in P3, giving himself a place on the front row for the race on Saturday night.
Takuma Sato proved to be the surprise package of qualifying, finishing with an identical average speed to Castroneves, but was a decisive 0.0001s behind in lap time to end the session fourth.
Josef Newgarden had looked to be in the fight for pole after going quickest early on, only for Munoz to depose him on the very next run, leaving the Ed Carpenter Racing driver to settle for P5 on the grid.
Championship leader Simon Pagenaud was unable to continue his streak of pole positions from Detroit, qualifying sixth ahead of Penske teammate Will Power whose hopes of pole faded after a slow second lap, his first being good enough to provisionally start second.
Tony Kanaan qualified eighth ahead of Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi, the latter entering just his third oval race this weekend, while James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top 10 upon his return to Texas Motor Speedway.
It proved to be a difficult session for the British drivers on the grid as Max Chilton and Jack Hawksworth finished P19 and P20 respectively. They will start only ahead of Dale Coyne Racing drivers Conor Daly and Gabby Chaves on Saturday night, the latter taking no part in qualifying after a practice crash earlier in the day.
Firestone 600 qualifying result
1. (26) Carlos Munoz, Honda, 217.137
2. (9) Scott Dixon, Chevrolet, 216.901
3. (3) Helio Castroneves, Chevrolet, 216.740
4. (14) Takuma Sato, Honda, 216.740
5. (21) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 216.684
6. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 216.663
7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 216.647
8. (10) Tony Kanaan, Chevrolet, 216.295
9. (98) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 216.262
10. (5) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 216.262
11. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 216.260
12. (27) Marco Andretti, Honda, 216.162
13. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 215.927
14. (20) Ed Carpenter, Chevrolet, 215.751
15. (83) Charlie Kimball, Chevrolet, 215.533
16. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Honda, 215.299
17. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 215.279
18. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 215.030
19. (8) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 214.864
20. (41) Jack Hawksworth, Honda, 214.568
21. (18) Conor Daly, Honda, 213.826
22. (19) Gabby Chaves, Honda, no speed
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