Chip Ganassi Racing’s Charlie Kimball scored his first IndyCar pole position in qualifying for Saturday’s race at the Texas Motor Speedway.
The American driver beat his team-mate Scott Dixon with an average speed of 222.556mph and aggregate two-lap run of 46.586 seconds.
His run broke the Texas lap record previously held by Will Power since 2013. Dixon set the pace in practice and was second fastest in qualifying, keeping up his impressive form.
Andretti’s Alexander Rossi was third, with Tony Kanaan and Tristan Vautier – replacing Esteban Gutierrez in the No.18 Dale Coyne Racing car – completing the top five.
Max Chilton, Mikhail Aleshin and Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato were next up, meaning the top eight was dominated by Honda power.
Penske’s Power and Helio Castroneves were the lead Chevrolet cars in ninth and 10th, ahead of Detroit double-header race winner Graham Rahal.
Early running orders saw Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Josef Newgarden finish down in 13th, 15th and 17th.
Carlos Munoz failed to set a time and he will start last for the race, which takes place at the recently-resurfaced and reprofiled Texas track.
