Texas IndyCar: Sato claims ninth career pole

The third oval pole of Sato’s career (the previous were Iowa 2011 and Pocono 2017) and his second pole this season saw him lap in 220.433 and 220.067mph – the only driver to have both laps over 220.

He led a 1-2-3-4 for Honda, as Sebastien Bourdais was a fine third for Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan, while Ryan Hunter-Reay was top Andretti Autosport driver with fourth.

Simon Pagenaud led the Chevrolet charge in fifth, with Spencer Pigot sixth for Ed Carpenter Racing.

Points leader Josef Newgarden was seventh in a second Penske, but the third Penske of Will Power was way down in 15^th, while another title contender Alexander Rossi also struggled with only 11^th fastest average.

They were both better off than Marco Andretti who had to come off the throttle and walk his car up the track on his second lap, resulting in a 196mph lap, while Tony Kanaan struck the wall on the exit of Turn 2 on his first flyer and abandoned his run.

The race starts at 7.40pm local (Central) time tomorrow.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2	47.0738			220.250
2	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	2	47.0926	0.0188	0.0188	220.162
3	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	2	47.1817	0.1079	0.0891	219.746
4	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	2	47.2266	0.1528	0.0449	219.537
5	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	2	47.2659	0.1921	0.0393	219.355
6	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	2	47.3210	0.2472	0.0551	219.099
7	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	2	47.4147	0.3409	0.0937	218.666
8	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	2	47.4597	0.3859	0.0450	218.459
9	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	2	47.4619	0.3881	0.0022	218.449
10	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	2	47.4712	0.3974	0.0093	218.406
11	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	2	47.4954	0.4216	0.0242	218.295
12	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	2	47.5435	0.4697	0.0481	218.074
13	Ed Carpenter	Ed Carpenter Racing	2	47.5636	0.4898	0.0201	217.982
14	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	2	47.5699	0.4961	0.0063	217.953
15	Will Power	Team Penske	2	47.5816	0.5078	0.0117	217.899
16	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	2	47.7387	0.6649	0.1571	217.182
17	Charlie Kimball	Carlin	2	47.7426	0.6688	0.0039	217.165
18	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	2	47.7649	0.6911	0.0223	217.063
19	Conor Daly	Carlin	2	47.9612	0.8874	0.1963	216.175
20	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	2	48.2024	1.1286	0.2412	215.093
21	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	2	50.1109	3.0371	1.9085	206.901
22	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises
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