Will Power continued his run of strong performances by putting his 675 HP, ethanol-fueled Penske Chevrolet on pole for tomorrow’s 2014 Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, though, on the back of Power’s performance at the last four IndyCar events held at Barber. He finished 4th in 2010, won in 2011 and 2012, and scored another top-5 finish in 2013.
Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who caused a massive pile-up a few weekends ago when they crashed into each other while battling for the lead at Long Beach, put in strong qualifying performances, as well. They’ll be starting from P4 and P3, respectively- but they’ll have a tough time getting around Power, and Power knows it. “It’s going to be a tough race. When it goes green, these (track) temperatures are going to be very physical,” Power said. “There will be a lot of traffic and a lot of (rubber tire marbles, which will make passing difficult) so we’ll do everything we can to get the win … definitely going to be a good race.”
Here’s how the Grand Prix of Alabama qualifying results played out for everyone else …
| Car No. | Driver | Team / Engine | Grid Pos. |
| 12 | Will Power | Chevy | 1 |
| 27 | James Hinchcliffe | Honda | 2 |
| 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Honda | 3 |
| 67 | Josef Newgarden | Honda | 4 |
| 9 | Scott Dixon | Chevy | 5 |
| 3 | Helio Castroneves | Chevy | 6 |
| 34 | Carlos Munoz (R) | Honda | 7 |
| 2 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Chevy | 8 |
| 25 | Marco Andretti | Honda | 9 |
| 77 | Simon Pagenaud | Honda | 10 |
| 7 | Mikhail Aleshin (R) | Honda | 11 |
| 11 | Sebastien Bourdais | Chevy | 12 |
| 17 | Sebastian Saavedra | Chevy | 13 |
| 14 | Takuma Sato | Honda | 14 |
| 18 | Carlos Huertas (R) | Honda | 15 |
| 19 | Justin Wilson | Honda | 16 |
| 83 | Charlie Kimball | Chevy | 17 |
| 15 | Graham Rahal | Honda | 18 |
| 16 | Oriol Servia | Honda | 19 |
| 8 | Ryan Briscoe | Chevy | 20 |
| 20 | Mike Conway | Chevy | 21 |
| 98 | Jack Hawksworth (R) | Chevy | 22 |
| 10 | Tony Kanaan | Honda | 23 |
… so watch for Tony Kanaan to blast through the pack early in the race (he’s way too fast to be back there). You may also want to look out for Juan Pablo Montoya and his fellow countryman, Carlos Muñoz, to mix it up throughout the race. It’s gonna be a good one!
Source | Photos: IndyCar.