Helio Castroneves won pole position for Saturday’s Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix at Phoenix International Raceway with an average speed of 192.324 mph.
The series is returning to the 1.0-mile long oval circuit for the first time since 2005.
Chevrolets round out the top 10 spots on the grid with Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske taking the top four spots. Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya of Team Penske will take spots 1 and 3 respectively, while Chip Ganassi Racing’s Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball will take spots 2 and 4.
Ed Carpenter, who was the fastest in opening practice, will round out the top 5.
Team Penske drivers have taken pole position for both races so far in the 2016 season, with Will Power qualifying on the top spot for the season-opener at St. Petersburg. However, Power was misdiagnosed with a concussion and so sat out the race, but that only moved his Penske teammate Simon Pagenaud up to P1 on the grid, while their teammate Montoya went on to take the win.
Power will start ninth for Saturday’s race with Pagenaud in 10th.
Starting at the back of the field will be Carlos Munoz, Takuma Sato and James Hinchcliffe, after all three had hard crashes in Turns 1 and 2. Sato and Hinchcliffe’s took place during practice while Munoz spun out during his qualifying run. All three should be able to make the race.
Other notable names - such as Graham Rahal - also found themselves closer toward the back of the field than they would have liked after high track temperatures and low downforce settings led to many anxious moments during each driver's qualifying run.
Full qualifying results:
