DETROIT – At least IndyCar attempted to have a Sunday qualification session and - for a brief time Sunday morning - 20-year-old Sage Karam thought he had won the first pole of his Verizon IndyCar Series career. That was before the INDYCAR Rule Book intervened.
Karam was the fastest driver in Sunday morning’s first group of qualifiers for the Chevrolet Dual in Detroit Race 2 at the Raceway at Belle Isle Park after a fast lap of in the 1:36.452 around the 2.35-mile, 14-turn temporary road course. With two groups of drivers in two 15-minute qualification sessions, Karam was in the first group and was able to complete the full session. But after three green flag minutes in Group 2, INDYCAR officials called off the session because of standing water on the racecourse so the starting lineup is based on entrant points.
That puts Juan Pablo Montoya, the current Verizon IndyCar Series points leader, on the pole for the race that is scheduled to start at 3:35 p.m. ET. As of 1 p.m., steady rain continues to fall but the storm front is expect to move through in a few hours.
Team Penske driver Will Power will start on the outside of the front row and believes that’s important to stay away from the potential mayhem of starting the race on a slick track.
“Looking at the weather it looks like that will be the case,” Power said. “Even if the rain gets a little bit lighter we should be able to have a race. If the radar is accurate we should be able to get it in. In our session, you couldn’t get wide-open on the straights and that is when it starts to get bad.”
Montoya is prepared for a wet start and that is when strategy comes in.
“The big question is when do we put the dry tires on?” Montoya said. “You can’t control the conditions and INDYCAR did a good job today try to get the session in. It’s hard because if you crashed the car in the second session you wouldn’t have time to get the car fixed in time for the race. So INDYCAR did the right thing.”
Helio Castroneves, who is celebrating the 15th anniversary of his first-ever IndyCar win when he won the Detroit Grand Prix CART race in 2000, starts third and Scott Dixon fourth. The top four starters are in Chevrolets. Honda’s Graham Rahal rounds out the top five in a Honda.
“The guys starting in the back have nothing to lose so they can make some pretty aggressive strategy calls,” Montoya said.
**
Be sure to catch Bruce Martin's Honda IndyCar Report on RACEDAY on FOX Sports Radio every Sunday from 6-8 a.m. ET.
