SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Pato O'Ward blew past Will Power in the closing seconds of qualifying to claim his third pole of the season Friday at Indianapolis.
O'Ward posted a fast lap of 1 minutes, 10.7147 seconds. Power will start second in Saturday's race after going 1:10.7214. Both drivers topped Romain Grosjean who looked like he had locked up his second straight pole on Indy's 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course.
Christian Lundgaard, who is making his IndyCar debut, qualified fourth.
It was a dramatic finish to the first day of a potentially wild race weekend that features three races from three different series on the same course.
O'Ward finished 15th in the GMR Grand Prix at IMS in May. Rinus VeeKay, who will start , won that race. Grosjean, who starts third Saturday, finished second in May, despite leading a race-high 44 laps.
The green flag drops on the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The NASCAR Xfinity Series will then take over the road course at 4 p.m. for the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard.
The NASCAR Cup Series will race on the road course at IMS for the first time on Sunday in the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard. That race can be seen starting at 1 p.m. on Channel 13.