ST. PETERSBURG, Fla – Team Penske found speed overnight. That’s not surprising seeing that they have the most resources in the NTT IndyCar Series and have been among the most quickest teams as a result of that.

On Friday, they were 7-10-12 in the first practice session and only 9-10-17 in the second one. But, on the lone practice session of the day on Saturday morning, they were 2-4-5. In turn, they were quick in qualifying and swept the front row for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Pete (12:30 p.m. ET/NBCSN/IndyCar Radio Network).

Will Power, narrowly beat his teammate Josef Newgarden by just 0.0976-seconds on the final lap of qualifying en route to his 55th career Indy Car pole, eighth of which coming on the streets of St. Pete. Power, circled the 1.8-mile Florida street course with a lap of 1:00.4594-seconds in his No. 12 Chevrolet en route to his seventh pole in the annual season opener since 2010.

The Verizon P1 Pole Award also moves him one pole closer to Mario Andretti. Power, only trails Andretti by 12 for most ever in the series.

Newgarden, will roll off second in his No. 2 Chevrolet. The Tennessee native turned in a time of 1:00.5570-seconds. Newgarden has never finished in the top five at St. Pete before and has also never led a lap either. He was second quickest in practice on Saturday morning and looks like a legit favorite.

Row 2 is an all Chip Ganassi Racing row with Felix Rosenqvist benefitting from a Colton Herta penalty at the end of the second round to start third (1:00.6884-seconds) in his No. 10 Honda. Scott Dixon, spun in the first round and benefitted from a penalty to Takuma Sato as well to qualify fourth in his No. 9 Honda. Dixon, turned in a lap of 1:00.8544-seconds.

Row 3 is an all Andretti Autosport row with Ryan Hunter-Reay (1:01.0784-seconds) and Alexander Rossi (1:01.7739-seconds) starting fifth and sixth respectively.

The session was wild in that Marco Andretti’s crew left his fuel line open which caused him to stall at pit entry at the beginning of the first group. That brought out a red flag. Not long after we got back going, Santino Ferrucci crashed in the final turn when he got into the corner on cold tires too hot and ended up in the tire barriers. The session consequently ended with not many hot laps. That cost Simon Pagenaud (13th), Ed Jones (15th), Tony Kanaan (17th) and Sebastien Bourdais (19th) who didn’t get hot laps.

Teammates Sharing Rows

The start of Sunday’s race may look like an F1 start. No, it’s not a standing start, but the top three rows will feature teammates sharing them. How many times do we see Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull doing this. Well, the top three IndyCar teams in the game will share the first three rows up front. Even ECR shares are Row (8) too.

Ben Hanley Benefits From Wild 1st Group

DragonSpeed is still learning. They have been the slowest in all three practice sessions so far this weekend. But, that didn’t stop them from advancing out of the first round and earning the 12th starting spot. See, when there was very limited time to run hot laps in that group, Hanely did. That allowed him to move on and drivers like Bourdais, Pagenaud and Kanaan to not. While he was 2+ seconds off pace in the second round, he still gets to keep the 12th starting spot.

Kimball’s Strong Weekend

He’s running a limited schedule but he’s been fast this weekend. Kimball, was eighth fastest in practice on Friday and qualified his No. 23 Chevrolet eighth on Saturday.

Carlin is ahead of pace last year and it shows.

Controversy

The first round of qualifying was wild. With limited green flag time in the first group, we saw two drivers spin in the second group but one penalized. Takuma Sato admitted that per the rulebook that his laps should have been penalized. But, per the same rulebook and a similar spin, Scott Dixon wasn’t penalized. That meant that instead of advancing to the second round, Sato was bumped for Dixon. Sato, starts 20th, Dixon 4th. See his beef?

In the second round, Colton Herta had just moved into a good spot for the Fast Six but he was penalized for impeding Charlie Kimball’s progress. Even though Herta pulled over to get out of his way, he was still in what the series considered the racing line. Instead of starting in the top six, he rolls off 11th.

Firestone Grand Prix Starting Lineup

Row 1: Will Power, Josef Newgarden

Row 2: Felix Rosenqvist R, Scott Dixon

Row 3: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi

Row 4: Jack Harvey, Charlie Kimball

Row 5: James Hinchcliffe, Graham Rahal

Row 6: Colton Herta R, Ben Hanley R

Row 7: Simon Pagenaud, Zach Veach

Row 8: Ed Jones, Spencer Pigot

Row 9: Tony Kanaan, Marcus Ericsson R

Row 10: Sebastien Bourdais, Takuma Sato

Row 11: Matheus Leist, Max Chilton

Row 12: Marco Andretti, Santino Ferrucci R