AUSTIN, TX – He did it again. Will Power used a late lap in the third and final round of NTT IndyCar Series knockout qualifying to best the field en route to the pole for Sunday’s IndyCar Classic (1 p.m. ET/NBCSN/IndyCar Radio Network).

Power, circled the 20 turn Circuits of the Americas facility with a time of 1:46.0177-seconds to earn his 56th career Indy Car pole in his No. 12 Chevrolet. The Aussie won the pole for the season opening race on the streets of St. Pete too and is now just 11 poles shy of tying Mario Andretti’s 67 poles for most ever in the series.

His Team Penske team ran two laps in the Fast Six which the final one proved to be the knockout blow to his other five rivals. Power, said that the lap was blazing fast and felt like he held his breath for all 3.427-miles.

Alexander Rossi will join Power on the front row with the Andretti Autosport driving circling the track with a time of 1:46.1761-seconds in his No. 27 Honda. Rossi, said that it was a near perfect lap for him which was frustrating to lose the pole despite such a good lap. He’s had a great weekend too with him being third, third and first respectively in practice.

Rossi’s teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay will start third in his No. 28 Honda. Hunter-Reay qualified with a time of 1:46.3228-seconds. He was fourth in all three practice sessions this weekend.

Rookie Colton Herta (1:46.3594-seconds) will start fourth while the Chip Ganassi Racing teammates of Felix Rosenqvist (1:46.5680-seconds) and Scott Dixon (1:46.9375-seconds) rounded out the Fast Six.

Here are my main takeaways.

Power Is The Pole King

We discuss this every race weekend, but I think it’s a matter of when, not if, Power catches Mario Andretti for most poles in the series. He’s now 2-for-2 this season and just 11 poles shy of Andretti’s record.

Power, has won 12 poles since the start of the 2017 season, so it’s not too far out of the realm of thinking to see Power break the record as soon as next year.

The drivers aren’t shocked anymore to see him earn Verizon P1 Pole awards. Rossi, was frustrated to have put down such a good lap in Q3 but says there’s a reason Power has won almost 60 poles. He’s just that good.

Rookies Shine

Two of the top five starting spots belong to rookies. In fact, four of the top 11 starters are first year IndyCar drivers. That shows you how strong this class is.

Colton Herta made it to the Firestone Fast Six on Saturday as he was the underdog story of the session. Herta, was going against both Chip Ganassi Racing drivers, half of the Andretti Autosport fleet to go along with the active leader in poles in Team Penske’s Will Power. That’s a tall task. Combined, there’s 393 poles between those three teams. Harding, has zero.

Power, won the pole in St. Pete and has 56 career Indy Car poles now during his storied career. Only Mario Andretti (67) has more. Ganassi and Andretti are no slouches either. It was those five vs. Herta for the pole for Sunday’s 60 Lap race.

Nevertheless, here Herta was. Granted, this shouldn’t be a shock though as he was first, first, first and second respectively in test back in February and second in the opening practice session of the weekend on Friday morning. The problem was, Herta’s Honda engine blew and caught fire in that practice session. His team had to work hard to get his car repaired just to get back on track for the late afternoon warmup later on in the day.

They’d end up 12th in practice on Saturday but storm their way through the first two rounds of qualifying on Saturday to make a Fast Six appearance. He will start fourth in Sunday’s race. If you remember right too, Herta had the speed to make the Fast Six in St. Pete but his lap was penalized for impeding Charlie Kimball’s progress.

After two races, Herta’s speed is there as he should be 2-for-2 for Fast Six appearances.

Pato O’Ward dazzled too.

In his IndyCar debut in Sonoma, Patricio O’Ward made it to the Fast Six. For Sunday’s race at COTA, he will start eighth in his No. 31 Chevrolet. He hasn’t been in an Indy Car race since Sonoma and only tested at Barber just last week. Here he is beating his teammate Max Chilton in two of the three practice sessions and out qualifying him by five positions.

Throw in Felix Rosenqvist (5th) and Santino Ferrucci (11th) and you have a strong chance the rookies land in the top 10 again.

For Rosenqvist, he outqualified Scott Dixon for a second straight race and looks as quick, if not quicker right now than his five time champ teammate. Ferrucci, outqualified his four time champion teammate of Sebastien Bourdais too after  out finishing him in St. Pete.

Big Named Drivers Caught Out By Late Round Spins (Red Flags)

For the second straight race, Sebastien Bourdais was caught out while trying to advance out of the first round of knockout qualifying. Two weeks ago in St. Pete, Bourdais was on a hot lap until his teammate Santino Ferrucci got into the final corner too hot and went off track. It cost him a good qualifying lap because the track went red due to Ferrucci’s incident and in turn, the session consequentially ended.

It happened again to him on Saturday in COTA.

Bourdais, was on a hot lap in the closing minutes but Jack Harvey spun in the final corner to bring out the red flag and once again, ended the session. As a result, Bourdais will start 17th in Sunday’s race.

He wasn’t the only one caught by this either. James Hinchcliffe was a victim of his teammates spin too, as he was on pace to get into the top six and advance to the second round prior to Harvey’s spin. Due to the red flag, his lap time slowed down and he failed to move out of the first round. He’ll start 15th instead.

Hinchcliffe, was frustrated because he had one lap on the Firestone alternates but didn’t get the job done. His second lap was the quicker one, which Hinchcliffe said was inexcusable. He’s visibly frustrated to start this far back on Sunday.

A third SPM driver was caught out in the second group of round one with Marcus Ericsson not getting a top second lap after Tony Kanaan spun in the closing minute to bring out a red flag in that round too. Ericsson, will join Hinchcliffe in Round 8 (16th).

Simon Pagenaud was the biggest name that was caught in the second group though as he will come from the back. He’ll start a disappointing 22nd.

Marco Andretti will join him in the back and roll off 20th. So will both Ed Carpenter Racing cars who will start 18th (Ed Jones) and 19th (Spencer Pigot) respectively.

Between Pagenaud, Andretti, Kanaan, Hinchcliffe and Ericsson, that’s a ton of star power coming from the back.

Needless to say, those red flags shook the order up.

IndyCar Classic Starting Lineup

Row 1: Will Power, Alexander Rossi

Row 2: Ryan Hunter-Reay, Colton Herta R

Row 3: Felix Rosenqvist R, Scott Dixon

Row 4: Josef Newgarden, Pato O’Ward R

Row 5: Zach Veach, Graham Rahal

Row 6: Santino Ferrucci R, Matheus Leist

Row 7: Max Chilton, Takuma Sato

Row 8: James Hinchcliffe, Marcus Ericsson R

Row 9: Sebastien Bourdais, Ed Jones

Row 10: Spencer Pigot, Marco Andretti

Row 11: Kyle Kaiser, Simon Pagenaud

Row 12: Jack Harvey, Tony Kanaan