Franchitti leads Long Beach Grand Prix 2013 qualifying results

Long Beach, Calif. -  Dario Franchitti claimed the P1 Award for the 39th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, posting a quick lap of 1 minute, 07.2379 seconds in the waning seconds of the 10-minute Firestone Fast Six on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street circuit to earn his first pole start since Toronto last July.

"(Winning the pole) meant a lot," said Franchitti. "We had a very fast race car in Barber, but man, we really made a mess of qualifying. Today it was nice to go out there and really have a great car and get everything out of it. So thank you to everyone on the Target team because it's been a tough start to the season, especially for the No. 10 but really with everybody."

Reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was .0555 of a second behind Franchitti in the No. 1 DHL car for Andretti Autosport and will start on the front row for the second consecutive race.

"The guys gave me a great car as always," said Hunter-Reay. "This team has been doing a great job. The DHL/Sun Drop Chevy has been just awesome. But, this is unfortunate. To lose it by half a tenth is worse than losing it by four-tenths. It was close, but today really doesn't count. We will go get them tomorrow. We are starting from the front row so I think things are looking up for us."

Will Power, last year's race winner, and Takuma Sato will share Row 2.

It was Franchitti's 30th pole (tied with Sebastien Bourdais for seventh all time) of his Indy car career, which began in 1997. Franchitti is seeking to break a tie with Bourdais and Paul Tracy with his 32nd victory. His last win was the 2012 Indianapolis 500.

Qualifying for the P1 Award consists of three segments. In Segment One, each group receives 10 minutes of track time. The fastest six cars from each group advance to Segment Two, while the remaining cars are assigned positions 13-26. Group One drivers will occupy the odd-numbered positions (13, 15, 17...) while Group Two drivers will occupy the even-numbered positions (14, 16, 18...) based on their fastest lap times.

During Segment Two, the 12 advancing cars receive 10 minutes of track time. The fastest six advance to the Firestone Fast Six Shootout while the remaining six cars are ranked in positions 7-12 based on their fastest laps.

During the Firestone Fast Six, the six cars receive 10 minutes of track time, with a guarantee of five minutes of green flag time. At the end of the session, the cars are ranked 1-6 based on their fastest laps. Any driver who causes a red flag during any segment will lose their two quickest laps.

The qualifying position, car number (in parentheses), driver, chassis-engine, time, and speed (in parentheses) are listed below:

1. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.2379 (105.369)
2. (1) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.2934 (105.282)
3. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.3987 (105.118)
4. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.4472 (105.042)
5. (17) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.5994 (104.806)
6. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.9698 (104.235)
7. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.4358 (105.060)
8. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.5891 (104.822)
9. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.6306 (104.757)
10. (5) EJ Viso, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.7209 (104.618)
11. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.7799 (104.527)
12. (4) JR Hildebrand, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.7902 (104.511)
13. (16) James Jakes, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.9185 (104.313)
14. (2) AJ Allmendinger, Dallara-Chevy, 01:08.2001 (103.883)
15. (7) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 01:07.9823 (104.215)
16. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 01:08.2579 (103.795)
17. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 01:07.9979 (104.191)
18. (22) Oriol Servia, Dallara-Chevy, 01:08.2889 (103.747)
19. (55) Tristan Vautier, Dallara-Honda, 01:08.1512 (103.957)
20. (78) Simona de Silvestro, Dallara-Chevy, 01:08.3173 (103.704)
21. (6) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 01:08.4404 (103.518)
22. (98) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 01:08.6431 (103.212)
23. (18) Ana Beatriz, Dallara-Honda, 01:09.9133 (101.337)
24. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 01:09.0318 (102.631)
25. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, No Time (No Speed)
26. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Chevy, 01:09.4506 (102.012)
27. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 01:09.6706 (101.690)


Long Beach 100 Firestone Indy Lights Series Qualifying 

Carlos Munoz earned his third consecutive Pole Award with a last-lap, track-record lap of 1:12.9374 for the Long Beach 100. It supplanted Jack Hawksworth, who seconds before jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:13.3324.

The Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crew of No. 77 Jack Hawksworth worked for more than seven hours Friday afternoon and evening to convert a backup car into the race car the Firestone Indy Lights point leader will use this weekend.

Hawksworth's primary car was too damaged to repair at the track, so the team switched to a backup car, which is the same car that Esteban Guerrieri used to win last year's Long Beach 100.

1. (26) Carlos Munoz, 01:12.9374 (97.135)
2. (77) Jack Hawksworth, 01:13.3324 (96.612)
3. (12) Zach Veach, 01:13.3614 (96.574)
4. (5) Peter Dempsey, 01:13.3961 (96.528)
5. (7) Gabby Chaves, 01:13.5298 (96.353)
6. (2) Juan Pablo Garcia, 01:13.7280 (96.094)
7. (22) Mikael Grenier, 01:13.8222 (95.971)
8. (4) Jorge Goncalvez, 01:14.4856 (95.116)
9. (56) Matthew Di Leo, 01:15.5059 (93.831)
10. (8) Sage Karam, 01:15.9610 (93.269)


By Staff of The Daily Sports Herald and news services