Amid Grid Position Penalty, Hunter-Reay Fastest at Edmonton Indy

Photo Credit: INDYCAR/LAT USA

The 11th event on the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series schedule runs this weekend on the airport circuit in Edmonton. The second of two Canadian rounds, Sunday's Edmonton Indy race lineup was to be set by Saturday qualifying under uncertain weather conditions.

As the afternoon time trials of the IZOD INDYCAR Series transpired, sure enough rain occurring in mid-session on the 2.224-mile race track. While it complicated the one of the earlier qualifying sessions, the track was dry enough for the Firestone Fast Six session that would decide the outcome of the starting gird of the Edmonton Indy.

Prevailing as the fastest car in qualifying with a 1 minute, 17.2338 second lap time, the #28 Andretti Autosport car driven by Ryan Hunter-Reay got the better of Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti. The success on Saturday comes after a troublesome Friday outing on the Edmonton City Centre Airport track. Yesterday, Ryan Hunter-Reay's pursuit of a possible fourth-straight IZOD INDYCAR Series event victory was put at risk due to an engine change made by his Andretti Autosport team. While Hunter-Reay acquired the pole of the race, he will have to drop to 11th on the grid for Sunday's Edmonton Indy. "It's certainly unfortunate to take the grid penalty with our first pole this year, my first pole in a long time. But we'll take it for sure. 11th is better than starting 15th or 16th." said Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Ryan Hunter-Reay's fall from the top spot on the start of the Edmonton Indy promotes the #10 car of Dario Franchitti to the prime spot on the grid for Honda. Franchitti will have the Chevrolet-powered #2 Team Penske car of Ryan Briscoe right beside him. Ryan Briscoe, Canadian driver Alex Tagliani and Helio Castroneves rounded out the Firestone Fast Six.

Along with the pole-stting #28 car falling down the starting order Sunday, there will also be several other high-profile drivers taking penalties due to engine changes. The #9 car of Scott Dixon will have to serve a penalty resulting after the Honda Indy Toronto. Relinquishing a 8th place position in qualifying, Dixon will be starting 18th with his Dallara-Honda. On Saturday, it was announced that the #12 race machine driven by Will Power would also have it's Chevrolet engine swapped out. Power will start in 17th place as a result of the decision by Team Penske. Dixon and Power combine as the winners of the previous four Edmonton Indy races.

With Tagliani starting in the top-5, the Canadian crowd will also react well to the fact that James Hinchcliffe qualified a respectable 12th place for Sunday's race. Hinchcliffe cited lack of rear end grip as stalling his progression to a higher position in qualifying.

A 75-lap event, the scheduled start of the Edmonton Indy will occur at 12:47 pm local time.


2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series
Edmonton Indy
Qualifying Results

	Car #	Driver	Driver Nationality	Race Team	Engine Supplier
1	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
2	10	Dario Franchitti	Scotland	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
3	2	Ryan Briscoe	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
4	15	Takuma Sato	Japan	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	Honda
5	98	Alex Tagliani	Canada	Bryan Herta Autosport with Curb Agajanian	Honda
6	3	Helio Castroneves	Brazil	Team Penske	Chevrolet
7	12	Will Power	Australia	Team Penske	Chevrolet
8	9	Scott Dixon	New Zealand	Target/Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
9	77	Simon Pagenaud	France	Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports	Honda
10	8	Rubens Barrichello	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
11	38	Graham Rahal	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
12	27	James Hinchcliffe	Canada	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
13	18	Justin Wilson	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
14	7	Sebastien Bourdais	France	Dragon Racing	Chevrolet
15	67	Josef Newgarden	United States	Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing	Honda
16	19	James Jakes	England	Dale Coyne Racing	Honda
17	26	Marco Andretti	United States	Andretti Autosport	Chevrolet
18	5	EJ Viso	Venezuela	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
19	83	Charlie Kimball	United States	Chip Ganassi Racing	Honda
20	22	Oriol Servia	Spain	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	Chevrolet
21	4	JR Hildebrand	United States	Panther Racing	Chevrolet
22	11	Tony Kanaan	Brazil	KV Racing Technology	Chevrolet
23	78	Simona de Silvestro	Switzerland	Lotus-HVM Racing	Lotus
24	20	Ed Carpenter	United States	Ed Carpenter Racing	Chevrolet
25	14	Mike Conway	England	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Honda

Denotes drivers and teams believed to be recipients of grid position penalties for Sunday. Will start 10 spots lower.