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Pole-sitter Will Power leads Penske 1-2-3-4 in St. Petersburg qualifying

 
IndyCar driver Will Power pumps his fist as he climbs from his car after winning the pole position during IndyCar qualifying at the Firestone Grand Prix of St.Petersburg on Saturday (03/28/15).
IndyCar driver Will Power pumps his fist as he climbs from his car after winning the pole position during IndyCar qualifying at the Firestone Grand Prix of St.Petersburg on Saturday (03/28/15).
Published March 29, 2015

ST. PETERSBURG

Team Penske driver Juan Montoya said he had one takeaway from Friday's first day of practice, when his team had the three quickest cars.

"That we're not 1-2-3-4," Montoya said.

They were Saturday.

Defending race and series champion Will Power set a track record and Penske's cars swept the top four qualifying spots for today's season-opening IndyCar Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Power led Penske's dominance by twice clocking the fastest time ever around the 1.8-mile circuit.

The two-time Grand Prix winner broke it once in the first round and again in the second round, with a lap of 1 minute, 0.6509 seconds (106.841 mph). That topped the mark set by Sebastien Bourdais (1:00.928), when the track was slightly different and the CART series had more powerful engines.

"That just shows the work we did over the winter," said Power, who has won five of the past six poles here. "It's four good drivers who will battle it out (today)."

Among themselves, and among the rest of the 24-car field.

New teammate Simon Pagenaud was three-100ths of a second behind Power's No. 1 Chevrolet and will start second in his Team Penske debut. Helio Castroneves qualified third with Montoya completing Penske's sweep.

If they can keep the top four spots in today's 110-lap race, they'll match a feat Andretti Green Racing accomplished here in 2005, still the only 1-2-3-4 sweep by a team in series history.

"It's a perfect testament of great teamwork," said Castroneves, a three-time Grand Prix winner. "Having 1-2-3-4 shows we're pushing to the limit, all four of us."

It also serves as a reminder that Penske remains the team to beat, even in a new season full of unknowns.

Power and Castroneves finished first and second in last year's series championship. Montoya was fourth, despite struggling early in the season as he readjusted to open-wheel racing after seven seasons in NASCAR.

When Pagenaud became available in the offseason, Penske plucked the series' fifth-place finisher from Schmidt Peterson Motorsports to complete its star-studded lineup.

"The last thing we thought about was to run a fourth car," team owner Roger Penske said. "But when Pagenaud became available, it was a five-minute conversation. … Drivers of that caliber don't become available."

The addition of Pagenaud has been an extra boost to one of racing's powerhouse teams. He brings four series victories and provides engineers with an extra set of data to analyze — an important advantage with teams trying to decipher the new bodywork that debuts this weekend.

"It's easy to look at the data and improve yourself personally in this corner if you're not the best there," Pagenaud said. "It just makes you stronger every session."

And Saturday, it created a gap between Penske and the field. Bourdais will start sixth in his No. 11 KVSH Racing Chevrolet. Last year's pole-sitter, Takuma Sato, was fifth as the only Honda to advance to the final qualifying round of six drivers.

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Eighteen cars were all within one second of Power, but Penske remains the favorite thanks to the latest round of success at a track where it has won six of the past nine races.

"I think all the year is going to be like that," Montoya said. "We've just got to make sure we don't beat each other."

Contact Matt Baker at mbaker@tampabay.com. Follow @MBakerTBTimes.