Dixon wins pole, eyes another IndyCar victory at Mid

That includes a victory in a 500-mile race on the oval at Fontana, Calif. – his first victory since the first event of his rookie season of 2008 when, at 19, he became the youngest victor of an IndyCar race.

Devout describes his status as an Ohio State fan, especially football.

“I got held up by Gabby [Chaves] three laps in a row”.

Hang on, Sloopy, because IndyCar is coming to the Mid-Ohio Sports vehicle Course this weekend and Graham Rahal is ready to roll all over his home state. “Turns 4 and 5 have been packed over there already, which is fantastic to see”.

Gil de Ferran and Dario Franchitti were having lunch Saturday morning in Honda hospitality and both predicted their shared Mid-Ohio track record was going to fall during qualifying. But no one could catch Dixon, driver of the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. “But our intent and our wish is to resolve those issues obviously before the end of this season so we can move forward with an extension”.

Reigning series champion Will Power, driving the No. 1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, will join Dixon on the front row after posting a best lap of 1:04.6782.

“It’s wide open”, Dixon said. “There are guys in the Verizon IndyCar Series that run really well at Mid-Ohio, so we need to bring our “A game” this weekend”. “That’s our goal”.

Dixon, who has dominated here for Ganassi’s squad, winning five of the past eight races, has fallen from second to third in points and finished 18th at Iowa; the last auto running at the finish.

Championship points leader Juan Pablo Montoya of Team Penske will start 10th in the No. 2 Hawk Performance Chevrolet.

“Part of it is just how smooth he is around here”, said Charlie Kimball, who qualified sixth.

“Back when we started this, we had a lot of discussion about some of the technical issues and the technical vision moving forward”, said St. Cyr. I think we were probably a little better, maybe third would have been possible with a couple more tenths, but I didn’t get it out of the vehicle when I needed to.

Ohio native Graham Rahal is the sentimental choice this weekend; Rahal’s a proud Buckeye from nearby New Albany who’ll be sporting Ohio State colours this week. “The way the track changes, continually evolving, I think he does a really good job of staying on that edge and never getting far from the edge of the track”.