Ryan Hunter-Reay wins pole position for Long Beach Grand Prix
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Ryan Hunter-Reay won the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, a race the former Verizon IndyCar Series champion won in 2010.
Hunter-Reay, who drives for the Andretti Autosport team, turned a lap of 104.462 mph on the 11-turn, 1.97-mile Long Beach street course Saturday to capture the first starting spot.
His teammate James Hinchcliffe qualified second among the 23 cars in the field at 104.280 mph.
Three-time Long Beach winner Sebastien Bourdais was third and Josef Newgarden qualified fourth.
IndyCar uses a three-round knockout style of qualifying, with the six fastest cars advancing to the final round, and some of the sport’s biggest names weren’t fast enough to reach the third session.
They included reigning IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (who qualified seventh), former Long Beach winner Helio Castroneves (ninth), Tony Kanaan (13th) and two-time Long Beach winner Will Power (14th).
Takuma Sato, the A.J. Foyt Racing driver who won the Long Beach race a year ago, qualified 15th.
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