On a perfect SoCal day at Auto Club Speedway, the MAVTV 500 qualifying session set the stage for Saturday’s IndyCar championship battle.  Scott Dixon comes to the race with a 25 point lead, having erased a 49 point deficit to Helio Castroneves during the Grand Prix of Houston double-header.  Castroneves had a disastrous weekend in Houston while Dixon shined.

Castroneves’s teammate WIll Power denied both title contenders the single point pole position bonus by posting the fastest time during the MAVTV 500 qualifying.  When Power went out, Castroneves was on provisional pole with Dixon still to go, so Power had to set his best time to prevent Dixon from taking pole.  Power bumped Castroneves to second, and Dixon ended up qualifying seventh.  AJ Allmendinger, driving a third Team Penske car set the third fasted time after not having raced an IndyCar since his horrible weekend at Detroit in June.  Castroneves will have two strong wing men as he attempts to claw back the points he lost in Houston and win the season championship.

Alex Tagliani, subbing for the injured Dario Franchitti, will be Dixon’s teammate this weekend in the #10 Target car.  Tagliani actually won a CART race at Auto Club Speedway more than ten years ago.

Defending IndyCar series champ, Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won the 2012 title at this very race continued a challenging year by qualifying fifteenth.

The final results for the MAVTV 500 qualifying:

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Speed
 1.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     220.775
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     219.677*
 3.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske/Chevy     218.894
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     218.513
 5.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    217.986
 6.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      217.979
 7.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    217.979*
 8.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   217.958
 9.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  217.932
10.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     217.871*
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   217.798
12.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         217.566
13.  Alex Tagliani        Ganassi/Honda    217.419
14.  Carlos Munoz         Andretti/Chevy   217.050
15.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   216.898
16.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    216.447
17.  Oriol Servia         Panther/Chevy    216.213
18.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      216.106*
19.  JR Hildebrand        Herta/Honda      215.967
20.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    215.207
21.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         214.679
22.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     213.262*
23.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda
24.  Pippa Mann           Coyne/Honda
25.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda

* 10 spot grid penalty pending

More pics from MAVTV 500 Qualifying

Detailed information on the MAVTV 500