Ryan Hunter-Reay captures Grand Prix of Alabama pole

LEEDS, Ala. -- Ryan Hunter-Reay captured the pole for Sunday’s Honda Grand Prix of Alabama with a lap time of 1:07.0871 around the 2.5-mile Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Ala.
It is his third career pole and first since Edmonton in 2012. Will Power, the winner of the previous two Alabama races will join him on front row.
Saturday’s qualifying session was a further confirmation of just how far Hunter-Reay has progressed in recent seasons, as Barber has long-tormented the Andretti Autosport veteran. In three starts at the Alabama road course, Hunter-Reay’s best finish is a 12th. He’s primed to improve on that stat as track position remains the single most important key to victory at the thin and built-for-motorcycles road course.

“I think the No. 1 team certainly does a great job of staying after me to improve my driving in certain corners,” Hunter-Reay said. “Scott Dixon has certainly been the quickest guy all weekend here and I’ve been chipping away at some of the areas that he’s been quick. That certainly helped us.

“I’ve got to have to have the car to do it and those guys put the car under me to get it done. I knew in the last couple sessions it was sort of up to me to get the lap out of it.”
Saturday’s qualifying session was perhaps marred by a penalty levied against Takuma Sato, whom race control decided had blocked Justin Wilson at the end of the second round of knockout qualifying. Sato had advanced to the final round but was penalized to the back of the second round field. As a result, Tristan Vautier advanced to the Firestone Fast Six where he ultimately turned the fourth-fastest time.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series veteran and former Champ Car World Series race winner AJ Allmendinger is running his first of three IndyCar Series races for Team Penske this weekend and will start 10th.
Complete qualifying results (and the projected starting lineup) can be found below: