Franchitti Wins Pole at Milwaukee; Vautier Secures 50th Win for Sam Schmidt Motorsports

Photo courtesy: INDYCAR

WEST ALLIS, Wisconsin — Dario Franchitti will start from the pole for the second consecutive year at the Milwaukee Mile after recording a two-lap average speed of 168.737 mph (43.3100 seconds) for the Milwaukee IndyFest on June 15.

Franchitti, driver of the No. 10 Cottonelle car for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, tied Al Unser for seventh on the all-time list with 27 poles.

Franchitti, who posted the quickest lap of the session at 169.156 mph, could make a significant advancement in the championship standings with his second consecutive victory at the historic track as seven drivers will incur 10-grid spot penalties for unapproved engine changes -- including front-runner Will Power and teammate Scott Dixon. Franchitti will enter the 225-lap race 63 points behind Power.

Among the others receiving the grid penalty is Justin Wilson, who followed his first oval victory June 9 at Texas Motor Speedway with a front-row qualifying effort in the No. 18 Sonny's BBQ car for Dale Coyne Racing. His spot will be taken by Ryan Hunter-Reay in the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car for Andretti Autosport (167.911 mph).

Power qualified fourth in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, but will relinquish that position to Rubens Barrichello, who is making his debut at Milwaukee in No. 8 BMC/Embrase/KV Racing Technology car. He'll be joined on Row 2 by Helio Castroneves (166.763) in the No. 3 Penske Truck Rental car.

KV Racing Technology teammates E.J. Viso and Tony Kanaan will share Row 3.

Also on June 15, Tristan Vautier, who earlier in the day earned the pole position for the Firestone Indy Lights 100, held off Sebastian Saavedra of Team AFS by 0.3370 of a second to provide Sam Schmidt Motorsports its 50th victory in the series. The team has been in the series since its inception in 2002.

It was the second victory this season from the pole for Vautier, driving the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM with Curb-Agajanian car. Teammate Esteban Guerrieri, last year's race winner who started sixth in the No. 11 Pistas Argentinas/SSM with Curb-Agajanian car, advanced to third place.

By virtue of the three bonus points for the pole (1) and leading the most laps (2), Vautier leaped Guerrieri for the points lead 241-238 heading to the Iowa Speedway next week.

Saavedra, who overtook Victor Carbone on the first lap for second, hung with Vautier following two restarts and closed on the final laps but couldn't get a run to make the pass.

David Ostella, driving the No. 22 TMR-Global Precast-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, overtook Carlos Munoz in the No. 26 Team Dialy-Ser car for Andretti Autosport on the final lap for fourth. Victor Carbone finished sixth in the No. 3 Mav TV/Nevoni/SSM with Curb-Agajanian entry.