Road To Indy on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. VeeKay wins first Indy Lights pole – top 8 covered by less than half a second

By Steve Wittich

Rinus van Kalmthout (VeeKay) scored his first career Indy Lights pole in an exciting qualifying session that had the provisional pole swap between a trio of the driver in the final minute.

Juncos Racing VeeKay was the only driver to post a lap below 65 seconds, with his quickest lap at 64.9935 seconds.

Race # 1 pole sitter and winner Robert Megennis will start outside of VeeKay. His best lap was only five-hundredths off the pole.

Ryan Norman and David Malukas will start on row two.

The top nine drivers were covered by less than a half-second.

Brrrrr. The second Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires qualifying session got underway at 8:30 am. The skies were sunny, but the temperatures were chilly. The air temperature was 48F, and the track temperature was 54F.

VeeKay and Askew both spent time at the top of the timing screens in the first half of the 30-minute session.

The quickest lap with fifteen minutes remaining was 75.380 seconds. He was followed by Megennis, Askew, Claman, Norman, Malukas, Kellett, Kohl and Sowery.

At this point in the session, the entire field was back in pit lane for a few adjustments and fresh Cooper Tire slicks.

Megennis, Askew, and Juncos Racing veteran Kellett were the first three drivers to get back on track to try and get some temperature in their tires.

Belardi Auto Racing teammate Claman and Kohl were the last two drivers to get back on the 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.

It took at least five laps to get the Cooper Tire slicks up to temperature.

The first driver to go quicker was Megennis, who shot to the provisional pole with a lap of 75.3698. Askew, Sowery, and Kellett were the next drivers to go faster.

Megennis improved his lap time on his next lap with four minutes remaining in the 30-minute session.

Megennis lowered the time again on his next lap, and he needed it as VeeKay began his hot laps, turning a lap only seven-hundredths slower than Megennis.

Megennis lowered the provisional pole again on his next lap. VeeKay and Norman were right on his heels.

With one minute left in the session Norman, then Megennis and VeeKay all spent seconds on the provisional pole.

David Malukas was able to turn his quickest lap of the weekend and move up to the fourth spot on the grid; bumping points leader Askew back to fifth.

Indy Lights Grand Prix of Indianapolis Presented By Cooper Tires Race Qualifying #2 (Unofficial) results.