CARPENTER POSTS 13TH FASTEST SPEED IN POCONO QUALIFYING; TEXAS WINNER SETS HIS SIGHTS ON SUNDAY'S 500-MILER

CARPENTER POSTS 13TH FASTEST SPEED IN POCONO QUALIFYING; TEXAS WINNER SETS HIS SIGHTS ON SUNDAY'S 500-MILER

Topics: Ed Carpenter, Pocono INDYCAR 500

CARPENTER POSTS 13TH FASTEST SPEED IN POCONO QUALIFYING; TEXAS WINNER SETS HIS SIGHTS ON SUNDAY'S 500-MILER

Tom Blattler
Ed Carpenter Racing
July 5, 2014

Also released as: Carpenter Takes 13th in Pocono Qualifying, Set For 500-Miler

Indy 500 Pole Winner Seeks 2nd 2014 Victory in 150th IndyCar Start

July 5th 2014 - LONG POND, Pa. – It was definitely the "Tricky Triangle” for team owner/driver Ed Carpenter during Saturday’s qualifications at the 2.5-mile tri-oval of Pocono Raceway. And he wasn’t pleased about it.

The recent Texas Motor Speedway race winner posted the 13th fastest two-lap average Saturday in his Ed Carpenter Racing/Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka Chevrolet as the 22-car field prepares for Sunday’s Pocono 500-Mile event fueled by Sunoco.

The two-time Indy 500 pole winner recorded an average speed of 221.019 miles per hour to place him on the inside of the 5th row in the 200-lap contest which gets underway at 1:01 p.m. EDT. The 11th race of the 18-event Verizon IndyCar Series will start three abreast at the green flag Sunday.

This will be Carpenter’s 150th Verizon IndyCar Series career start and third race of the 2014 campaign. Ed started on the pole at the Indy 500 and fifth in the Firestone 600 at Texas. He won the Texas event on June 7 while teammate Mike Conway took the checkered flag at Long Beach on April 13 for ECR.

Sunday’s Pocono 500 will be televised by NBC Sports Network and broadcast on the IndyCar Radio Network on Sirius 209 and XM 213.

Juan Pablo Montoya captured Saturday’s pole position with a speed of 223.871 m.p.h. in his Chevrolet-powered machine. Will Power and Takuma Sato fill out the front row.

"I had to lift off the throttle in turn one on the first lap so I wasn’t expecting a very good qualifying run after that,” said Carpenter, a three-time IndyCar Series race winner. "I think we missed on the balance of the car today. It’s frustrating because I think we left a bunch on the table today. I really felt like we could have run a 223. The wind is very challenging today here. You have to be careful in the corners.

"I’m not sure what happened on those two laps. The car has a lot of speed but we missed it somewhere. This place is important for track position so I didn’t want to qualify too far back. I feel our race car is pretty good and it’s a 500-mile race so you can make certain changes on pit stops and in the cockpit.”