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SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The fastest nine drivers who will duke it out for the pole on Sunday have been decided. Nearly half those drivers compete under the Andretti Autosport flag.

Marco Andretti certainly made his dad, Michael Andretti, proud with a four-lap average of 231.351 mph to take the provisional pole position into the last day of qualifying set to happen early Sunday afternoon.

“His run blew me away,” said Michael Andretti. “Yesterday we had a lot of confidence. At that point it was our go to get five or six cars in the top nine.”

Honda cars outpaced the Chevy powered cars significantly with Honda’s taking eight of the nine spots available in the Fast 9 Shootout.

Marco Andretti was not surprised at the success of Honda in qualifying.

“It shows the work they’ve been doing,” he said. “It’s a lot of credit to them, because horsepower is everything around this place. That’s always the first hurdle … is having speed.”

The only Chevy powered car to make the Fast 9 was Rinus Veekay, whose 231.114 average also made him the fastest rookie at 6th. Alex Palou of Dale Coyne Racing was the next fastest rookie and right behind Veekay.

It was a rough day for Team Penske who struggled on Fast Friday to find speed and the struggles carried over into Saturday. Not a single Team Penske driver made the Fast 9, marking the first time ever Penske has been shut out of the event.

Josef Newgarden was the fastest Penske driver with a 13th best speed of 230.296

The Fast 9 Shootout with consist of Marco Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, James Hinchcliffe, Scott Dixon, Rinus Veekay, Alex Palou, Graham Rahal, and Takuma Sato.

Each driver will get one attempt to try and make a run for the pole. The event starts at 1:30 and will end at 2:30, sandwiched between two practice sessions.

Alexander Rossi, also of Andretti Autosport was third quickest Saturday, and said they are not getting over confident.

“Just because we’re going to be starting up front doesn’t mean we have an easy race day ahead of us by any means,” Rossi said. “But, it definitely makes life a little bit easier.”

After Sunday, drivers will not be able to practice until Carb Day on Friday Aug. 21. Race day is that Sunday, Aug. 23.

 

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