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Helio Castroneves leads Team Penske march in Road America qualifying

AutoRacing, IndyCar

Team Penske will have a stranglehold on the first two rows of the IndyCar race at Road America.

Helio Castroneves won the pole in qualifying Saturday, turning in a lap time of 1:41.30. It was his 50th career pole and third of the season.

Castroneves beat out teammate Will Power by 0.06 seconds to take the pole. Power won last year's race at the rural Wisconsin road course.

"He just gets faster as he gets older," Power joked. "He's like wine."

Castroneves, in his 20th IndyCar season, broke a tie for third on the career poles list with Bobby Unser. Only Mario Andretti (67) and A.J. Foyt (53) have more poles.

As he walked to the podium after qualifying, Castroneves talked about the honor of winning what he thought was his 51st career pole before he was corrected by the moderator.

"Did I say 51? Sorry it's a bad habit," said Castroneves, clearing his throat. "Well anyway, you guys know what I'm talking about."

Two more Penske drivers will start in the second row after Josef Newgarden finished third and Simon Pagenaud came in fourth. The Chevy-powered Penske cars also turned in the fastest practice times most of the weekend.

"You'd rather be surrounded by your teammates than other people you might not be able to trust as much," Newgarden said. "We'll try to take care of each other as best as we can then race each other."

Points leader Scott Dixon will start fifth, with Graham Rahal starting sixth.

"Obviously [Penske has] got something going here that we don't," Rahal said. "We'll see how it goes tomorrow. Go out there and take the challenge to them, as will Dixie, [and] see what happens."

All six of the top drivers are separated by 49 points atop the crowded season leaderboard.

Mikhail Aleshin will start 19th in Sunday's race. He arrived early Saturday following an immigration issue as he tried to reach the United States.

Aleshin had been in France to compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last week. The immigration issue prevented the Russian driver from making it to Road America for practice Friday. Robert Wickens drove the No. 7 car in Aleshin's place for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.

"I'm happy I got the visa," Aleshin said. "I'm happy to race for this team, in this series, in this country."

After flying to the United States, Aleshin said he found out that his luggage was lost by an airline.

Tony Kanaan will start 16th, a season low for the veteran driver, and Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato will start in the second-to-last row in 20th place in a disappointing effort.

Kanaan should benefit from the experience of his previous success at the road course. He has finished outside the top 10 just once in six starts at Road America. He was second last year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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