LOUDON, N.H. (Aug. 13, 2011) – Firestone Indy Lights Series championship points leader Josef Newgarden captured the pole for tomorrow’s Firestone Indy Lights 100 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Newgarden, who pilots the No. 11 Copart/Score Big/Robo-Pong/SSM for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, zoomed, around “The Magic Mile” for two laps with an aggregated time of 49.4908 seconds, at an average speed of 149.119 mph
“It’s good for the guys, they work very hard,” said Newgarden. “I want to move up when the time is right, I want to adapt. You have to be very versatile in this championship. I have learned a lot from my fellow drivers. I’m excited about the future, but the time to focus is right now and I’m focused on tomorrow’s race.”
This is the third pole of the season for the Hendersonville, Tenn., native.
Starting second will be Newgarden’s Sam Schmidt Motorsports teammate Bryan Clauson. The driver of the No. 77 Mazda Road to Indy/SSM recorded an aggregated time of 49.9075 seconds, at an average speed of 147.874 mph
“We came here Thursday and we hadn’t tested so it was learning on the fly for all of us,” said Clauson. “It’s been a lot of fun. The guys gave me a great race car from the time we unloaded.”
Starting third will be Esteban Guerrieri making it the first ever one-two-three start for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
The Firstone Indy Lights Series is set to take the green flag at 1:15 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. Tickets can be purchases by calling the NHMS ticket hotline at (603)783-4931 or by visiting www.nhms.com.