Colombian Carlos Munoz captured the first IndyCar pole of his career Friday and will lead the field into Saturday's race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The Andretti Autosport driver produced a two-lap qualifying average of 217.137 mph (349.45 Km/h) on the 1.455-mile (2.34 Km) oval to qualify ahead of last year's Fort Worth winner Scott Dixon of New Zealand. Munoz was the fifth qualifier in the order and had to wait nervously as standout qualifiers Dixon, Will Power of Australia, Brazil's Helio Castroneves and American Marco Andretti made their runs. Castroneves, a four-time Texas race winner, was third-quickest in his Penske Chevrolet. Japan's Takuma Sato was credited with an equal qualifying speed but will start fourth because his two-lap time was 0.0001 of a second slower than that of Castroneves. Josef Newgarden qualified fifth fastest and France's Simon Pagenaud locked up the sixth starting spot. Pagenaud arrived in Fort Worth with a sizeable lead in the series standings after eight of 16 races. Pagenaud leads Dixon atop the standings by 80 points, with Castroneves 86 points behind the leader. Logano on top in Michigan Joey Logano improved his chances of racing to his first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory of the year, posting a lap of 199.557 mph Friday to win the pole at Michigan International Speedway. Logano said the cars are "out of control," on the two-mile oval. Logano, who won 11 times the previous two years, will start first for the second time this year and the 16th in his career. "Track position always plays when you're making decisions," he said. Martin Truex Jr. will start second, his ninth start among the top 10 this season. Tony Stewart, who plans to retire at the end of the season, will start third in the 40-car race in his best qualifying performance of the year. A new aerodynamic package along with wide and slick 2-mile oval, which had drivers going "sideways," according to Truex, should set up for quite a race. Truex was among 26 drivers who failed their initial NASCAR pre-qualifying inspection due to not meeting the new aerodynamic guidelines that are debuting this week. His qualifying run almost did not happen because his car failed NASCAR pre-qualifying inspection twice due to not meeting the new aero guidelines. His crew was able to get the car approved just as the qualifying was starting. Logano was the second in qualifying the last two weeks at Charlotte and Pocono.
