ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- IndyCar champion Will Power led a Team Penske sweep in qualifying for the long-awaited opener.
It was no surprise to see Power twice break the track record Saturday in qualifying and lead teammates Simon Pagenaud, Helio Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya in a Penske romp.
Montoya even hinted at what was to come after three Penske drivers paced the opening practice of the weekend. Asked if that early showing meant anything, he replied it was a surprise Penske wasn't 1-2-3-4 on the leaderboard.
Now the only question lingering is if the Penske quartet can be stopped in today's race.
"There's four of us, four really good drivers, great equipment, similar equipment," said Pagenaud, who joined the team during the offseason as Penske expanded to four cars to accommodate the French driver. "It's easy to look at the data and improve yourself personally. It just makes you stronger every session.
"It's a good dynamic. We're having a good time actually."
Power has led every on-track session around the temporary street circuit in downtown St. Petersburg. He was briefly bumped from the top starting spot by Pagenaud, but quickly reclaimed it with a lap at 1 minute, .6931 seconds.
"I was really satisfied to get the pole," said Power, who has won five of the past six poles at St. Petersburg and opened last year's championship season with a victory here.
His lap at 1:00.6509 in the second qualifying group stands as the track record, breaking the mark of 1:00.928 set by Sebastien Bourdais in 2003.
"I think just the way the team is, the teammates, it provides a lot of motivation," Power said.
The Penske organization is actually on an unbelievable two-month run, beginning with Joey Logano's victory in the Daytona 500 in February. Then Brad Keselowski won the NASCAR race last week at California to ensure both Penske drivers will compete for the Sprint Cup championship this season.
Logano also won the pole for today's NASCAR race, and won the Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday driving for a team owned by Keselowski.
"It seems as though Penske employs people with lots of experience," Power said. "We know how to work together."
Takuma Sato qualified fifth and Bourdais, for KVSH Racing, was sixth.
"It's a bit of a Penske lockout," Bourdais said. "We're sort of the best of the rest. It makes you feel good and bad."
Chevrolet took five of the six spots in the Fast Six round of qualifying. Sato, for AJ Foyt Racing, was the only Honda driver to make the top six.
"Obviously congrats to the Team Penske with the dominance over the qualifying," Sato said. "I'm happy to be in top six."
In addition to the noticeable absence of Honda drivers in the final qualifying round was a void of drivers from Andretti Autosport or Chip Ganassi Racing.
"It was a disappointing qualifying run," Andretti driver Ryan Hunter-Reay said. "From the first laps, I didn't really feel we had the balance and the grip level."
IndyCar this year has introduced new aerodynamic kits that have replaced the spec Dallara chassis. In addition to helping manufacturers Chevrolet and Honda differentiate themselves from each other, the cars will have additional downforce that will allow drivers to run faster and deeper into the corners.
Through preseason testing and the first two days of track activity at St. Pete, Chevy has a clear advantage.
No one has been sure what the new aero kits will do to competition, but it may not matter unless teams can first catch up to Penske and Honda proves to be as strong as Chevrolet.
"I was kind of worried that the competitiveness of this series wouldn't be such this year, but it is. It's right there as it was," Power said. "To me, it's the toughest open-wheel series in the world to compete in, and probably the best racing that fans can watch."
CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS
Logano wins on restart
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Joey Logano passed Matt Crafton entering the first turn at the start of a two-lap sprint to the finish and won an exciting NASCAR Truck race at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday.
The Daytona 500 champion won for the first time in the series to become the 26th driver to win in all three of NASCAR's top series. The pole-sitter also kept a dominating weekend going. He will start on the pole in Sunday's Sprint Cup race, too.
Crafton, who led 100 laps while Logano led 150, figured he might be in trouble with the two-lap finish.
"I was honestly a little bit worried because it would take my truck four or five laps to get going, but all in all, not a bad day," said Crafton, the two-time defending series champion. "His shot was going to be getting down there in turn one, and he lagged back just enough and got a good run on us.
"I felt that I had a decent restart there but, man, I have no idea. He came like a shot out of a cannon right there and went by us."
Logano wasn't sure how much car he had left.
"I just had a good restart. Tires hooked up well," he said. "I prepped them good down the back straightaway and made sure I had them clean enough. I had a good jump and then just drive it in there and hope for the best."
The finish came after a wild near-ending in which 17-year-old Cole Custer slammed into the back of Crafton's truck in the first turn with five laps to go, sending Crafton and Logano wide while Custer darted underneath for the lead.
Custer, driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr., was somewhat apologetic afterward, calling the hard hit an "accident."
"I was going to punt him off two, but I drove in too hard and I couldn't stop so I hit him a little bit too hard," Custer said. "It worked, so I knew he was going to come back and nudge me a little bit. He did it respectfully.
"I was giving him all I had to try and stay up there."
It proved to be Custer's last stand. On the ensuing lap, Crafton sent him spinning and Custer wound up 16th.
Crafton hung on for second, followed by Erik Jones, Johnny Sauter and Tyler Reddick.
Jones ran in the top five all day and was poised to take advantage if the dueling up front presented an opportunity.
"Wish we had a shot at the win, but great day for us," the rookie said. "Great points day."
Sports on 03/29/2015