Josef Newgarden to start P1 at Pocono after qualifying cancelation

Weather issues have canceled qualifying for tomorrow’s ABC Supply at the Pocono Raceway.

That will line the field up by entrant points, which puts points leader Josef Newgarden on the pole driving his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet. Defending Pocono champion Alexander Rossi will start along side of him in his No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda.

Indy 500 winner Simon Pagenaud will roll off third ahead of 2013 Pocono winner Scott Dixon. A pair of former Pocono winners fill out the third row with two-time winner Will Power taking the fifth spot ahead of 2015 race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay taking sixth.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan due of Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal will start seventh and eighth ahead of Mid-Ohio runner up Felix Rosenqvist in ninth and James Hinchliffe completing the top ten.

Low clouds delayed the arrival of the medivac helicopter to the 2.5-mile circuit in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Teams waited in a holding pattern on pitlane before pushing the cars back to the garage. A heavy rain shower drenched the circuit shortly after that and ultimately negated qualifying.

INDYCAR officials elected to extend this afternoon’s pre-scheduled one-hour session to two hours to give teams time to dial in their cars for tomorrow’s 200-lap event. That is contingent on the helicopter reaching the track and the track is dry.