Castroneves, Acura Team Penske on Long Beach Pole

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA

Helio Castroneves will start Saturday’s Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix from the pole, in the second consecutive top qualifying run for Acura Team Penske on the streets of Long Beach.

The Brazilian took his No. 7 Acura ARX-05 to a quick lap of 1:11.332 to edge out countryman Felipe Nasr in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R by 0.218 seconds.

Last year’s pole-sitter Juan Pablo Montoya made it two Acura DPis in the top-three, thanks to a 1:11.847 set by the Colombian in the 15-minute session.

It marked Castroneves’ third career WeatherTech Championship pole in the car he’ll share with Ricky Taylor in tomorrow’s 100-minute race.

Joao Barbosa made a late improvement to fourth in the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac, displacing Jonathan Bomarito, who stuffed his No. 55 Team Joest Mazda RT24-P into the Turn 6 barriers.

It was the only notable incident of the session, which remained green.

Bomarito’s teammate Tristan Nunez will start sixth ahead of Jordan Taylor in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi, who has been cleared to race after undergoing emergency surgery earlier this week.

The pair of JDC-Miller Motorsports Cadillac DPis and the Juncos Racing entry completed the top-ten.

The Bubba Burger Sports Car Grand Prix at Long Beach gets underway Saturday at 2 p.m. PT.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John