SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- Chip Ganassi Racing's Sebastien Bourdais set a lap at 117.712 mph Saturday afternoon (Sept. 21) with just under five minutes remaining in qualifying. That lap held up to earn the pole for Sunday's TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks.
"It's always great to be on pole," Bourdais said during the post-qualifying press conference. "Looks like it could be a tough day tomorrow with the weather coming, so starting up front might not be the worst idea. [Winning the pole] is quite insignificant for a six-hour race, but it's very pleasing for personal matters and also for the team."
The BMWs were the first of the factory squads to get up to speed. A decent chunk of the session saw Eng and de Phillippi trade quick times.
After the halfway point of the session, Porsche Penske Motorsport's Felipe Nasr entered the conversation with a lap that was third fastest. Deletraz, who was fastest in practice Saturday morning, went to the top with a little more than five minutes to spare.
Shortly afterwards, Bourdais was able to put his best foot forward. His lap put Cadillac on top for the first time in the session. From here, a lot of the teams took aim at Bourdais' time, but could not prevent the yellow and black Cadillac VSeries.R from claiming the pole.
LMP2 saw a battle at the top of the class between Inter Europol by PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports' Nick Boulle, United Autosports' Ben Keating and TDS Racing's Steven Thomas. Keating was quick early on, but Boulle was able to take the top spot back.
Boulle and Keating traded purple sectors (fastest of all), but Boulle was able to maintain his advantage with a lap at 113.123 mph. He was able to hold on to win the class pole.
Boulle's lap was .461 seconds faster than Thomas, who set a quick time with two minutes to go. Keating will start third, then AO Racing's PJ Hyett. Dan Goldburg in the second United Autosports entry was fifth.
In GTD Pro, it was AO Racing's Laurin Heinrich who won the class pole with a lap at 105.597 mph in his Porsche 911 GT3 R. The lap was .059 seconds faster than Corvette Racing with Pratt Miller Motorsports' Nicky Catsburg. Ford Multimatic Motorsports' Mike Rockenfeller will start third, then Paul Miller Racing's Neil Verhagen. Alexander Sims in the second Corvette was fifth.
Korthoff/Preston Motorsports' Mikael Grenier won the GTD pole with a lap at 105.108 mph, ninth of all GT drivers. Grenier's lap was .262 seconds faster than Proton Competition's Giammarco Levorato. Vasser Sullivan's Parker Thompson will start third in class, but 15th of all GT cars, followed by Turner Motorsport's Patrick Gallagher. Winward Racing's Russell Ward will start fifth.
Two drivers had all their times erased after they exited their cars on pit road. Those drivers were DragonSpeed's Rasmus Lindh and Lone Star Racing's Salih Yoluc. In Lindh's case, he was fourth fastest in GTD, but will have to start Sunday from the rear.
The TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks is scheduled to go green at 11:40 a.m. ET Sunday morning. Coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m. ET on Peacock and air flag-to-flag there. NBC will join the coverage in progress at 3 p.m. ET.