FORT WORTH, Texas -- Penske driver Will Power, winless since three victories in a row early last year, set pole position on Friday, ahead of Marco Andretti, for Saturday's IndyCar race in Texas.
Power was the series points leader when he got to Texas last year. He led 24 laps and was still in front on the final restart before he got penalized for blocking. After his drive-through penalty, he finished eighth, a lap down.
While there have been six different winners in seven IndyCar races this year, neither Ganassi or Penske have a victory even though Penske driver Helio Castroneves is tied for the season points lead with Andretti -- who also hasn't won.
"Certainly we know that it is extremely important to win races," said Castroneves, who qualified sixth. "We are going into the mode, attack and get to the front and if it's meant to be, it will be. We cannot be desperate."
Castroneves is a three-time winner in Texas, tied with Sam Hornish for the most victories at the track. But he has never been a season champ.
"If it takes more second places than firsts to win the championship, then sign me in, and I'm ready to do that," he said.
Castroneves has finished lower than 10th only one time this season, 13th in his hometown race at Sao Paulo. Andretti has finished seventh or better in all but the first race of the Detroit doubleheader last weekend, when he was 20th before moving to sixth the next day.
"I just want to be consistently better," Andretti said. "We have been knocking on the door and like hanging and lingering around the top six. I'm pleased with the start of the season, but I'm not exactly where I want to be yet."
Drivers Simona De Silvestro, Simon Pagenaud and Tristan Vautier were penalized for making unapproved engine changes.
Each was imposed a 10-grid spot penalty for the start of Saturday night's race for changes made since last weekend's doubleheader in Detroit.
De Silvestro dropped a full 10 spots, from her qualifying position of 12th to 22nd. Pagenaud, who won a Detroit race, will start 23rd after qualifying 14th at Texas. Vautier, the only rookie driver, didn't post a qualifying time and was already at the back of the 24-car field.
InyCar said Pagenaud and Vautier made engine changes before the minimum mileage threshold of 2,000 miles. De Silvestro's team didn't inform the series engineer of its engine failure in proper time after the last race.
