Scott Dixon breaks track record to grab IndyCar Mid-Ohio pole

New Zealand`s Scott Dixon shattered the track record Saturday to seize pole position for Sunday`s IndyCar race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Dixon, who has won five of the last eight IndyCar races held on the 2.258-mile (3.63 Km), 13-turn course, clocked 1min 4.5814sec to eclipse the previous one-lap record of 1:05.347 shared by Dario Franchitti and Gil de Ferran.

The Target-Chip Ganassi Racing driver captured the 23rd pole position of his IndyCar career, and will be considerably better placed for the 90-lap race than he was last year -- when he won the race despite starting at the rear of the 22-car grid.

Dixon reset the track lap record in the concluding "Fast Six" segment of qualifying, when the fastest drivers from earlier sessions vie for the top six slots on the grid.

"It`s great that the car has a lot of speed, but as you saw last year with us winning from the last row that anything can happen," Dixon said.

Four different teams were represented in the Fast Six segment, and five of the drivers broke the prior course record.

Reigning IndyCar champion Will Power of Australia put his Penske Chevrolet on the front row alongside Dixon with a lap of 1:04.6782.

France`s Sebastien Bourdais, who was on pole last year, was joined on the second row by Brazilian Helio Castroneves, with Josef Newgarden and Charlie Kimball rounding out the top six.

This season`s points leader, Juan Pablo Montoya of Colombia, failed to get his Penske into the Fast Six segment, and will start 10th on the grid.

"To be honest, it`s taken a lot of hard work by everyone on the team to get to where we are," said Montoya, who leads Graham Rahal in the season standings by 42 points. 

"We had a problem with the engine yesterday and lost almost an entire practice session. Since then we have just been behind."