Colton Herta has became the youngest pole winner in IndyCar history when he topped qualifying for the Grand Prix at Road America.
At 19 years, 83 days, Herta broke the mark of 20 years and 90 days set by Graham Rahal in 2009 at St. Petersburg.
Alexander Rossi will start second on Sunday with Australian star Will Power from P3, alongside his Team Penske cohort and series leader Josef Newgarden.
“Qualified P3 today. We’ve been hanging around the top four all weekend, but haven’t been P1 yet. Hopefully that’s tomorrow,” Power tweeted.
Hertha’s effort was not bad for a driver who “hated” the way his car was handling in the first practice session of the weekend.
“We were near the back,” Herta said. “But there hasn’t been a race track that we’ve gone to that I haven’t felt comfortable with the race car or the qualifying car.
“I knew we could get there if we put our heads down and got to it.”
Herta, the son of former IndyCar driver Bryan Herta, raced to his first career victory in Austin, Texas, this year.
The pole also was the first for Harding-Steinbrenner Racing.
The 4-mile (6.44km), high-speed road course in central Wisconsin is a favourite among IndyCar drivers, earning favourable comparisons with historic tracks such as Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
Andretti Autosport has a technical alliance with Herta’s Harding-Steinbrenner team so, with Rossi starting second, Andretti technically swept the front row on Saturday.
“To me the Andretti cars are the best cars this year, best cars everywhere,” Rahal said.