Askew on pole for first M-O Indy Lights race

Oliver Askew

Oliver Askew comfortably paced the field en route to winning the pole for the opening race of the doubleheader weekend for Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

The current championship leader and driver of the No. 28 Andretti Autosport Dallara IL-15, Askew put down a flying lap at 1 minute, 11.680 seconds to snag his fifth pole of the season. Additionally, it was a sizeable gap to second-place, clearing teammate Robert Megennis (No. 27 Andretti Autosport) by 0.2074 of a second.

"Starting from pole is so important in the race," said Askew, a four-time winner thus far in 2019.

“Historically, our cars at Andretti Autosport have been super quick here and we showed that again here in qualifying. We were quick at the test last week, so we're just carrying the momentum into this weekend. Looking forward to tomorrow, Q2 and Race 1, we're looking super strong right here.

“We have a lot of pace right now, so the goal is to sweep the weekend."

Toby Sowery (No. 2 BN Racing/Team Pelfrey) posted the third-best time in the session, 0.4527 of a second off the top spot.

Oliver Askew
“Qualifying always counts – especially around [Mid-Ohio], so it's really comforting to know we're going to be starting from pole. It’s so hard to pass in the race. We tested here last week, and this morning we went through some short runs. We’re super, super strong right now. The car is absolutely on rails and I feel good – that’s a dangerous combination. We're going to get after it tomorrow in Qualifying 2 and the race and hopefully pick up some more valuable points."

Robert Megennis
"It was a great qualifying session. We’re starting on the front row tomorrow in P2 and the car is awesome. We were a little behind on the first set [of tires], but I made some adjustments with my driving and made up quite a bit of time – we took about two-tenths off. We’ll go back and look at the data and we’ll be good in the race tomorrow."