AUSTIN, Texas - Scott Pruett captured his first pole position in more than a year and a half Friday afternoon at Circuit of the Americas, ahead of the second-to-last round of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship season. His last pole came at Long Beach, in 2014.
Pruett, driving the No. 01 Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-Ford he’ll share with Joey Hand, clocked a 1:58.441 lap around the 3.427-mile permanent road course.
Pruett won the race overall last year, then co-driving with Memo Rojas.
Ozz Negri qualified second in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Ligier JS P2 Honda, in a strategic gamble played by Michael Shank. Negri shares the car with John Pew and this may give them a better chance on strategy, as it is likely there will be two driver changes to give Pew the middle stint of the race and Negri a chance to both start and finish.
Other class polesitters included Chris Cumming (Prototype Challenge), Patrick Pilet (GT Le Mans) and Dion von Moltke (GT Daytona).
The two-hour, 40-minute race goes green at 11:30 a.m. CT and local time.