AUSTIN, Texas -- Will Power topped qualifying once again. Now he has a chance to turn pole position into a tidy little payday if he can drive to another victory. The Team Penske star earned career pole No. 56 Saturday at the inaugural IndyCar Classic at the Circuit of the Americas, edging Andretti Autosport teammates Alexander Rossi and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Sixteen of Power's 35 career victories have come from pole position. Do it again Sunday and he'll earn a $100,000 bonus. But the Australian said he's eying an even bigger prize: a season championship to match his 2014 IndyCar crown. "I want the $1 million at the end of the year," Power said. "That's much better." Power started on pole position at the season-opening race in St. Petersburg, Florida, but finished third behind winner and Penske teammate Josef Newgarden. The top three had to dig deep for the final laps to knock rookies Colton Herta of Harding Steinbrenner Racing and Felix Rosenqvist of Chip Ganassi Racing from the top spots. Herta will start fourth and Rosenqvist fifth. Herta was the breakout driver at preseason testing here and briefly held pole position until the final seconds of qualifying. He had trouble Friday when his engine blew early in practice, putting pressure on the team just to get him back on the track. "To show we had the pace during qualifying was reassuring. I know we can back it up in the race," Herta said. IndyCar is racing for the first time at the track built for Formula One in 2012. After two days of preseason testing last month and two days of practice and qualifying this week, the drivers think the 3.41-mile track, one of the longest of the IndyCar season, could produce some wild racing as tires wear out quickly with no track limits in the turns. The biggest impact will be on Turn 19, where drivers will be allowed to swing wide into the runoff area. That will help cut lap times by 0.2 to 0.3 seconds. Will Power grabbed the pole over Alexander Rossi during qualifying for Sunday's inaugural IndyCar race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. AP Photo/Eric Gay Some drivers like it. Some don't. Several had trouble negotiating the turn Saturday. "I'm not a fan of track limits. That's why I like racing in America, because you don't really have track limits. You go off in this grass, gravel or wall," Rosenqvist said. "I'm kind of a fan for opening it up. You know it's going to be the same for everyone. They're not going to look at this guy was one millimeter over the line or not, which is a bit ridiculous." Team Penske's Simon Pagenaud questioned whether it's safe. His qualifying session ended early after Tony Kanaan ran wide into the gravel on Turn 19 to bring out a red flag. "The track was designed a certain way. I think there was a reason," Pagenaud said. "It's really a tough corner when you have track limits. When you don't have track limits, running off wide, you're actually facing the guardrail. It's not as safe, not designed that way. It's actually bad on the car as well because you're really bottoming pretty hard." Other items from Austin: ROOKIE PUSH Herta and Rosenqvist weren't the only rookies making a push deep into qualifying Saturday. Santino Ferrucci of Dale Coyne Racing and Carlin's Patricio O'Ward both made it past the opening rounds. O'Ward, last season's Indy Lights champion, will start eighth in his IndyCar season debut. Ferrucci will start 11th. The circuit veterans were impressed by the youngsters. Power, Hunter-Reay and Scott Dixon, who have won seven IndyCar titles among them, are all 38 years old. Herta is 18. O'Ward is 19. "I think it's great for the future of the sport," said Dixon, who will start sixth Sunday. "Some of us are getting pretty old." PAGENAUD'S PROBLEMS The 2016 champion has seen his qualifying in the first two races doomed by red flags in the early sessions. The Frenchman will start 22nd Sunday. He started 13th at St. Petersburg and raced his way to finish seventh. "I need to find a lucky charm or something," Pagenaud said. "It's really frustrating to start at the back like this. I've got a good car."<doc-sep>Team Penske-Chevrolet’s polesitter Power led every single lap, with Rossi in close attendance, until the race’s only full-course caution – caused by a collision between James Hinchcliffe and Felix Rosenqvist that left the rookie’s Ganassi-Honda stranded at the entrance to pitlane – closed the pits. Power, Rossi and Scott Dixon were yet to pit and under caution the field packed up behind them, so they were passed by every unlapped runner. Power’s day got still worse when a suspected driveshaft failure left him stranded in his pitbox. New leader Herta, who had been running a strong third, well clear of fourth-placed Josef Newgarden, left his pursuers behind at the restart and reeled off the final laps without issue. Newgarden came home second, holding off Ryan Hunter-Reay, a late challenging Graham Rahal (the previous youngest IndyCar winner), Sebastien Bourdais and Marco Andretti, while Herta’s Indy Lights rival Patricio O’Ward salvaged eighth place for Carlin behind Takuma Sato. Rossi recovered to ninth after the restart, while Jack Harvey completed the top 10. Story of the race Polesitter Power made a strong start, and Rossi had to get defensive to keep Andretti Autosport-Honda teammate Hunter-Reay behind, while Herta swept across from the outside of the track to claim third from his semi-teammate. Dixon, O’Ward and Newgarden all got around Rosenqvist – Dixon by driving around the other side of the outside Turn 1 curbs. Zach Veach was eliminated exiting Turn 3 after rubbing against Graham Rahal’s RLLR-Honda and damaging his right-front suspension. Rossi challenged Power into Turn 1 on Lap 3 but the leader protected the inside line and held him off through Turn 2, and carried on lapping in the 1min50s. Behind Rosenqvist in eighth ran Santino Ferrucci’s Dale Coyne Racing-Honda – the only frontrunner to start on new red alternate tires – pursued by Rahal, Matheus Leist (AJ Foyt Racing), James Hinchcliffe (Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports), Takuma Sato (RLLR) and Marcus Ericsson (Arrow SPM). Ericsson stopped on Lap 7 to change from used primaries to new alternates, and Hinchcliffe, who’d picked up three spots at the start pitted on Lap 8 for used reds, and Bourdais pitted his DCR-with Vasser-Sullivan-Honda to grab new reds. By this time Hunter-Reay had fallen off the back of the top three by Lap 8, 3.5 seconds behind Herta. Newgarden pitted from seventh to grab used reds at the start of Lap 9, just as teammate Power started stretching his lead over Rossi to two seconds. O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Ferrucci pitted on Lap 10, while Hunter-Reay came in on Lap 11 and fel behind Newgarden who’d been flying on his new tires. Herta pulled in from third place at the end of Lap 12 to grab a set of used blacks, and he produced a brilliant out lap to sweep around the outside of Rossi who, along with Power and Dixon had stopped on Lap 13, but unlike Power and Dixon, had picked up a set of fresh reds. When black-tired Rahal, who had briefly cycled into the lead, made his stop on Lap 14, he emerged under attack from Hinchcliffe who easily nipped past on his warm reds, while O’Ward then set to work on the RLLR car and demoted him after some thrilling side-by-side action. Up front, Herta started inching up until he was within a second of Power by Lap 17, and the 19-year-old brought Rossi with him. The trio was now 6sec ahead of Newgarden who in turn was running 1sec ahead of Hunter-Reay. In sixth ran Rosenqvist, who’d been unlucky to emerge from his first pitstop in traffic but he had to cede sixth to his flying compatriot Ericsson on Lap 19. A lap later, he had to do the same for the other Arrow SPM machine of Hinchcliffe, and at the start of Lap 21 O’Ward passed the #10 Ganassi machine into Turn 1. Back in 13th, Rosenqvist’s teammate Dixon had also come out of the pits in traffic but he didn’t have the pace to carve through. A slight lock-up and wobble off track by Herta at Turn 1 on Lap 22 allowed Rossi to close and onto the back straight he hit the push to pass boost and momentum onto the back straight to pass the Harding Steinbrenner car before Turn 12. Rosenqvist gave up his struggle on Lap 22 and pitted, while Ericsson and Hinchcliffe pitted their Arrow SPM cars from sixth and seventh on Laps 23 and 24 respectively. When O’Ward had a slightly slow second stop on Lap 25, he rejoined behind Hinchcliffe. Ferrucci, Bourdais and Hunter-Reay stopped again on Lap 26, and Herta – who had fallen over three seconds behind Rossi – stopped on Lap 27 as did the struggling Dixon. Hunter-Reay had emerged behind Ericsson who was now in fifth. Power and Rossi stopped on Lap 29, and Rossi was able to rejoin ahead of Herta. Further back, O’Ward on red tires dived bravely past Hinchcliffe on blacks at Turn 15 to snag seventh. As the race reached its halfway stage, Power on used reds led Rossi on blacks by 3.2sec and Herta was in Rossi’s slipstream and 6.2sec up on Newgarden. Ericsson was a further 4.5sec back but being closed down by Hunter-Reay, and into Turn 1 on Lap 32, the 2012 champion pushed the rookie back to sixth. Ganassi’s troubled day continued with a brief spin by Rosenqvist at Turn 12, but the Swede was able to continue, albeit having lost four places and falling to 11th. Power started falling back into the clutches of Rossi, and he was having to use his push-to-pass to try and stay one second clear, but Rossi had used almost twice as many so he too had to be careful with when he used the 1.65-bar boost. Dixon was gaining a new lease of life in this third stint, and passed O’Ward and Ericsson in consecutive laps to move into sixth place by Lap 37. Despite running on reds and blacks respectively, Power and Rossi each had a set of fresh red tires left and they ran a second apart, but 10sec ahead of Herta who was struggling to keep his reds alive. HSR pitted its rookie, as Penske pitted Herta’s nearest competitor, Newgarden. Suddenly the race was turned on its head: a full-course yellow with the top three – Power, Rossi and Dixon yet to stop. Hinchcliffe had struck the the back of Rosenqvist’s car as they approached Turn 20, dueling for tenth place, nerfing the Swede into the inside wall and puncturing his own left-front tire. When the pits opened with 15 laps to go, Power, Rossi and Dixon trailed down pit road, but only Rossi and Dixon re-emerged: Power’s #12 Penske Chevy was stuck in pitlane with suspected driveshaft difficulties. For the restart with 10 laps to go, Herta would be leading Newgarden, Hunter-Reay, Rahal but fifth- placed Ericsson was sent to the back of the field for being sent out into Spencer Pigot’s Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet. That elevated O’Ward into fifth ahead of Bourdais, Andretti and Ed Jones. Herta nailed the restart perfectly and although Rahal made an attempt to get around Hunter-Reay for third, the Andretti Autosport driver prevailed and started closing on Newgarden. Bourdais powered past O’Ward on the back straight to snatch fifth, while further back, Rossi made hard side-by-side contact with Simon Pagenaud. No action was taken by race control, and Rossi continued to stride forward with a pass on Dixon with seven laps to go. By then, Dixon had been investigated for blocking a pass on Veach on the front straight that left Veach with a broken front wing, but the five-time champion was cleared of any wrongdoing. Herta seemed to effortlessly maintain his gap over Newgarden at three to four seconds, as the 2017 champion was watching his mirrors for Hunter-Reay’s menacing presence. The move never came, and Newgarden couldn’t close on Herta, and so Colton ran out the winner by 2.7sec, leading two series champions and the previous youngest ever IndyCar winner past the checkered flag. On the penultimate lap, Andretti passed O’Ward for sixth place but was too far behind Bourdais to make further progress. Race results:<doc-sep>
When Colton Herta visited Austin last fall to promote the first IndyCar race at Circuit of the Americas, the 18-year-old contemplated moving to the Texas capital. On Sunday, he was given another reason to love the city. Herta made history, becoming the youngest driver to win a race in IndyCar. In just his third start, the son of former IndyCar driver Bryan Herta capitalized on a late incident to move from third to first. Yellow flags arrived at exactly the right moment for Herta, who had just made his last pit stop when Felix Rosenqvist and James Hinchcliffe collided. As a result, Rosenqvist’s car blocked the pit lane and foiled the tire strategy for race leaders Will Power and Alexander Rossi. “I didn’t think it was gonna happen in this race,” Herta said. “It seemed like Will and Rossi had a bit of a pace advantage on us. The max we were gonna get was third without the caution.” But that was just fine for Herta, who had a new set of tires and the lead when the race restarted with 10 laps to go. He barely had time to process things before he was standing on the podium wearing a cowboy hat and doing his best impression of a line dance. As for moving to Austin full-time? “I don’t want to leave (Los Angeles), it’s so beautiful,” he said. “It did get me closer. Maybe I’ll have a big farm house off Turn 11 or something.” It took a lucky break, but it’s no fluke that Herta found himself atop the podium normally reserved for Lewis Hamilton and Marc Márquez, the respective kings of signature COTA races for Formula One and MotoGP. Herta has wowed so for in his rookie season. He had the fastest lap times in three of four spring training sessions at COTA, and was among the fastest drivers all weekend. He might not look intimidating, but is quickly developing a reputation as a baby-faced assassin behind the wheel. “At first sight you’re like, ‘Man, I wouldn’t trust that guy with my Honda Civic,’ said Ryan Hunter-Reay, who finished third. "But he’s very talented. Extremely talented. To do that at 18 … this is a big league, and he just won an IndyCar race. Pretty amazing stuff.” For the first 45 laps, Power, the pole winner, was in complete control and headed for a $100,000 bonus offered by COTA if he could secure the win. Things went from bad to worse for Team Penske when Power’s car stalled once he got to pit lane. He had to retire from the race, and was frustrated to have been blocked from making his pit stop on time. The accident between Rosenqvist and Hinchcliffe happened at Turn 19 and left Rosenqvist’s car blocking the pit entry. “Massively disappointed, man,” Power said on the NBCSN broadcast. “You lead so many laps and work so hard all week to put yourself in position. If the yellow (flag) didn’t get us the drive shaft did.” Rossi dropped to 14th after his stop and finished ninth. Josef Newgarden moved into second and still had more than 100 seconds of push to pass — a mechanism that allows the driver to increase power for a short period of time — but there was no catching Herta. Newgarden, who won the season opener at St. Petersburg, kept a 93-75 lead over Herta in the standings. “I was excited,” Newgarden said of the restart. “I was like, ’Man, let’s see what we can do.’ But it just turned out that we didn't have enough. We just simply weren't fast enough.” Another rookie, Patricio “Pato” O’Ward, impressed with an eight-place finish that included an early battle with Graham Rahal, who took fourth. The 19-year-old O’Ward grew up in Monterrey, Mexico and now calls San Antonio home. But the day belonged to Herta, who broke the record for youngest winner set by Rahal in 2008 when son of legendary driver Bobby Rahal was 19 years, 3 months and 2 days old. “I’ve been bit by the bug now,” Herta said. “I think one race win isn’t enough. I want to go for another one at Barber (Motorsports Park) now. I just want to get there and drive again.”