Brazilian Helio Castroneves won the final 50-lap heat race to clinch pole position for the Iowa IndyCar race.
After starting from pole Castroneves won the third heat race to earn a crucial nine points to add to his series lead.
Australian Will Power surged his way into second place ahead of James Hinchcliffe. Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and Ed Carpenter were next.
Castroneves, however, will start the 250-lap race from 11th after being penalised 10 grid spots for an unapproved engine change to his Penske Chevrolet, handing the #1 starting spot to his Penske team-mate Power.
“We learned a lot today. Tomorrow is obviously a different ballgame. We have more traffic, it’s going to be a little bit hotter. There’s a lot of things going on,” Castroneves said.
Dixon and Graham Rahal won the first and second heats respectively.
Starting grid
| 1 | Helio Castroneves | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (1) |
| 2 | Will Power | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (2) |
| 3 | James Hinchcliffe | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (3) |
| 4 | Marco Andretti | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (4) |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 3 (5) |
| 6 | Ed Carpenter | Dalllara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (6) |
| 7 | Takuma Sato | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 3 (7) |
| 8 | Tony Kanaan | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (8) |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 3 (9) |
| 10 | Oriol Servia | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 3 (10) |
| 11 | Simon Pagenaud | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 2 (3) |
| 12 | Alex Tagliani | Dallara-Honda | Heaat Race 1 (3) |
| 13 | Justin Wilson | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 2 (4) |
| 14 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 1 (4) |
| 15 | Tristan Vautier | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 2 (5) |
| 16 | Josef Newgarden | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 1 (5) |
| 17 | Charlie Kimball | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 2 (6) |
| 18 | Ana Beatriz | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 1 (6) |
| 19 | EJ Viso | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 2 (7) |
| 20 | Sebastian Saavedra | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 1 (7) |
| 21 | James Jakes | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 2 (8) |
| 22 | Sebastien Bourdais, | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 1 (8) |
| 23 | Simona De Silvestro | Dallara-Chevy | Heat Race 2 (9) |
| 24 | Dario Franchitti | Dallara-Honda | Heat Race 1 (9) |
*Brackets denotes heat starting position
**Castroneves will start from 11th with Power to start from P1
