Hélio Castroneves’ Verizon IndyCar Series career began in 1998 in CART, he scored his first career pole in 1999 and has amassed 50 poles in his racing career that spans three decades and 340 races. His Team Penske teammate Will Power began his career in 2005, won his first pole in 2006 and by winning the pole Saturday for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio now has 49 poles in 182 races.

Castroneves' qualifying prowess has been for the long haul. Power’s pole ability has come in nearly half the time.

So, who is the better qualifier?

Let’s ask another Team Penske teammate, Josef Newgarden.

“Let me tell you what, I walk into the engineering room every day and see these guys and I'm just in awe of what I get to stand next to,” Newgarden said. “No, I am. You have no idea how much fun we have. We work together very well in the engineering room. But they're very, very good.

“Well, the way it comes down to it is, you got to get it just right, know exactly how many laps you want to run in qualifying, you have to nail the lap, you only get one run.

“That's what these guys are great at; they have done it for years, but they're the best at it. They have not gotten worse. If anything, they just get better. I feel like Hélio gets better every year. There's a lot to learn, absolutely. There's a lot that I've observed this year."

“I'd like to get on top of them at some point. I'd like to be P1. Until that time comes, I'm going to keep observing and trying to figure out what they do and how they do it so well.”

Graham Rahal drives a Honda for the rival Rahal Letterman Lanigan team and also marvels at how well Castroneves and Power are when it comes to winning poles in the highly competitive Verizon IndyCar Series.

“They're both sneaky,” Rahal said. “Honestly, Hélio will look like he's messing around. What's he doing? Then he'll come into qualifying and, ‘Boom, P1,’ he'll get the pole.

“You're like, ‘What the heck was that?’

“They're very, very sneaky sometimes. They're slowly working, going about their business, nothing to look at here. Then they sneak up on you and they just take it right out from underneath you.

“Look, they're both very strong. They both have their own strengths and know how to get it done. I don't know how to choose between them. They're both very good.”

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