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Defending IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden won the pole for Saturday night’s race at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday and in doing so, led Team Penske to a sweep of the first three positions on the starting grid.

Newgarden drove the No. 1 Team Penske Chevrolet to a two-lap average speed of 220.613 mph on the 1.5-mile high-banked oval. It earned Newgarden the fourth pole position of his seven-year career and first on a superspeedway. It’s also the eighth pole at Texas for Team Penske, the most of any team at the track.

Simon Pagenaud qualified second in the No. 22 Team Penske Chevrolet, at 220.311 mph. Will Power, who won the 102nd Indianapolis 500 on May 27 and defending Texas race winner, was third at 220.194 mph in the No. 12  Penske Chevrolet.

Twenty-two cars qualified for the race. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Robert Wickens continued his impressive rookie season by qualifying fourth in the No. 6 Honda (219.561 mph).

A final 60-minute practice is set to begin at 7:15 p.m. ET today and streams live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com, youtube.com/indycar and the INDYCAR Mobile app.

Race coverage on NBCSN and the Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network begins at 8 p.m. Saturday. The DXC Technology 600 is the ninth of 17 races on the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule.

(This story will be updated shortly)

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