Notes: Tires, temperature and fuel all will come into play at Elkhart Lake

ELKHART LAKE – Saturday’s IndyCar qualifying session at Road America was a test of speed, car setup and timing.

Sunday’s Kohler Grand Prix will be a bit more involved.

“I think we’ll have more tire (degradation) than last year, so then you’ve got to look at the weather,” pole-sitter Josef Newgarden said. “If it’s cooler than today, I think it’ll be easier. If it stays this temperature (78 degrees) … I think it will be harder than last year as far as looking after the tires for 13 or 14 laps.

“Whoever does the best job of that is going to have the upper hand. Then fuel always plays into that mix. It seemed last year like whoever could go a lap farther had a pretty nice advantage. So we’ll work hard to get our fuel consumption where we wanted.

“All those things are what we’re going to be looking at tonight. We’ve got to have the right setup to look after the tires, and we have to have good fuel mileage.”

Newgarden jumped to the top of the chart with the final lap of the session, 1 minute 43.2026 seconds.

Will Power, the 2016 winner, gave Team Penske and Chevrolet a front-row sweep for the second straight year. Power came up 0.0482 of a second short over a the 4.014-mile lap.

The 55-lap race is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Sunday.

Andretti Autosport Honda teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi will make up the second row, followed by rookie Robert Wickens and 2007 Road America Champ car winner Sebastien Bourdais both in Hondas.

LINEUP: Kohler Grand Prix qualifying

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The Honda engine typically has offered an edge in mileage and drivability, whereas Chevrolet tends to have more top speed.

“It’ll be interesting to see what down-force levels (people use),” Hunter-Reay said. “You’re going to have guys who trim quite a bit, thinking they’re going to keep guys behind them on the straights and guys who run (more) down force, thinking they’re going to be better on older tires.

“Unfortunately it’s not stickered on the side of everybody’s car what down force they’re running, so it’s hard for you to figure out who’s who and what’s what. That’ll be the key to the day. Whoever figures that compromise out and gets through a full stint without as bad of degradation as others, that’ll be critical.

Defending winner Scott Dixon – who has won two of the past three races – qualified eighth. He started fifth last year and benefited from mileage and better restarts.

“I think even if Scott was starting 23rd, he’s still be a threat to win,” said Rossi, his closest pursuer.

Pirelli World Challenge: Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente jumped Daniel Macinelli on a restart on the second lap and then kept his Bentley Continental in front to win for the first time at Road America and second this season.

“It’s really good to have a win with the Bentley here at a track I really like,” the 33-year-old said. “The last two years I was here with a different car (McLaren) with not such a nice top speed and I couldn’t fight (for the win).

“On the restart, Mancinelli was sleeping a little bit, hesitating a little bit and I timed it just right. Then managing pace and managing the guys behind, in clean air it’s always different. You can manage it a lot better.”

The victory was the third in for years for the Bentley at Road America and 50th in PWC for the KPax team.

Mexican driver Martin Fuentes (Ferrari) won in the GTA class, Brit Ian James (Panoz) in GTS and American Mark Klenin (McLaren) in GTSA to complete an international winners’ circle.

The series will race again at 2:45 p.m. Sunday to conclude the weekend.

Indy Lights: Second-generation standout Colton Herta escaped a duel with teammate Pato O’Ward to score his fourth consecutive victory.

“The key thing was holding onto the tires because there was a lot of degradation,” said Herta, who started third. “We did that, and we were super-quick at the end.”

Herta took the lead from pole-sitter Victor Franzoni on the sixth of 20 laps. Franzoni fell to third. Birchwood native Aaron Telitz finished fifth in the field of seven.

O’Ward and Franzoni will get another chance to end Herta’s streak at 9:50 a.m. Sunday. O’Ward qualified on the pole for the second round.

Global Mazda MX-5 Cup: Floridian John Dean II, the 2015 series champion, survived a one-lap shootout in an otherwise wild drafting battle to sweep the weekend.

Pro Mazda: Sixteen-year-old David Malukas of Chicago completed a weekend sweep, again beating teammate Toby Sowery. Sowery was 1.3845 seconds behind in the two-car breakaway.

USF2000:  Team USA Scholarship winner Kyle Kirkwood, the series leader as a rookie, took the first of two races under the yellow flag. The second race is set for 8 a.m. Sunday.