- Dirk Müller drove to his third pole in a row at Road America
- Ford Chip Ganassi Racing earned their second IMSA front-row lockout of the year as Ryan Briscoe qualified second
- Two-hour, 40-minute race will air at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX Sports 1
ELKHART LAKE, Wisc., Aug. 4, 2018–Dirk Müller continued his perfect pole record at Road America on Saturday, earning his third in a row at the Wisconsin track in the No. 66 Ford GT. Ryan Briscoe qualified second to make it an all-Ford Chip Ganassi Racing front row.
Müller put the No. 66 he shares with Joey Hand at the top spot with a 2:02.479 to Briscoe’s 2:02.650.
“I really love coming here,” Müller said. “After being on pole the last two years there was a little pressure. People were saying it’s easy to get three in a row, and I said ‘no, no, no. That’s not going to be the case.’ Qualifying was difficult because the weather changed today, but that was the same for everyone. We have so many smart brains behind us at Ford CGR and Ford Performance. We’ve been talking about it for the last two days, how the weather would change for qualifying and the race. So, we dug deep down and found our setup.”
Müller and Hand are leading the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship point standings – a position they have traded with their No. 67 teammates Briscoe and Richard Westbrook three times. The track layout suits the Ford GT, but there are other reasons Müller feels comfortable there.
“Having three in a row here feels great,” Müller said. “I’m really thrilled. Maybe it’s that I’m German and I like the Nordschleife a lot. That’s definitely one of my favorite places in the world, and over here it’s definitely Road America. There are corners and places where they look the same. I really like the whole venue. It’s the track; it’s the people around; it’s the fans. We love coming here.”
Ford CGR has won three races in a row coming into Road America, with wins for the No. 66 at Lime Rock and Watkins Glen, and one for the No. 67 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Both cars have a shot at winning the coveted first GTLM championship for Ford CGR.
“It was a really exciting qualifying session,” Briscoe said. “Really hard. Dirk posted a really quick lap there and I was trying to chase it down. We just missed out, but awesome effort by the whole team to get a front-row lockout and we’ll be pushing hard for the win tomorrow.”
