Pruett takes IMSA pole at Circuit of The Americas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Scott Pruett took the pole position Friday for the IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship race Saturday at Circuit of The Americas.

Pruett had a lap at 103.343 mph in the No. 01 Ford EcoBoost/Riley DP for Chip Ganassi Racing to take the pole by 0.071 seconds over Ozz Negri in the No. 60 Michael Shank Racing Honda/Ligier prototype.

Pruett and co-driver Joey Hand are winless this season. Pruett's last IMSA victory came last year at Circuit of The Americas with Memo Rojas as his co-driver.

''This has been a tough season for us, without a doubt,'' Pruett said. ''It's nice to unload and be fast.''

Negri will start second in a car carrying special graphics paying tribute to Justin Wilson, the IndyCar driver who died after a crash at Pocono last month. Wilson raced sports cars with the Michael Shank Racing team, winning the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona with Negri and his co-driver at Austin, John Pew. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver AJ Allmendinger also was part of that winning Daytona lineup.

Chris Cumming took his second Prototype Challenge class pole position of the season in the No. 11 RSR Racing ORECA he co-drives with Bruno Junqueira.

GT Le Mans points leader Patrick Pilet qualified on the class pole in the No. 911 Porsche he shares with Nick Tandy, and Dion von Moltke earned his fourth GT Daytona class pole position of the season in the No. 48 Audi for Paul Miller Racing. Von Moltke shares his car with Christopher Haase.