INDIANAPOLS – Every driver dreams of winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Dalton Kellett will be looking to make that a reality when he straps into his No. 28 K-Line Insulators USA, Inc. Mazda/Dallara IL-15 in the Freedom 100 on Friday. The Andretti Autosport driver put himself in a prosperous position by winning the pole position in Thursday’s qualifications, with a two-lap average speed of 195.027 mph.

The 24-year-old Canadian is one to watch after scoring a pair of third-place finishes each of the last two years in the crown jewel event for Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires – the top step of the INDYCAR-sanctioned Mazda Road to Indy development ladder.

“I think this is definitely the weekend that I come here and think, ‘OK, we’ve definitely got something in the bag,” said Kellett. “This is the most confident weekend, I think, for us. We have definite consistent pace on the ovals. Obviously, we’re starting off with a good race car, so we’ll see what we can do.”

It’s been a tough year thus far for the Queen’s University graduate and Indianapolis resident, sitting seventh in the championship standings with a season-best finish of sixth (four times). That didn’t stop him from leading opening practice around the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Monday, with a speed of 198.005 mph.

“Yeah, out of the box we were flat out,” Kellett said, “so it feels good to be home. This place is probably the coolest track we race at. I think the racing is always really, really good. As we saw in practice, we did some group runs and the cars are really racy.”

With eight cars in the field, it is an unknown whether the racing will be as tight as it was in past years, or string out. Kellett will rely on past experience to make that final push to the front if necessary.

“I think the big thing is just last-lap decisions,” he said. “How to work the draft, how to set guys up, I think that’s going to help me a lot in this race. Timing stuff and just running in traffic, being comfortable with the aero wash, I think that’s really going to help.”

Kellett built a strong resume on the ovals last year, getting two podium finishes (IMS and Iowa Speedway). In the midst of his third full season in Indy Lights, Kellett is still searching for that elusive first Indy Lights win and can think of no place better than the same track that will host Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

“It’d be a huge confidence-booster,” Kellett said. “It’d be a great story. I’m feeling really good about this weekend. We’ve had some ups and downs this year; that always seems to be the case. We’ve had good pace in practice and then something happens in the race or we fall off a little bit, but got a lot of confidence in the K-Line No. 28 guys. They definitely have a strong car here.

“It’d be at Indy and that would be the perfect place to get your first win.”

Davey Hamilton Jr., who qualified seventh for the Freedom 100 for Team Pelfrey, left immediately for Anderson Speedway about an hour from IMS and won the pole position in qualifying for the Pay Less Little 500 sprint car race that takes place Saturday.

The Freedom 100 airs live at 12:30 p.m. ET Friday on NBCSN.