Castroneves and Power in Indy qualifying 1-2

Helio Castroneves has scored his fourth Indianapolis 500 pole position in qualifying for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway today.

Castroneves dominated the day’s qualifying action, beating home Team Penske team-mate and Australian Will Power in a one-two for Roger Penske’s squad.

“It’s great to have a 1-2 start for Team Penske,” said Castroneves.

“It’s a shame that Ryan (Briscoe) didn’t have his chance on the last one. It’s great to be part of this team. We work so well together. I’m on the pole, but all three of us benefit from it. I’m very proud of my team; they did a great job today.”

Power admitted to applying Castroneves’ set-up to set his fast time and achieve his best ever Indy 500 starting position.

“It’s great to see the Verizon car on the front row and the Penske cars 1-2,” said Power.

“It’s pretty tough to beat Helio (Castroneves) at Indianapolis. He’s a quick guy. I’m happy with our starting position, and it’s good for the points.

“When I saw Helio’s time, I thought that’s crazy fast. But when I put the downforce level he had on a bit later, I was up there in the high 27s. I should have done that when it was warmer and the air was thinner, but that comes down to experience, and he has great experience here.”

Dario Franchitti denied The Captain the entire front row of the starting line-up by qualifying in third place for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, with Ryan Briscoe in fourth place.

Alex Tagliani continued to be the best of the non-Penske/Ganassi cars in a giant-killing effort in the small, first year FAZZT Race Team entry. 2008 Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon was sixth.

The third row of the grid features two drivers without full-time rides, with Graham Rahal putting the Rahal Letterman Racing entry in seventh spot and Ed Carpenter continuing to show up more fancied Panther Racing team-mate Dan Wheldon by qualifying in eighth.

Hideki Mutoh for Newman/Haas Racing was ninth and another part-timer, Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver Townsend Bell, rounded out the top 10.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing had all four of its entries qualify into the field today, with Ana Beatriz also earning the honour of the fastest female driver in 21st place.

It was a horror day for two teams in particular; Andretti Autosport and KV Racing Technology.

Tony Kanaan crashed early in the day in the 7-Eleven entry, ruling him out of the day’s qualifying and forcing him to qualify tomorrow for one of the positions from 25th to 33rd on the grid on Bump Day.

The best Andretti Autosport driver was Marco Andretti down in 16th position. Danica Patrick just scraped into the field today in 23rd place.

KV Racing Technology had a busy day, with Takuma Sato having a big wreck in the team’s Lotus entry, ruling him out for the day, while the team was able to repair Mario Moraes’ car after his crash, allowing him to qualify in 13th place.

See below video highlights from Pole Day and interviews with the top six drivers in qualifying and full qualifying results and drivers still to qualify below.

RESULTS: Indianapolis 500 – Pole Day Qualifying

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Four Lap Average
1.	#3	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	227.970mph
2.	#12	Will Power	Team Penske	227.578
3.	#10	Dario Franchitti	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	226.990
4.	#6	Ryan Briscoe	Team Penske	226.554
5.	#77	Alex Tagliani	FAZZT Race Team	226.390
6.	#9	Scott Dixon	Target Chip Ganassi Racing	226.233
7.	#30	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Racing	225.519
8.	#20	Ed Carpenter	Panther Racing	224.507
9.	#06	Hideki Mutoh	Newman/Haas Racing	223.487
10.	#99	Townsend Bell	Sam Schmidt Mototsports	225.097
11.	#22	Justin Wilson	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	225.050
12.	#2	Raphael Matos	deFerren Dragon Racing	225.028
13.	#32	Mario Moraes	KV Racing Technology	224.888
14.	#21	Davey Hamilton	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	224.852
15.	#24	Mike Conway	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	224.583
16.	#26	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	224.575
17.	#37	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	224.547
18.	#4	Dan Wheldon	Panther Racing	224.464
19.	#8	E.J. Viso	KV Racing Technology	224.380
20.	#23	Tomas Scheckter	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	224.261
21.	#25	Ana Beatriz	Dreyer & Reinbold Racing	224.243
22.	#78	Simona de Silvestro	HVM Racing	224.228
23.	#7	Danica Patrick	Andretti Autosport	224.217
24.	#36	Bertrand Baguette	Conquest Racing	224.189
–	#14	Vitor Meira	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Bump Day
–	#66	Jay Howard	Sarah Fisher Racing	Bump Day
–	#41	AJ Foyt IV	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Bump Day
–	#15	Paul Tracy	KV Racing Technology	Bump Day
–	#34	Mario Romancini	Conquest Racing	Bump Day
–	#29	Sebastian Saavedra	Byran Herta Autosport	Bump Day
–	#18	Milka Duno	Dale Coyne Racing	Bump Day
–	#43	John Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Bump Day
–	#67	Sarah Fisher	Sarah Fisher Racing	Bump Day
–	#19	Alex Lloyd	Dale Coyne Racing	Bump Day
–	#11	Tony Kanaan	Andretti Autosport	Bump Day
–	#5	Takuma Sato	KV Racing Technology	Bump Day
–	#33	Bruno Junqueira	FAZZT Race Team	Bump Day