Kanaan takes pole as converts shine

The Andretti Green driver may have secured the top spot, but he will be joined on the front row by IRL convert Will Power, who was just a tenth of a second slower in his KV Racing Dallara.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Justin Wilson will start third ahead of Penske drivers Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe.

The first street race of the post-unification era also was the first for a new, three-round qualifying format in which only the fastest six emerge from each group into the next round - six each from two groups in the first round, then the fastest six from the second round into the final session, which determined the order of start for the first three rows.

Drivers generally gave a weary nod of approval to the new format, which eliminated the single-car, single-lap format previously used for the first portion of qualifying on road and street courses.

"Do we have a race tomorrow? Because it was a race today," said Penske driver Helio Castroneves. "Everybody was pushing the limit, trying to find space. People ask me if I was surprised that the new guys are this fast. I'm not. We knew they would be contenders."

The pole was Kanaan's ninth and his first on St. Pete's 1.8-mile, 14-turn downtown course. He had the pole all but wrapped up last year at the venue when he crashed during qualifying, sending him to the rear of the grid.

"Last year was a shame," said Kanaan. "I had the pole and didn't have to go faster, but I got greedy. The mechanics even put Band-Aids on the car for the race just to make fun of me. It cost me a lot of track position, and then I didn't help on the start when I tangled with Dario (Franchitti). It's nice to start from the front."

Kanaan recorded a 1:02.5322 lap for Andretti Green Racing, then watched Power come up a tenth short in the No.8 KV Racing Technology Dallara-Honda in the final round of the session.

Another former Champ Car driver, Wilson, also came close to the pole position; his lap of 1:02.6426 was good for third.

Wilson, whose team has had few breaks since the announcement that it would move to IndyCar, said he didn't expect to be this fast this soon.

"We didn't expect to be this competitive straight away," Wilson said. "It's kind of a dream come true considering what we've been through over the past month. I expected it to take a little bit longer to get up there, but I hoped we had the capability."

Team Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe followed in fourth and fifth, while Rahal Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top six.

Kanaan, who was leading the season-opener last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway before being collected in another car's spin with seven laps remaining, said he is enjoying the challenge presented by a deeper, stronger field.

"This series is so competitive now that you have to give everything," said the Brazilian. "When I finished the qualifying run, I was exhausted. With more good drivers, it makes it a lot more difficult, but it does make me proud to win the pole against this group."

Power took at shot at Kanaan's lap in the waning minute of the fast-six session, jumping three positions but falling shy of the pole.

"We new we would be close," he said. "We're used to road courses and street courses. I was going to be disappointed if I wasn't in the top 10. It's very similar to the Champ Car in the way you work it out. Once you've got balance in the car, you drive it fast and get the lap times. That's what we did. I'm very happy to be on the front row, but I'm not sure I was expecting it."

Perhaps more surprising than the impressive performance of the former Champ Car teams and drivers - five of the top 10 starters are new to the IndyCar Series - was the poor performance of one of the IRL's strongest teams. Target Chip Ganassi failed to make the top seven on the starting grid, and points leader Scott Dixon was relegated to 13th after failing to advance out of the first round.

"We would have had a lap to get us into the next segment, but the yellow came out and that was pretty much it," said Dixon. "Obviously it will make things a bit more challenging, but we'll do everything we can to pick them off one at a time."

Dixon's teammate, Dan Wheldon, will start eighth next to Oriol Servia, the third former Champ Car driver among the top seven.

Sunday's race begins shortly after 2:30 p.m. EDT. Weather forecasts call for a 60 percent chance of rain.

"We can't affect the weather," Castroneves said. "If Mother Nature decides to play games with us, it's going to be the same for everyone. Right now, our plan is to have a clean race and move to the front."

Pos  Driver             Team                   Time         Speed
 1.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green         1:02.5322    103.627mph
 2.  Will Power         KV                     1:02.6096    103.499mph
 3.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan    1:02.6426    103.444mph
 4.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                 1:02.6462    103.438mph
 5.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                 1:02.7071    103.338mph
 6.  Ryan Hunter-Raey   Rahal Letterman        1:03.0077    102.845mph
 7.  Oriol Servia       KV                     1:02.7427    103.279mph
 8.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi                1:02.7694    103.191mph
 9.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan    1:02.8122    103.165mph
10.  Franck Perera      Conquest               1:02.8749    103.062mph
11.  Darren Manning     Foyt                   1:03.0136    102.835mph
12.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green         1:03.2443    102.460mph
13.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi                1:03.2365    102.472mph
14.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green         1:03.2757    102.409mph
15.  Ernesto Viso       HVM                    1:03.3067    102.359mph
16.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold      1:03.3591    102.274mph
17.  Vitor Meira        Panther                1:03.4480    102.131mph
18.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest               1:03.4568    102.117mph
19.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green         1:03.5766    101.924mph
20.  Jay Howard         Roth                   1:03.7447    101.656mph
21.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                 1:03.8007    101.566mph
22.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne             1:04.1590    100.999mph
23.  Townsend Bell      Dreyer & Reinbold      1:04.3880    100.640mph
24.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision                 1:04.4996    100.466mph
25.  Marty Roth         Roth                   1:07.7041     95.711mph
26.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne             1:09.3851     93.392mph