Power and Wilson rue missing pole

KV Racing driver Power and Newman Haas Lanigan's Wilson qualified second and third at the Florida street track, both lapping within a tenth of a second of Kanaan's pole time in only their second event in the IRL IndyCar Series.

"I wanted to get into the Firestone Fast Six, which we did," Power said. "I was a little disappointed that we didn't get the pole considering the lap time we posted in the previous session. I'm very happy to be on the front row."

Wilson was similarly upbeat while also wishing he could have made the slight improvement required to beat Andretti Green driver Kanaan.

"This weekend has been great so far for the McDonald's team", he said. "I'm glad to have made it through to the final six and I'm pretty pleased with third.

"I'd have liked to have gone a tenth quicker and got the pole position, but that's racing and Tony obviously put a good lap in."

The 'transition' teams have faced a frantic race against time to prepare and acclimatise to their IRL Dallara-Hondas after the late decision to merge the struggling Champ Car World Series into the IndyCar championship.

All the converts were off the pace at Homestead last weekend, but always expected to be faster once the championship arrived at a street track.

However Wilson admitted that a top three spot was better than he had dared to hope for in the build-up to the race.

"We weren't expecting to be this competitive, but it's a dream come true considering what the team has been through in the last five weeks," he said. "I think generally we're just very pleased with the way the McDonald's car is handling and hopefully we can keep it up in the race tomorrow."

Power agreed that the results were a vindication of the ex-Champ Car teams' efforts.

"Most importantly, it's a payback to the team," he said. "They've been working so hard over the last month - working long hours and they haven't been seeing their families - so I 'm very happy for them."

In addition to Power and Wilson's top three spots, their respective teammates Oriol Servia and Graham Rahal, and Conquest Racing's Franck Perera all made it into the top ten.