Castroneves: Ganassi are beatable

Although Castroneves has a narrow lead in the championship, Ganassi have been the team to beat on the ovals so far this season - with Scott Dixon winning at Homestead then leading most of the Motegi race, and Dan Wheldon dominating at Kansas. They then claimed first and second places on the Indy 500 grid in Pole Day qualifying yesterday.

Castroneves took fourth behind his Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe, and admitted that he did not have an answer to the Ganassi duo's speed in qualifying trim.

"Unfortunately we tried everything we could, and there are days when you realise it's better to be smart and safe than brave and stupid," he said. "We got to a point where there was not much we could do and we realised the Ganassi guys were better.

"The good news is that this is just the pole position and the race is the big thing. In the race, it's a little different. There are many variables and it can go right, or it can go wrong.

"They had strong cars in qualifying. They did good. We just need to work a little bit better for the race, and hopefully we're going to be a little bit ahead of them."

Although Briscoe managed to improve his position after withdrawing his initial time and going for a second run, Castroneves decided to take a conservative approach and rely on his original speed.

"When you start turning laps a little worse than you've done, when you're trying to push to the limit the car, and it does not feel well - you've got to face it and make a choice," he said.

"There was more to lose than to gain. I do feel that it's extremely important, if you don't have a car to do the pole position, at least be in the field. You don't want to be going into next week thinking about qualifying."

Briscoe briefly held provisional pole with his second run, but was between by Dixon within minutes, and then pushed back to third by Wheldon in the final half hour. But he was very satisfied to be on the front row.

"I turned around, and Dixon was taking it away from me," said Briscoe. "The car was balanced really well for the downforce level we trimmed out to, and it was a solid gain.

"We were on the edge, and it was exciting. I'm really happy to be in the thick of it. This is unbelievable."