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Tony Kanaan takes pole for IndyCar finale at Las Vegas

Tony Kanaan claimed his first fully-fledged pole position for KV Racing Technology as the IndyCar Series title contenders were upstaged in Las Vegas qualifying

Championship rivals Will Power and Dario Franchitti will start back on row nine, with Oriol Servia, Kentucky winner Ed Carpenter and Indianapolis polesitter Alex Tagliani completing the line-up on the front two rows.

Newman/Haas driver Servia looked like he might earn his first pole since the 2005 Surfers Paradise Champ Car round as he sat on a provisional pole for a long while. Kanaan's first lap at 222.034mph was slightly too slow to usurp Servia, but his second lap at 222.121mph was enough to put the Brazilian on top by 0.0019 seconds over two laps. Although Kanaan had drawn the lottery pole at June's second Texas race, this was the first time he had topped a qualifying session since 2008.

Carpenter and Sarah Fisher Racing followed up their shock Kentucky win with third on the grid, ahead of long-time provisional poleman Tagliani, who is entered by Bryan Herta Autosport this weekend.

Both Power (Penske) and Franchitti (Ganassi) complained of a general lack of speed from their cars, and were the biggest casualties of a session full of unexpected results.

Ryan Briscoe in fifth and Graham Rahal in eighth were representing Penske and Ganassi respectively solo within the top 10. Alongside Power's 17th, third Penske driver Helio Castroneves salvaged 11th.

But it was a better afternoon for Andretti Autosport, as it got all four cars into the top 10 having monopolised the top three positions on the grid for a while. Marco Andretti will start sixth, Ryan Hunter-Reay seventh, Danica Patrick ninth and Mike Conway 10th.

Scott Dixon took 13th for Ganassi, behind Wade Cunningham (Sam Schmidt/AFS) and ahead of rookie of the year title rivals James Hinchcliffe (Newman/Haas) and JR Hildebrand (Panther).

Both EJ Viso and James Jakes missed the session - Viso with a penalty for having taken an engine change on his KV car after Thursday practice, and Dale Coyne driver Jakes following his fiery crash at the start of final practice.

Dan Wheldon entered qualifying despite knowing he would be put to the back of the grid to try and win from last place as part of the Las Vegas event's $5 million challenge. He was 29th quickest for Sam Schmidt.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                  Speed
 1.  Tony Kanaan          KV                        222.078
 2.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas               222.061
 3.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher              221.509
 4.  Alex Tagliani        Bryan Herta               221.330
 5.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                    221.130
 6.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                  221.129
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                  221.040
 8.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi                   220.958
 9.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                  220.925
10.  Mike Conway          Andretti                  220.922
11.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                    220.907
12.  Wade Cunningham      AFS/Sam Schmidt           220.790
13.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                   220.715
14.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas               220.701
15.  JR Hildebrand        Panther                   220.639
16.  Takuma Sato          KV                        220.627
17.  Will Power           Penske                    220.524
18.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                   220.489
19.  Buddy Rice           Panther                   220.392*
20.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest                  220.335
21.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne                220.314
22.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi                   219.982
23.  Townsend Bell        Dreyer & Reinbold         219.942
24.  Tomas Scheckter      Sarah Fisher              219.816
25.  Davey Hamilton       Dreyer & Reinbold         219.493
26.  Vitor Meira          AJ Foyt                   219.273
27.  Paul Tracy           Dragon                    218.661
28.  Jay Howard           Rahal Letterman Lanigan   218.577
29.  Dan Wheldon          Sam Schmidt               218.410
30.  Pippa Mann           Rahal Letterman Lanigan   218.157
31.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold         219.153
32.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                       218.132
33.  EJ Viso              KV
34.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne
* Will start from the back of the grid following penalty

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