Qualifying: Tony tigers to pole

The Brazilian duo, who were Indy Lights team mates with the now-defunct Tasman Motorsports team, were separated by just 0.003secs, with Adrian Fernandez third and Memo Gidley fourth.

Fernandez was one of the first drivers to qualify in CART's single-file, reverse championship order procedure. He put in a lap of 23.203 seconds in his Fernandez Racing Reynard-Honda, a time that stood until Kanaan, the 13th of the 25 drivers, made his run.

Kanaan coaxed a lap of 23.145 seconds out of his Mo Nunn Racing Reynard-Honda, but there were still 12 drivers to go. But until Castroneves ran, no one approached Kanaan's time. And had Castroneves gotten his full allotment of two qualifying laps instead of one, he might have taken his fourth pole of the season. But his Team Penske Reynard-Honda lost power in Turn 3 during a lap Castroneves said was 0.15secs better than his first lap.

"I feel so happy for Morris and the whole team," said Kanaan. "We got Morris his first podium finish [at Motegi, Japan in May] and we got him his first pole today. There's only one thing left, and I want to give that to him, too."

Kanaan's only Champ Car win came at Michigan Speedway in 1999, and Saturday marked his first pole position in the CART series.

"We've been knocking on the door so hard lately and our day has finally come," he said. "It's an awesome feeling to have a good car and to be able to push as hard as you can. That was about as close to a perfect set-up as there could be for us, and I left nothing on the table. I gave it my all."

Adding to the Nunn team's joy, Alex Zanardi qualified fifth in what has been his strongest and most consistent weekend to date this year. Zanardi's best race finish was fourth at Toronto.

"I'm so happy for Tony," Zanardi said. "He's been working so hard and he deserves the reward he got today. As for me, I had the best car I've had all weekend, so obviously we are moving in the right direction, and I was pretty satisfied with my qualifying run."

Castroneves was disappointed to not win the pole, but he was happy to lose out to his friend and former team mate if he was going to be beaten by anyone.

"I couldn't believe it, but I'm happy for Tony," said Castroneves. "My car was awesome during the warm-up lap and I did a 23.1s, which would have won the pole. Then on the first lap, I made a little mistake but it was a 23.15s. I thought on my next lap I'd go for it. I was 0.15s up on my previous lap going into Turn 3 and all of a sudden it just went, 'bleahhh'. I couldn't believe it. It looks like I ran out of fuel."

Fourth went to Gidley, a CART career-best qualifying result. The third row will be filled by Zanardi and his former team mate Jimmy Vasser. The American was the second driver to qualify following a 43-minute rain delay in the middle of the session, and he said the track conditions were still extremely slick.

"I think the jet dryer they use to dry the track put down some kind of oil, because my car was squirming," said Vasser, who was fastest in the morning practice session. "The track got better the longer I was out, but I had no grip and was sliding around throughout my run."

CART series leader Kenny Brack qualified his Lola-Ford eighth. "We had a good car this morning, but it wasn't fast enough for qualifying," said the Swede.

Michigan winner Patrick Carpentier was ninth and Dario Franchitti tenth.

"Not bad, but I got quite loose in Turn 2," revealed the Scot. "I gathered it up and got through, but that was pretty much the limit of the car. The second lap was clean, so we'll take it. I¹m actually quite happy with the race car."

Friday fast man Bruno Junqueira was 11th after having a lurid moment in Turn 3 as he approached the green flag to start his run. Defending CART champion Gil de Ferran joined him on the sixth row.

"I¹m having a hard time on the short ovals this year," de Ferran admitted. "I stuck it in the fence twice in a row in the winter, I haven't tested on this type of track since, and I just haven't found a qualifying setup I'm comfortable with."

De Ferran fared better than the remaining Team Green team mates, Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy, who were 17th and 22nd respectively.

"That's the best it's been this weekend," Andretti said. "We made improvements in qualifying; in fact, we picked up two and a half tenths of a second, which is a pretty big jump so I think we are going in the right direction. The car didn't feel too bad today, it's a long race and I do think we have a pretty good race car."

1999 Chicago pole winner Max Papis wound up last after attempting to qualify with an engine that sounded like it was running on seven cylinders.

For full qualifying results, click here.