Milwaukee IndyCar: Will Power beats Tony Kanaan to pole for Penske

The current championship leader was the ninth driver to head out for his run, unloading laps of 168.719mph and 169.811mph to earn a two-lap average of 169.292mph; considerably faster than the speeds seen in practice earlier in the day.

"Definitely wasn't expecting those sorts of speeds," Power admitted. "But the car was very solid, and I had the information from the two team-mates before me about how the balance was changing.

"I wasn't expecting to be on pole but it's good to be at the front."

Kanaan's two-lap average was 168.662mph, and while he lost some time trying to go flat through Turn 1 on his second lap ("I'd seen Will's time and thought that was the only way I'd be able to beat him"), he didn't think he had quite enough for pole.

"I think we've got a pretty good chance [in the race]," he said.

"We've just got to do our thing. We've been showing how quick we've been everywhere, we just need to get some luck on our side."

Ganassi driver Kanaan did succeed in denying Penske a lockout of the front row by bumping Juan Pablo Montoya back to third, leaving Ryan Briscoe and Josef Newgarden to round out the top five.

It was a tough session for two of the championship aspirants. Helio Castroneves paid the penalty for drawing one of the earlier qualifying slots and ended up eighth, while Andretti Autosport missed the set-up completely on Ryan Hunter-Reay's car.

"I wouldn't be surprised if I'm third from last," he said during the session.

It wasn't that bad - he will start from fourth-last alongside team-mate Carlos Munoz, leaving Marco Andretti as the team's top qualifier in ninth.

James Hinchcliffe, whose car needed to be repaired following a crash in second practice, will line up 13th.

Pos  Driver              Team/Engine      Speed
 1.  Will Power          Penske/Chevy     169.262
 2.  Tony Kanaan         Ganassi/Chevy    168.662
 3.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Penske/Chevy     168.579
 4.  Ryan Briscoe        Ganassi/Chevy    168.266
 5.  Josef Newgarden     Fisher/Honda     168.233
 6.  Charlie Kimball     Ganassi/Chevy    168.123
 7.  Ed Carpenter        Carpenter/Chevy  167.775
 8.  Helio Castroneves   Penske/Chevy     167.561
 9.  Marco Andretti      Andretti/Honda   167.079
10.  Takuma Sato         Foyt/Honda       166.915
11.  Scott Dixon         Ganassi/Chevy    166.742
12.  Justin Wilson       Coyne/Honda      166.501
13.  James Hinchcliffe   Andretti/Honda   166.195
14.  Graham Rahal        Rahal/Honda      166.032
15.  Mikhail Aleshin     Schmidt/Honda    165.851
16.  Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt/Honda    165.818
17.  Jack Hawksworth     Herta/Honda      165.614
18.  Sebastien Bourdais  KV/Chevy         164.421
19.  Ryan Hunter-Reay    Andretti/Honda   164.211
20.  Carlos Munoz        Andretti/Honda   164.013
21.  Sebastian Saavedra  KV/Chevy         162.535
22.  Carlos Huertas      Coyne/Honda      159.787

All drivers use Dallara chassis

Qualifying order set by average mph over two-lap run

This week AUTOSPORT is revisiting a great era of Indycar competition, with a special August 14 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, guest edited by Alex Zanardi and a host of features in print and online.

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Great Car: Penske PC23
The machine that beat Mansell and put Penske back on top, with a little help from a special engine for the Indy 500

F1 refugees in America
A look at some of the ex-Formula 1 racers who tried their luck in the States, with varying success

Tributes to Moore, Krosnoff and Rodriguez
Memories of the three racing talents who lost their lives during the period

What was US racing's greatest era?
IndyCar 2014 versus 1990s CART - what comes out on top?