Briscoe takes Milwaukee pole

A year on from taking his first IndyCar win - a result that turned his hitherto poor 2008 season around - at the track, Briscoe recorded a four-lap time of 1m26.7966s (168.394 mph) around the historic oval, while his Indianapolis 500-winning team-mate Castroneves crashed during his qualifying run later in the session and will start last.

Briscoe, who started second at Indy and was heading for second behind Castroneves before being forced to pit late in the race, was 0.14s ahead of front row partner Rahal. The Australian's win at Milwaukee a year ago gave Roger Penske his 300th victory as a car owner.

"I came into this race last year not having had good experiences with this place, so getting the win was awesome," Briscoe said. "I learned a lot from my race last year. I didn't qualify very well. My car has been a lot better in qualifying this year, so hopefully we can replicate a good race set-up as well."

His team-mate Castroneves said his accident while trying to beat Briscoe to pole was caused by simply pushing too hard.

"I was just going for it," Castroneves said. "Sometimes you've just got to try. The car snapped a little bit. I thought I had saved it, but then it just slid and brushed the wall, and unfortunately that was the end of qualifying."

Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver Rahal and Briscoe had been the class of the field in practice, and Rahal reckoned that only a poor fourth lap stopped him beating the Penske man to pole.

"The car felt pretty good but I had a big snap and a big moment on the last lap and our fourth lap time was three-tenths slower than the previous one," said Rahal. "If that hadn't happened I think we would have had pole. We showed up today exactly how we ended last year, because we were pretty competitive."

Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan shrugged off bruised ribs and other injuries to qualify third. Kanaan, who crashed heavily during the Indy 500 last week, had x-rays on his ribs that proved negative. Instead, doctors have treated the deep bruising with pain killers and rest.

"If you look at me, it looks like I'm not going to make it," Kanaan said. "But watch tomorrow. I try to forget about the pain, but it keeps reminding me every time I turn."

Behind Kanaan, Scott Dixon took fourth for Ganassi, with KV's Mario Moraes taking a career-best fifth ahead of AGR duo Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick, and Dixon's team-mate Dario Franchitti.

Raphael Matos was the leading rookie in ninth for Luczo Dragon, while Tomas Scheckter made a great start to what he hopes will be more than just a one-off deal with Dreyer & Reinbold by qualifying 10th, just ahead of team-mate Mike Conway.

Paul Tracy, who replaced Vitor Meira after his crash at Indy, qualified AJ Foyt's car in 16th position.

"The car wasn't in the ballpark this morning practice, so we put a new set-up on it," Tracy said. "[Foyt is] not mad at me. He's mad at the crew and engineer. He knows it's probably not the driver that's the problem."

Pos  Driver             Team                 Speed
 1.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               168.394mph
 2.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  168.117mph
 3.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       167.793mph
 4.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              167.089mph
 5.  Mario Moraes       KV                   166.791mph
 6.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       166.139mph
 7.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       165.168mph
 8.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              164.706mph
 9.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         164.671mph
10.  Tomas Scheckter    Dreyer & Reinbold    163.310mph
11.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    162.187mph
12.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan  161.657mph
13.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       161.531mph
14.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              161.433mph
15.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                161.411mph
16.  Paul Tracy         Foyt                 160.798mph
17.  EJ Viso            HVM                  160.744mph
18.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision               160.381mph
19.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               160.079mph
20.  Helio Castroneves  Penske