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Briscoe flies to another Chicago pole

Ryan Briscoe took pole position at Chicagoland for the third straight year with a commanding qualifying run

The Penske driver, who had also been fastest in practice, was nearly 0.2 seconds quicker than his nearest rivals on his two-lap run, as the series switched from a four-lap to a two-lap average for oval qualifying from this weekend.

Ganassi's Dario Franchitti will share the front row with Briscoe, while the polesitter's Penske team-mates Will Power and Helio Castroneves lined up third and fourth.

But Franchitti is the only Ganassi man near the front, with Scott Dixon a deeply puzzled 15th at the end of the session.

Marco Andretti was the best of the Andretti Autosport quartet in fifth, while Newman/Haas' Graham Rahal and Hideki Mutoh took sixth and eighth, split by a good run from Dan Wheldon (Panther).

Ryan Hunter-Reay took ninth for Andretti, alongside Takuma Sato - as KV's Formula 1 convert showed his oval prowess again by breaking into the top 10.

Despite crashing just five laps into practice on his return to the series, Ed Carpenter put the Panther/Vision car 11th, ahead of Andretti's Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan. Alex Lloyd was another underdog to impress, putting Dale Coyne Racing 14th.

Tomas Scheckter was 17th on his first appearance with Conquest, fellow returnee Ana Beatriz beat her Dreyer & Reinbold team-mate Justin Wilson to 22nd and Davey Hamilton (De Ferran Dragon) qualified 28th in his first outing away from the Indianapolis 500 since his horrific, leg-shattering, crash at Texas nine years ago.

There will be a further 30 minutes of practice at 5pm local time today, with the race taking place under lights on Saturday evening.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             216.346mph
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            215.593mph
 3.  Will Power           Penske             215.521mph
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             215.475mph
 5.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           215.321mph
 6.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas        215.314mph
 7.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            215.099mph
 8.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        215.055mph
 9.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           214.979mph
10.  Takuma Sato          KV                 214.945mph
11.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     214.831mph
12.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           214.750mph
13.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           214.632mph
14.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         214.468mph
15.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            214.269mph
16.  EJ Viso              KV                 214.210mph
17.  Tomas Scheckter      Conquest           214.093mph
18.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   213.975mph
19.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              213.910mph
20.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           213.682mph
21.  Mario Moraes         KV                 213.458mph
22.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  213.429mph
23.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  213.385mph
24.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               213.106mph
25.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       213.095mph
26.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         212.777mph
27.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                212.660mph
28.  Davey Hamilton       De Ferran Dragon   212.484mph
29.  Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher       212.097mph

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