Carpenter takes shock Kentucky pole

Points leader Will Power was denied pole by Carpenter's superb run, but still earned a front row slot on a day when most of the regular frontrunners underperformed - including his title rival Dario Franchitti, who was only 11th.

Without a full-time seat for 2010, Carpenter is making only his third appearance of the season at Kentucky in a joint Panther/Vision Racing entry. Having battled in the top five on his return to the series at Chicagoland last week, and come within inches of winning at Kentucky last year, Carpenter put himself in an ideal position to clinch a first career win tomorrow with a pole run averaging 217.933mph over the new two-lap format.

The Panther team looks extremely strong going into Saturday night's race, with Carpenter's team-mate Dan Wheldon following up his Chicagoland podium finish with third on the grid today.

Apart from Ganassi's Scott Dixon, who joins Wheldon on row two, all of Power's usual rivals were down the order - and puzzled by their lack of speed.

His Penske team-mates Helio Castroneves and Ryan Briscoe were only eighth and ninth, while title threat Franchitti was back in 11th.

Andretti Autosport fared even worse - Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick were unhappy with 15th and 17th places, and Tony Kanaan nearly understeered in the Turn 1 wall and ended up back in 26th, just ahead of team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay, who spun into the Turn 2 wall on his run.

That gave some underdogs a chance to impress, with Hideki Mutoh qualifying fifth for Newman/Haas and Mario Moraes seventh for KV Racing.

But it was Conquest Racing that, after Carpenter, had most to celebrate, as rookie Bertrand Baguette qualified a surprise, career-best sixth and his new team-mate Tomas Scheckter claimed 10th.

Returnee Paul Tracy could not star on his second appearance with Dreyer & Reinbold though, the former Champ Car champion bemused by his car's poor pace as he took 23rd. Graham Rahal's return to Sarah Fisher Racing did not start well either - he bemoaned a severe straightline speed deficit as he struggled to 25th.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     217.933mph
 2.  Will Power           Penske             217.829mph
 3.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            217.700mph
 4.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            217.533mph
 5.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        217.374mph
 6.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           216.988mph
 7.  Mario Moraes         KV                 216.879mph
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             216.857mph
 9.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             216.600mph
10.  Tomas Scheckter      Conquest           216.589mph
11.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            216.533mph
12.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               216.434mph
13.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              216.391mph
14.  Takuma Sato          KV                 216.265mph
15.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           216.173mph
16.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  215.944mph
17.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           215.820mph
18.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         215.272mph
19.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                215.003mph
20.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   214.948mph
21.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       214.813mph
22.  EJ Viso              KV                 214.595mph
23.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold  214.270mph
24.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         213.343mph
25.  Graham Rahal         Sarah Fisher       212.364mph
26.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           210.831mph
27.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti