Castroneves on Indy 500 pole

He and his Penske teammates chose the latter and won the bet, taking the pole position for the 91st Indianapolis 500 with just four minutes left in Saturday's six-hour qualifying session.

Castroneves and his No. 3 Team Penske Honda/Dallara were safely in the race on the inside of the second row when the decision was made to withdraw that effort and go for the pole position.

At 5:53 pm, Castroneves took to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval. Four laps later, he had bumped Dario Franchitti from the pole, which Franchitti had held since before 1 pm.

Even then, it wasn't a done deal. Tony Kanaan followed Castroneves on the track and appeared to be in line to bounce Castroneves from P1 until Kanaan's final lap - almost a tenth of a second lower than the previous lap - dropped his four-lap average to 225.757 mph, just 0.260 mph - or 0.420 seconds - behind Castroneves.

"I don't think I was breathing during those last four laps," Castroneves said. "I was holding my breath for the whole entire qualifying. It's four laps, not just one lap. The car does so many things during one lap; imagine what it does during four laps. You've just got to trust it, you know?"

Kanaan's No. 11 Andretti Green Racing Honda/Dallara turned laps in the high 225s - good enough to take the pole from Castroneves - until he dropped down to 225.358 mph on the final lap.

"I'm so sorry, guys," he told his crew on the radio during the cool down lap. "Trust me, I drove it for all it was worth. I'm so sorry."

The drama was evident both in and out of the car. Fans were glued to each lap reading during Kanaan's run. For the first three, his average was ahead of Castroneves'. On the final lap, though, Kanaan's average dropped below Castroneves'.

"It was a pretty tense moment," Kanaan said. "I was convinced I could do it. I think my warm-up lap was a little too quick, and I lost it on the first lap."

Kanaan's effort dropped Franchitti to third; earlier in the day, Franchitti and his No. 27 AGR Honda/Dallara had bumped Kanaan out of the top spot.

Franchitti's four-lap average of 225.191 mph held up to several late-day assaults, including two by Sam Hornish Jr. and those of Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon.

"With the position we were in, we couldn't have pulled out to have another go at it," Franchitti said. "But we're starting on the front row, and hopefully we'll have a strong race car. ... We're going into the race with a lot of optimism."

Behind the front row of Castroneves, Kanaan and Franchitti for the May 27 race will be Dixon, who took a run at the leaders but ended up fourth; Hornish, the defending champion who may have had the fastest car Saturday if not for two slips; and Wheldon, the 2005 winner whose speed from earlier in the week eluded him on Saturday.

Castroneves' pole was his second at Indy and a record 14th for Roger Penske's team, which also won a record 14 Indy 500s and four of the last six at Indy. Castroneves, who won the race in 2001 and 2002, finished second to then-teammate Gil de Ferran after his previous pole position.

"We're going to have to continue working," Castroneves said. "This is only the first race, I would say. Like Rick Mears says, 'We have two races at Indy. One is pole day and the other is the actual race.' ... This is the place to take a chance, and we did. We threw the dice."

The start of the qualifying session was nearly as active as the conclusion. Kanaan grabbed the early pole, but Franchitti, who was immediately behind Kanaan in line, used his teammate's description of the track conditions to post an impressive four-lap average of 225.191 mph.

"I have to thank TK because he came on the radio and told us what the track conditions were like right at that moment," Franchitti said.

"He told me exactly what it was like, so I knew what to do on the first turn of the first lap. I trust him enough to know that he's 100 percent honest with something like that."

That effort held up through the heat of the day. Both Penske cars, which drew late positions in the qualifying order, withdrew in the heat of the day and returned later. Hornish took two shots at Franchitti, but slid dangerously close to the wall on the first try, then got loose on the last lap of the second attempt.

"The same thing happened, just in different parts of the run," Hornish said. "The first run, I got a little bit wide on the exit of Turn 1 and couldn't get the car to turn.

"The second time, I got a bit of a push. Both times we ended up with the same scenario. I was ready to close my eyes and hit the wall."

Dixon then topped Hornish's effort with 37 minutes left in the session before Ganassi teammate Wheldon tried and failed in his shot at the pole, falling behind Hornish and Kanaan on the grid.

"The conditions today were so much different than we've been running with," Dixon said, noting the slightly cooler, less humid conditions Saturday. "It's frustrating. We missed by a bit too much."

Wheldon has led nearly 70 percent of the laps in the first four races of the IndyCar Series season and was the fastest driver during the first two days of practice earlier in the week. However, his speed fell off dramatically Saturday, and he settled for sixth on the grid.

"I'd love to get the pole here some day," Wheldon said. "I'm going to have to come back to do that. But the important thing is the race, and I'm looking forward to that."

Following the first two rows will be Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti in the third row, and Tomas Scheckter and Michael Andretti in the fourth row.

Patrick was in line behind Kanaan and had the second-best practice lap of the day behind Kanaan, but she ran out of time to return to the track and attempt to improve her position.

"I would have to have gone back out there," Patrick said. "I practiced after qualifying, and each one of my laps was faster than my qualifying run. It would have been nice to have gone out there."

As several fast drivers, including Kanaan and Castroneves, waited in the wings to try to surpass Franchitti, others tried to knock Michael Andretti from the top 11.

This was the first successful implementation of the Indy 500's new qualifying procedure, in which only the top 11 positions in the 33-car field are locked in each day, but each driver gets three attempts.

Andretti survived bump attempts by Rahal Letterman Racing drivers Scott Sharp and Jeff Simmons and Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter in the final 30 minutes, eventually pulling out of line to give Kanaan a shot to answer Castroneves' impending attempt.

Darren Manning, who was in line immediately behind Andretti, also failed to knock him out of the 11th position.

The cards fell in Castroneves' favour, too, after a disappointing run with less than two hours left in the session culminated in a four-lap average under 225 mph. After Hornish's two edgy attempts, Castroneves took another shot and made it work.

"It's just incredible to make everything connect," Castroneves said. "So many things can go wrong. At the same time, when you can put everything together, it goes right. That's what happened."

And, even though it didn't end with the No. 1 starting position, it went right for Kanaan, too. He improved his position from sixth to second with the final run, and he led a successful day for AGR, which put all of its five cars in the top 11.

Kanaan said there was no question he would take a run at the pole in the final minutes.

"When Helio went out, they asked me, 'Do you want to go?'" Kanaan described. "I said, 'Yes.' Michael was already secured, so for me, it was either sixth or 11th; it wouldn't make a difference. I'm a racer, and I wanted to go for the pole. I wanted to give this team what they deserved."

Positions 12 through 22 will be determined by Sunday's qualifying. Another round of practice ensues next week before the second weekend of qualifying to determine the back third of the field.

Top 11 spots on the grid for the 91st Indianapolis 500:

Pos  Driver              Speed
 1.  Helio Castroneves   225.817
 2.  Tony Kanaan         225.757
 3.  Dario Franchitti    225.191
 4.  Scott Dixon         225.122
 5.  Sam Hornish Jr      225.109
 6.  Dan Wheldon         224.641
 7.  Ryan Briscoe        224.410
 8.  Danica Patrick      224.076
 9.  Marco Andretti      223.299
10.  Tomas Scheckter     222.877
11.  Michael Andretti    222.789