Castroneves on Pole at the Glen
Helio Castroneves had taken pole position ahead of IRL's first ever race on the Wakins Glen road course
The Penske driver, who was fastest overall in yesterday's practice, won the 'Fast Six' shootout with a lap of 1:30.6688, after he finished second fastest in the single lap qualifying session.
IRL holds a single lap session on road coarses, with the fastest six drivers then holding a 10-minute shootout to determine the top three rows of the grid.
New Zealander Scott Dixon was fastest in the single lap qualifying, but come the shootout he dropped to fourth, two tenths of a second behind the pole-sitter.
Second on the grid is Italian Giorgio Pantano, who ended up a mere two hundredths of a second behind Castroneves, and the latter admitted he was certain Pantano was about to beat his time.
"When I got my pole lap, the track was getting better, and I was sure one of those guys was going beat me," Castroneves said. "When I heard Pantano was on the course for one last run, I was hoping he ate a lot of macaroni today...
"But we worked really hard, and we got what we wanted today."
Newly crowned IRL Champion Dan Wheldon qualified in 9th position, while Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr - both fighting for second place in the standings - qualified 7th and 11th respectively.
Hornish put down his low qualifying position down to the backup car he had to drive, after his primary car was damaged in a practice shunt.
"It's disappointing as the primary car was about a second and a half faster," said Hornish. "This afternoon was the first time we ran this car so I was a bit conservative to make sure we got a clean lap.
"But tomorrow is the day that counts. We just need to stay out of trouble and get to the end."
Pos Driver Make-Engine Time 1. Helio Castroneves Dallara-Toyota 1:30.6688 2. Giorgio Pantano Panoz-Toyota 1:30.6903 + 0.0215 3. Patrick Carpentier Dallara-Toyota 1:30.7889 + 0.1201 4. Scott Dixon Panoz-Toyota 1:30.8783 + 0.2095 5. Tony Kanaan Dallara-Honda 1:30.9576 + 0.2888 6. Dario Franchitti Dallara-Honda 1:31.2215 + 0.5527 7. Vitor Meira Panoz-Honda 1:32.5647 + 1.8959 8. Buddy Rice Panoz-Honda 1:32.8638 + 2.1950 9. Dan Wheldon Dallara-Honda 1:32.9704 + 2.3016 10. Tomas Scheckter Dallara-Chevy 1:33.0504 + 2.3816 11. Sam Hornish Jr. Dallara-Toyota 1:33.3512 + 2.6824 12. Tomas Enge Dallara-Chevy 1:33.3885 + 2.7197 13. Alex Barron Dallara-Toyota 1:33.4835 + 2.8147 14. Bryan Herta Dallara-Honda 1:33.6694 + 3.0006 15. Kosuke Matsuura Panoz-Honda 1:33.7564 + 3.0876 16. Danica Patrick Panoz-Honda 1:33.8566 + 3.1878 17. Roger Yasukawa Dallara-Honda 1:34.5492 + 3.8804 18. Scott Sharp Panoz-Honda 1:34.9094 + 4.2406 19. Jeff Bucknum Dallara-Chevy 1:35.4310 + 4.7622 20. Ed Carpenter Dallara-Toyota 1:37.9000 + 7.2312
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