Dixon beats Franchitti to pole

 The Ganassi driver recorded a fast lap of 22.8947 seconds around the 1.3-mile oval to knock Dario Franchitti from the number one position.

Franchitti, who leads Dixon by 47 points in the IndyCar Series standings, held on to second place and will start alongside Dixon when the Firestone Indy 200 begins on Saturday evening.

"We need to put pressure on the (Andretti Green Racing) guys any time we can, leading sessions and leading qualifying," Dixon said. "Hopefully we'll have a good car in the race tomorrow. It's going to be tough to hold on. We're just going to have to wait and see."
 
Franchitti, the first driver on the track, held provisional pole for nearly half of the session at 22.9555 seconds in his AGR car before Dixon knocked him off.
 
"We tested her a few weeks ago, but we weren't happy with it," Franchitti said. "We didn't really learn much because the weather wasn't that great, but the car is pretty good."
 
Tony Kanaan and Sam Hornish Jr, who were involved in a brawl at the end of last Sunday's race and were subsequently fined by the Indy Racing League, will start third and fourth, respectively.

"I don't think I had anything left in the car," Kanaan said. "We set a goal for qualifying, and we reached it." 
 
Helio Castroneves and his Team Penske crew took a different tack when he encountered gearbox problems while about to roll through tech behind Franchitti. In a move that was part strategy and part necessity, Castroneves forfeited his place in line and instead decided to go for one lap at the end of the session.
 
He recorded a lap of 23.0068 seconds, good enough for sixth on the 18-car grid.
 
"We decided to pull out of line, take our time, go last and take our chances with one qualifying lap," Castroneves said. "Fortunately, we ran our best lap of the day in qualifying."
 
As they have encountered in other races this season, drivers expect passing to be difficult in Saturday evening's race.
 
"It's been very difficult to pass here, tougher than we've had in the past," Dixon said.

"We'll just have to see how that plays out. Once it cools off at night, it might open up the second groove and give people the opportunity to pass."

Pos  Driver             Team               Time
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi            22.8947
 2.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green     22.9555
 3.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green     22.9668
 4.  Sam Hornish Jr     Penske             22.9815
 5.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi            22.9911
 6.  Helio Castroneves  Penske             23.0068
 7.  Danica Patrick     Andretti-Green     23.0090
 8.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green     23.0097
 9.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal-Letterman    23.0192
10.  Scott Sharp        Rahal-Letterman    23.0335
11.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision             23.1252
12.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision             23.1294
13.  Kosuke Matsuura    Panther            23.2433
14.  Ed Carpenter       Vision             23.2526
15.  Vitor Meira        Panther            23.3031
16.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold  23.3139
17.  Sarah Fisher       Dreyer & Reinbold  23.3258
18.  Darren Manning     Foyt               23.4348