Franchitti accepts qualifying penalty

IRL competition boss Brian Barnhart penalised IndyCar championship leader Franchitti and third-place qualifier Helio Castroneves for crossing the white line at the bottom of the track during their qualifying runs.

Franchitti admitted the infringement, but said it was entirely unintentional.

""I touched the white line, and the seam pulled me down there," Franchitti said. "There wasn't any intention of doing it, and I immediately pulled back up.

"If I was doing it to take advantage, I would have stayed down there. That's my side of things.

"I think Brian made the right call. He doesn't know. He's not driving the car. It's not about intent; it's about what happened. I was below the white line and Helio was below the white line."

Castroneves was also sanguine about the penalty, having been in the same situation at Chicagoland last September - when he was moved from the front row to 28th for crossing the line but still came through to win the race.

"Clearly, being sent to the back of the field is a major disappointment for the whole team, but we've won from the back before," he said.

"It just means we have a lot more work to do tomorrow. We're just staying positive."

EJ Viso has also been put to the back of the 22-car field after his HVM Dallara-Honda failed a technical inspection, although the Venezuelan had only been 20th on the original grid after struggling on Saturday.

The penalties mean that pole-sitter Graham Rahal is joined on his front row by his Newman/Haas/Lanigan team-mate Robert Doornbos as the latter prepares for his first ever oval race.