Franchitti grabs St. Pete pole

Franchitti won the pole position Saturday for the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg by outlasting five other challengers in a brief shootout along the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street circuit in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.

His #27 Andretti Green Racing Honda/Dallara recorded its best lap of 1:02.2753 seconds - 104.054 mph - during the single-lap qualifying session. Scott Dixon came closest to topping that, but settled for the outside front-row starting position.

"It's always nice to start from the pole," Franchitti said. "It's always nice when you've been quick all weekend. Hopefully that will keep us out of trouble at the beginning."

Following Franchitti and Dixon to the green flag will be Tony Kanaan, who was second during the single-lap session but fell to third when Dixon posted his best lap of 1:02.5951.

"We made some drastic changes on the car after the single-lap qualifying and the car improved tremendously," said Dixon, the only driver to move up during the Fast Six session, going from fourth to second.

"Our car is in a great race set-up, and I think we'll be up front tomorrow. I really like this race track, and we've been fast all week."

Sam Hornish Jr. will start fourth, followed by Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves and Andretti Green Racing's Bryan Herta, who won the pole last year.

"It was a little bit more fun when I won the pole," Herta said. "We picked up a little under steer and couldn't quite dial it out in time."

Former AGR driver Dan Wheldon, who won the IRL IndyCar Series season opener last weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, struggled Saturday with the #10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda/Panoz and will start 13th.

"They had some problems with Dan's car today," Dixon said. "I'm surprised he's not a little higher."

The key to keeping others behind him for the entire race, Franchitti said, is keeping them behind him on the first turn.

"You've got to get through that first turn," said Franchitti, who may have had the fastest car during last year's race but encountered mechanical problems that resulted in a third-place finish.

"Once you get through the first turn, then they've got the rest of the race to catch you. One thing I did notice last year is that you can pass a lot here.

"We came back through the field twice after we had out fuel-tank problem. We were able to go right back through the field, so you can pass here."

Pos  Driver             Team                   Chassis   Time
 1.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green         Dallara   1:02.275
 2.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi                Panoz     1:02.595
 3.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green         Dallara   1:02.613
 4.  Sam Hornish Jr.    Penske                 Dallara   1:02.676
 5.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                 Dallara   1:02.748
 6.  Bryan Herta        Andretti-Green         Dallara   1:02.877
 7.  Buddy Rice         Rahal-Letterman        Panoz     1:03.565
 8.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision                 Dallara   1:03.714
 9.  Kosuke Matsuura    Super Aguri Fernandez  Dallara   1:03.803
10.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green         Dallara   1:03.885
11.  Roberto Moreno     Vision                 Dallara   1:03.946
12.  Vitor Meira        Panther                Dallara   1:04.021
13.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi                Panoz     1:04.027
14.  Danica Patrick     Rahal-Letterman        Panoz     1:04.444
15.  Scott Sharp        Fernandez              Panoz     1:04.859
16.  Felipe Giaffone    AJ Foyt                Dallara   1:05.385
17.  Eddie Cheever Jr.  Cheever                Dallara   1:05.548
18.  Buddy Lazier       Dreyer and Reinbold    Dallara   1:06.243
19.  P.J. Chesson       Hemelgarn              Dallara   1:08.827