Franchitti to start from Richmond pole

Franchitti, who took control of the IndyCar Series points lead just last week by winning at Iowa Speedway, struggled Friday to find his usual speed during practice sessions before rain began to fall. Had it not rained, Franchitti would have struggled to get near the front of the grid.

Instead, he's starting first.

"Things are definitely going my way," Franchitti said. "I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I can. As we know, there comes a point where that stops, so I'm going to enjoy it as long a it keeps going."

Franchitti's Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan will start on the front row for Saturday's race, which is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. Franchitti leads Kanaan by 51 points heading into the race, but, unlike Franchitti, Kanaan had the fastest lap of the day's practice session.

It also was the first time the IndyCar Series applied its new rule regarding rainouts of qualifying sessions. In previous years, the lineup was made according to practice times. This year, the series uses entrant points to line up the grid if qualifying is rained out.

"We did catch a break with the weather," said Franchitti, who would have started sixth had the old rule been in place. "I'm glad we focused on the race because we're going to need that come tomorrow. We definitely got a break with it."

Following the two AGR cars are both Target Chip Ganassi cars, driven by Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon, on the second row. The third row consists of the two Team Penske cars driven by Sam Hornish Jr. and Helio Castroneves followed by Scott Sharp in seventh and Danica Patrick in eighth.

Castroneves perhaps caught the biggest break of the day after struggling to find speed during Friday's practice sessions. His best lap was just the 14th-fastest of the 19-car field, yet he'll start fifth.

"We were struggling a little bit with the setup," Castroneves said. "For some reason, we weren't able to find the same speed and comfort in the car as we have in the past here."

Since Franchitti moved to the IndyCar Series with Andretti Green Racing in 2003, he has not been known for his qualifying prowess. In 58 races, he's won the pole position just three times - at Texas in 2004, at California in 2005, and at St. Petersburg in 2006.

"We've focused more on race setup," Franchitti said. "Sometimes I haven't gotten the car where it needed to be in qualifying. My mindset on an oval has always been more on the race."

The rainout was particularly hard on Marco Andretti, who chased Franchitti to the finish line Sunday at Iowa and had one of the fastest cars in Friday's practice sessions at Richmond. Andretti was third-fastest overall, trailing only Kanaan and Hornish, but, thanks to the rainout, will start 14th.

"I saw him earlier and he was moping around," Franchitti said of Andretti. "I said, 'What's wrong?' He said, 'If it rains I'm going to start 14th.' And I said, 'If it doesn't rain, I'm going to started 14th.'"

Two incidents marred the practice sessions, as Vitor Meira encountered more mysterious trouble with front wishbones and Milka Duno hit the wall. Neither driver was injured.

Meira, who was running among the leaders last week at Iowa when his left front suspension collapsed, had the same thing happen Friday at Richmond. Team officials said the parts were new factory equipment.

Duno said she may have gotten on to the apron before her crash.

"I was just working the low line and may have touched the yellow line," she said. "I was getting comfortable. We were working with the car, and the team had learned so much today."

Pos  Driver
 1.  Dario Franchitti
 2.  Tony Kanaan
 3.  Scott Dixon
 4.  Dan Wheldon
 5.  Sam Hornish Jr
 6.  Helio Castroneves
 7.  Scott Sharp
 8.  Danica Patrick
 9.  Vitor Meira
10.  Tomas Scheckter
11.  Jeff Simmons
12.  Buddy Rice
13.  Darren Manning
14.  Marco Andretti
15.  Ed Carpenter
16.  Sarah Fisher
17.  A.J. Foyt IV
18.  Kosuke Matsuura
19.  Milka Duno