Hornish takes Texas pole

Hornish recorded a lap of 24.5197 seconds - 213.624 mph - in the No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Dallara for his third pole of the season and 11th of his career. The lap was 0.3 mph off his fastest lap during the afternoon practice session, but good enough to claim the pole.

"Our run was pretty good, even though we slowed down from where we thought we'd be," Hornish said. "The car ran really strong in practice. We got around a couple of cars and ran really well. Hopefully we can be that good on Saturday."

Hornish outlasted challenges from both Target Chip Ganassi Racing drivers - Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon - who earlier in the day had topped Hornish's best lap late in a practice session.

Dixon and Wheldon couldn't repeat their performances from just two hours before the qualifying session, though, and Hornish held on for the No. 1 spot.

"Not a whole lot has changed with the car," Hornish said. "This is the fourth season with the Dallara. Even though we make little changes, it's hard to find any new breaking developments. It's hard to get an advantage on everybody."

He had enough of an advantage to keep his teammate, Helio Castroneves, and Wheldon from upsetting his run of poles this season. Hornish added Texas to Homestead and Indy on his list of pole positions; Castroneves claimed the only other oval-track pole of the season -- at Twin Ring Motegi in March.

This time, Hornish's No. 6 Marlboro Team Penske Honda/Dallara was 0.016 seconds better than Wheldon's No. 10 TCGR Honda/Dallara. Castroneves, driving the No. 3 Penske Honda/Dallara, was 0.05 seconds behind Wheldon.

"We were looking for speed earlier today, but we just couldn't find it," Castroneves said. "But I'm very satisfied with our starting position. The car was great. I'm very content with that."

For Wheldon, who led nearly three-fourths of the Indy 500 but didn't win, the season has been strong but just a tick short of where he wants it to be.

"This year, we've been just a little bit shy," Wheldon said. "We have a car that's certainly reasonable for the race. That's something we worked on this morning."

Following Hornish, Wheldon and Castroneves on the starting grid for the race, which begins Saturday at 9 p.m. EDT, are Dixon, Tomas Scheckter, Tony Kanaan, Scott Sharp and Dario Franchitti. Marco Andretti and Kosuke Matsuura rounded out the top 10.

"The big thing is to make sure we don't get ourselves in any trouble and make sure the car handles well in traffic," Hornish said. "That's how it will be on race day."

Hornish predicted another razor-thin margin of victory in Saturday's race. He owns two of the three closest margins at Texas, including the closest - and third-closest in IRL IndyCar Series history - a 0.0096-second split between Hornish and current teammate Helio Castroneves in September 2002.

"When you consider how close qualifying was, you're going to see one of the best races you've seen here," Hornish said. "That's saying a lot, considering how many close finishes there have been here in the past."

Pos  Driver             Chassis           Speed
 1.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dallara-Honda     213.624
 2.  Dan Wheldon        Dallara-Honda     213.588
 3.  Helio Castroneves  Dallara-Honda     213.182
 4.  Scott Dixon        Dallara-Honda     212.929
 5.  Tomas Scheckter    Dallara-Honda     212.823
 6.  Tony Kanaan        Dallara-Honda     212.313
 7.  Scott Sharp        Dallara-Honda     212.242
 8.  Dario Franchitti   Dallara-Honda     211.933
 9.  Marco Andretti     Dallara-Honda     211.923
10.  Kosuke Matsuura    Dallara-Honda     211.545
11.  Bryan Herta        Dallara-Honda     211.532
12.  Ed Carpenter       Dallara-Honda     211.395
13.  Vitor Meira        Dallara-Honda     211.284
14.  Buddy Rice         Dallara-Honda     211.163
15.  Danica Patrick     Dallara-Honda     210.981
16.  Jeff Simmons       Dallara-Honda     210.445
17.  Eddie Cheever Jr   Dallara-Honda     209.414
18.  Buddy Lazier       Dallara-Honda     209.152
19.  Felipe Giaffone    Dallara-Honda     no speed