Kanaan claims Richmond pole

Kanaan, whose season has been filled with misfortune, took advantage of the luck of the draw to beat Andretti by just 0.03 seconds over four laps of the 0.75-mile oval.

By the time Kanaan got on track, the sun had set and the 98-degree heat had settled into a less beastly temperature range.

"It's an advantage to go out that late, for sure, but it's also pure luck," Kanaan said. "It's the number you draw. If you wanted to talk about luck with me this year, I think I deserve a little bit of the good kind."

The effort knocked Andretti from P1, but also came with his help. After Andretti's run, Kanaan's crew made changes suggested by Andretti's crew, then took the pole from him.

"We made an adjustment right before we went out based on the feedback we got from Marco," Kanaan said. "We've been working very well together, and we had the exact same set-ups. I was able to make my car a little bit quicker than his."

With the track washed clean of rubber by an afternoon storm but conditions becoming increasingly conducive to fast times as the weather cooled, the evening qualifying session saw a number of surprises - including Graham Rahal grabbing third for Newman/Haas/Lanigan on a day when his teammate Justin Wilson, who had been much earlier in the order, only managed 23rd place.

"We made changes and it got cooler," Rahal said. "We're so happy that it finally came together for us."

Championship leader Scott Dixon held provisional pole for much of the session before being edged back to fourth as others benefited from the improving conditions.

"We think we left a lot on the table," said Dixon, who has now qualified in the top four for eight of this season's nine races. "With the track cooling off, it got better."

The Ganassi driver will start just of the highly-impressive Buddy Rice, who earned a giant-killing fifth place for Dreyer & Reinbold. The result was Rice's best qualifying performance for nearly three seasons, and helped make up for the frustrations of Iowa a week ago, where he was classified 22nd.

"It was disappointing last week," Rice said. "This is a place that's an equaliser. We left stuff out there. Hopefully we can rebound here."

Dixon's teammate Dan Wheldon completed the top six, ahead of AGR's Hideki Mutoh and Vision's AJ Foyt IV, with Bruno Junqueira also producing a star underdog performance to earn ninth for Dale Coyne Racing.

While several unlikely names starred, Penske were among those who struggled, with Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves ending up only 11th and 18th respectively.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman Racing) fared worse: a technical problem preventing the morning practice pace-setter from even attempting a lap.

He will be joined at the back by Enrique Bernoldi, whose Conquest Racing team narrowly failed to get his car repaired in time after his practice crash.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Speed
 1.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       167.876
 2.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       167.795
 3.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  167.250
 4.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              167.120
 5.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold    166.804
 6.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi              166.768
 7.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       166.518
 8.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               166.126
 9.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne           166.032
10.  Oriol Servia       KV                   165.815
11.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               165.643
12.  John Andretti      Roth                 165.275
13.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               164.963
14.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       164.396
15.  Marty Roth         Roth                 164.326
16.  Will Power         KV                   164.321
17.  Vitor Meira        Panther              163.844
18.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               163.353
19.  EJ Viso            HVM                  163.170
20.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           162.566
21.  Townsend Bell      Dreyer & Reinbold    162.517
22.  Darren Manning     Foyt                 160.616
23.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  159.652
24.  Jaime Camara       Conquest             158.884
25.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman
26.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest