Patrick Gets Pole as Briscoe DQ'ed

But after post-qualifying scrutineering ended, he was thrown to the back of the grid and Danica Patrick captured her third IndyCar career pole position.

Briscoe looked set to grab his second consecutive pole, having posted a lap of 217.133mph in today's qualifying on the 1.5-mile Chicago oval. But technical infraction on his car meant he will start from the back of the 23-car grid, along with his teammates Jaques Lazier and Scott Dixon, who were also disqualified.

Patrick, who posted the second fastest lap of the session with 215.970, was elevated to pole, with teammate Buddy Rice sharing the front row with her.

"We weren't at the top of the charts in practice," the female rookie said. "We were focusing very much on qualifying, just being alone and not trying to take ourselves to the front with a bunch of tows. We just tried to play it right and smart.

"You have to focus on several things for Chicagoland. You have to make sure the car is fast in a straight line. That means freeing up the car as much as possible. And you have to be smooth."

Tomas Scheckter will join Sam Hornish Jr. on the second row. IndyCar Series points leader Dan Wheldon and his teammate Bryan Herta will start from the third row.

"I'm happy with our starting position and I think we should be in good shape," Hornish said. "We decided to change the gears during both practice sessions, so we didn't have as much track time as we would've liked. In spite of this we still ended up with a solid qualifying result."

Pos  Driver              Make-Engine      Speed
 1.  Danica Patrick      Panoz-Honda      215.970
 2.  Buddy Rice          Panoz-Honda      215.799
 3.  Tomas Scheckter     Dallara-Chevy    215.731
 4.  Sam Hornish Jr      Dallara-Toyota   215.717
 5.  Dan Wheldon         Dallara-Honda    215.484
 6.  Bryan Herta         Dallara-Honda    215.464
 7.  Buddy Lazier        Dallara-Chevy    215.424
 8.  Tomas Enge          Dallara-Chevy    215.113
 9.  Scott Sharp         Panoz-Honda      215.101
10.  Dario Franchitti    Dallara-Honda    215.067
11.  Helio Castroneves   Dallara-Toyota   214.982
12.  Kosuke Matsuura     Panoz-Honda      214.481
13.  Tony Kanaan         Dallara-Honda    214.402
14.  AJ Foyt IV          Dallara-Chevy    213.898
15.  Roger Yasukawa      Dallara-Honda    212.720
16.  Patrick Carpentier  Dallara-Toyota   212.401
17.  Jimmy Kite          Dallara-Toyota   212.031
18.  Alex Barron         Dallara-Toyota   211.190
19.  Ed Carpenter        Dallara-Toyota   210.818
20.  Vitor Meira         Panoz-Honda      -
21.  Jaques Lazier       Panoz-Toyota     -
22.  Scott Dixon         Panoz-Toyota     -
23.  Ryan Briscoe        Panoz-Toyota     -