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Penalties give NHLR front row sweep

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing team-mates Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos will share the front row of the grid for the Kansas round of the IndyCar Series after post-qualifying penalties dropped Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves from second and third to the back of the field

The Indy Racing League judged that championship leader Franchitti (Ganassi) and recent returnee Castroneves (Penske) had both violated the rules by crossing the white line at the bottom of the track during their qualifying laps.

It was the second time in his last four IndyCar races that Castroneves had been hit by such a penalty, as he had committed the same infraction in the title decider at Chicagoland last September, on that occasion coming from the back of the grid to take victory in the race.

Rahal had already claimed pole position before the penalties were applied, but the revised grid sees his rookie team-mate Doornbos gain a remarkable front row position for his first ever oval start.

The result is not only Rahal's first ever oval pole, and his second in three races this season, but also the first time that one of the teams that joined from Champ Car in 2008 has topped an oval grid.

"Qualifying pace has always been our issue on ovals," Rahal said. "To be honest, I think a lot of people thought it would be an issue again here for us. Certainly it hasn't been."

Franchitti held first for much of the session, holding on even when Castroneves looked set to beat him before losing pace on the last of his four qualifying laps.

But encouraged by Doornbos's impressive qualifying run, Rahal, the last driver on the track, put together an effort strong enough to top Franchitti.

"When I was told what Robert did time-wise in qualifying, I really did think we could go faster than that," Rahal said. "We were good on our own in practice."

The penalties mean that Danica Patrick will start from third for Andretti Green Racing, alongside reigning champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi), with Marco Andretti showing much-improved form to take fifth for AGR and KV Racing's Mario Moraes securing a career-best sixth on the grid.

Revised qualifying order:

Pos  Driver             Team                 Speed
 1.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  211.311
 2.  Robert Doornbos    Newman/Haas/Lanigan  210.665
 3.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       210.470
 4.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              210.368
 5.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       210.220
 6.  Mario Moraes       KV                   210.197
 7.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               210.098
 8.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       210.082
 9.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              209.144
10.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               208.956
11.  Sarah Fisher       Fisher               208.543
12.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    208.537
13.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       208.506
14.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                 208.461
15.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         208.382
16.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    208.145
17.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                207.971
18.  EJ Viso            HVM                  206.779
19.  Stanton Barrett    3G                   205.820
20.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Vision               205.673
21.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              -
22.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               -

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