Qual: Kanaan's Michigan pole

"We had a good run, no doubt about it," said Kanaan. "I knew I had a good car from this morning, and the biggest thing was trying to guess what was going to happen with the conditions. It did change a bit, so I think we were a bit short on gears, but we still managed to put a good lap together.

"The car is very strong. Honda is giving us a very good engine, so I can't complain. This pole feels good for now, but after I leave here I need to start thinking about the race. It's going to be a long race, and we'll see what's going to happen."

The Brazilian will be joined on the front row by rookie Kosuke Matsuura after Penske star Helio Castroneves was relegated to the back of the grid after he was forced to have a Toyota engine change after qualifying. Matsuura has been impressive all weekend and was second quickest behind Kanaan in practice.

"We did a very good job," said Matsuura. "We put everything together, and everything is going well. I expected that the speeds would be a bit slower, and we went with a slightly shorter gear. Hopefully, we will have a good car for the race."

Reigning champion Scott Dixon, who is still recovering from a thumb injury sustained last weekend at Milwaukee, will start third ahead of Castroneves's Penske team-mate Sam Hornish. Rahal teamsters Vitor Meira and Buddy Rice will occupy row three.

Kanaan's AGR team-mate Dan Wheldon was the top British qualifier in ninth, three places ahead of last weekend's winner Dario Franchitti. Darren Manning was 13th fastest, keen to impress at Ganassi after his crash at Milwaukee while Mark Taylor was 18th fastest for Access Motorsport.