Road course qualifying revealed

Most of the grid positions will be allocated using a single-lap system as is traditionally used on the ovals and as adopted by Formula 1 in recent years, but the top six places will be decided in a ten-minute 'showdown' at the end of the session.

Two Friday practice sessions will sort the order for qualifying, with the driver who sets the practice pace allowed to choose whether to run first or last in Saturday's single lap qualifying.

Once all the cars have completed their one-lap runs the positions from seventh downwards will be set, but the six fastest drivers will proceed to a shoot-out for the top six places. The sextet will be released onto the track together and given ten minutes to fight it out for the front three rows of the grid.

"We wanted to do something a little different and we tried to stage something where each aspect of the weekend builds on and feeds on the next," said IRL president and CEO Brian Barnhart.

The events at St. Petersburg, Watkins Glen and Sears Point will mark the IRL IndyCars first races on road courses after nine years as a strictly ovals-only series. The teams tested configurations on Homestead's infield circuit this week, with Andretti-Green Racing's Dario Franchitti emerging fastest.

The qualifying announcement was one of a number of rule tweaks revealed by the IRL. The one-engine-per-weekend rule has been modified to allow teams to change engines prior to qualifying at the nine three-day events, although it remains in place for the remaining two-day meetings.