Sears Point IndyCar: Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti puzzled by pace

The duo qualified on the third row, but were 0.9s and 1.0s respectively off Will Power's 1m17.2709s pole lap.

Dixon said that his car felt good, but that it simply was not quick enough.

"That was a little frustrating," he said. "I don't know, today, it seems like in the morning the wind direction was the opposite to how it was for qualifying.

"We're kind of dumbfounded. We're just missing a little bit in just about every corner - there's a couple of areas that are a little larger than others.

"The cars balance well. We just don't seem to have the grip or the speed that we need to right at the moment."

Franchitti, meanwhile, tried running a set of used black tyres rather than the softer-compound reds that are routinely deployed for qualifying, but the Scot said that the gamble was not to blame for his lack of pace.

"We're very much similar to Scott, really," he said. "Our car has got a couple of imbalances, [and at] a couple of points in the track, a little bit of oversteer.

"We tried the used blacks instead of the used reds. It didn't really pay off for us, but I don't think we are much worse off than we would have been.

"So a bit of work to do overnight to improve the car and see what we can do tomorrow."

Power comes into this weekend's event having won the two past races at Sears Point, including leading Penske's one-two-three finish at the Californian circuit in 2011.