Sharp takes first pole since 2001

Sharp, the second-to-last driver on the track, recorded a lap of 24.3334 seconds - 215.260 mph - around the 1.5-mile oval in the No. 8 Rahal Letterman Racing Honda/Dallara to steal P1 from Sam Hornish Jr, who had taken it from Dario Franchitti just minutes before.

The pole was Sharp's first since August 2001 and the first for Rahal Letterman since Danica Patrick won the pole at Chicagoland Speedway in September 2005.

"This is a team that's used to be at the front of open-wheel racing," said Sharp, who joined RLR during the off-season.

"If the commitment is there, the team is going to get back there. That's what I felt. This is just the beginning. The depth of the big teams is huge. They go everywhere and run well. We've got to keep working and keep developing."

It also was the first time the pole position hasn't belonged to one of the IndyCar Series' big three teams - Team Penske, Andretti Green Racing and Target Chip Ganassi Racing - since Patrick's effort in Chicago in 2005. During that run, Penske had 15 poles, Ganassi four and AGR three.

"Everyone is trying to catch those teams, and we nailed it right off the trailer," Sharp said. "The conditions were perfect.

"Everyone thought we had the last straw and the air density would go up as it cools down, but as it turned out, it was perfect. The sun was still out, but the shadows had cooled the track a little bit. I don't think I could have asked for better grip."

No other team outside the big three has won an IndyCar race since Sharp won for Fernandez at Kentucky in August 2005. That's a stretch of 26 races, and part of the reason why Sharp's pole position Friday night was so shocking to observers.

Those who saw him up close in practice, however, knew Sharp had speed heading into qualifying.

"We watched him a little bit in practice and he was running 213.6s, which was about the same speed we were running," Hornish said.

"We knew what we could do after taping the car up and being in total qualifying trim. We thought Sharp would be close. I told some people before we got to that point that we would have to watch them. Obviously they went out there and ran a bit better than us."

Hornish's lap was just 0.08 seconds behind Sharp's and just 0.0122 seconds faster than Franchitti's lap. "We're reasonably happy with the car we've got for the race," he said.

"Only time will tell, though. It's going to be a lot different in the race than it was in qualifying."

Franchitti's AGR teammate, Tony Kanaan, will start fourth, followed by Helio Castroneves, Patrick and Scott Dixon, who crashed in the final practice session Friday after posting the fastest lap during Thursday's practice sessions.

Dixon was forced to go to a backup car and only got one qualifying lap.

"The guys did a good job of getting the car ready in a short period of time," Dixon said. "We had a suspension failure and crashed hard."

Sharp's teammate, Jeff Simmons, will start eighth in Saturday's race, his best starting position since a sixth July 2006 at Milwaukee.

"We've been looking to turn things around, and it looks like things are starting to come our way a little bit. Hopefully this is where we get it all turned around and progress forward."

Pos  Driver             Speed
 1.  Scott Sharp        215.260
 2.  Sam Hornish Jr     214.518
 3.  Dario Franchitti   214.411
 4.  Tony Kanaan        213.844
 5.  Helio Castroneves  213.327
 6.  Danica Patrick     213.274
 7.  Scott Dixon        212.980
 8.  Jeff Simmons       212.794
 9.  Tomas Scheckter    212.716
10.  Dan Wheldon        212.665
11.  Darren Manning     212.516
12.  Marco Andretti     212.268
13.  Vitor Meira        212.028
14.  Jon Herb           211.518
15.  Kosuke Matsuura    210.731
16.  Ed Carpenter       210.397
17.  Buddy Rice         210.352
18.  AJ Foyt IV         210.332
19.  Sarah Fisher       210.172
20.  Milka Duno         207.626