Tagliani on pole again at Texas

The Sam Schmidt driver completed his two laps at an average speed of 215.816mph, putting him just ahead of second-placed Dario Franchitti's 214.801mph. Penske's Will Power was just behind his Ganassi rival with an average of 214.716.

"I think a lot of people don't realise that 2010 was a lot of effort, but because of the time constraints we were just building a team," Tagliani said. "From the end of the winter up to this race, I think I've seen a lot more time spent on making the car go fast. Now, I think we are going to get a good momentum and I hope it's going to get better and better."

There were surprises right through the field, starting with former Formula 1 driver Takuma Sato, who will start from fourth in the KV Racing Technology entry after producing a 214.470mph average.

Indy Lights veteran Wade Cunningham's IndyCar debut with Sam Schmidt got off to an encouraging start, the New Zealander putting himself eighth on the grid between Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Penske's Ryan Briscoe.

Paul Tracy will start from 21st in the second of the five races he is contesting with Dragon Racing this year.

The grid for the second of tomorrow night's races will be determined by a random draw after race one.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        215.186
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            214.801
 3.  Will Power           Penske             214.716
 4.  Takuma Sato          KV                 214.470
 5.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher       214.373
 6.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 214.252
 7.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            214.021
 8.  Wade Cunningham      Sam Schmidt        214.013
 9.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             213.891
10.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           213.850
11.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            213.458
12.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               213.429
13.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             213.232
14.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        213.023
15.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        212.970
16.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           212.938
17.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            212.797
18.  Davey Hamilton       Dreyer & Reinbold  212.555
19.  EJ Viso              KV                 212.494
20.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            212.404
21.  Paul Tracy           Dragon             212.305
22.  Mike Conway          Andretti           212.260
23.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           212.223
24.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  212.221
25.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         212.091
26.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           212.033
27.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  211.762
28.  Jay Howard           Rahal/Schmidt      211.691
29.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                210.855
30.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne