Wheldon on pole at Nashville

Series points leader Sam Hornish Jr. will start next to Wheldon on the front row after coming within a tenth of the Ganassi driver's best lap - 23.0210 seconds (203.293 mph).

"I'm more confident of the race car than I was in Kansas, but it's that same guy next to me," Wheldon said. "It's starting to be a bit of a trend."

Hornish was clocked at 202.362 mph for Team Penske on the way to his fifth front row start in nine races this season. However, he has yet to win at Nashville, one of just three tracks on the 2006 schedule at which he hasn't won.

"I've just got to figure out what I'm doing wrong here," Hornish said. "I just always come up a little bit short here. If I don't win, it just gives me more incentive to come back again next year."

Scott Dixon, who encountered a gearbox issue during his initial qualifying attempt, returned later for a single-lap run and record the third-fastest lap of the day, at 202.194 mph. Penske's Helio Castroneves will start fourth after a lap of 201.995 mph.

Dario Franchitti will start fifth, followed by Andretti Green Racing teammate Tony Kanaan. Vitor Meira and Scott Sharp will fill the fourth row, followed by Tomas Scheckter and Danica Patrick.

But it was Wheldon, who has led 390 of 1,405 laps this season but has won just one race, who drew rave reviews on Friday afternoon.

"I've got nothing to lose," Wheldon said. "I want to be a consecutive champion, and the only way I can do that is by winning a lot of races out of these next six. I've got to take every chance I can get."

Qualifying times:

Pos  Driver             Team                  Time
 1.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi            23.0210
 2.  Sam Hornish Jr.    Penske             23.1269  + 0.1059
 3.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi            23.1461  + 0.1461
 4.  Helio Castroneves  Penske             23.1689  + 0.1479
 5.  Dario Franchitti   Andretti-Green     23.1803  + 0.1593
 6.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green     23.2111  + 0.1901
 7.  Vitor Meira        Panther            23.3046  + 0.2836
 8.  Scott Sharp        Fernandez          23.3067  + 0.2857
 9.  Tomas Scheckter    Vision             23.3503  + 0.3293
10.  Danica Patrick     Rahal-Letterman    23.3669  + 0.3459
11.  Buddy Rice         Rahal-Letterman    23.3680  + 0.3470
12.  Kosuke Matsuura    Fernandez          23.4300  + 0.4090
13.  Ryan Briscoe       Dreyer & Reinbold  23.4461  + 0.4251
14.  Ed Carpenter       Vision             23.4572  + 0.4362
15.  Jeff Simmons       Rahal-Letterman    23.4637  + 0.4427
16.  Bryan Herta        Andretti-Green     23.4721  + 0.4511
17.  Jeff Bucknum       Foyt               23.5828  + 0.5618
18.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green     23.5993  + 0.5783