(FROM AUTOSPORT) Tony Kanaan will lead teammate Marco Andretti in an all-Andretti Green front row in Saturday night's Richmond round of the IRL IndyCar Series, after a welcome change of luck for the Brazilian driver. Kanaan, whose season has been filled with misfortune, took advantage of the luck of the draw to beat Andretti by just 0.03 seconds over four laps of the 0.75-mile oval. By the time Kanaan got on track, the sun had set and the 98-degree heat had settled into a less beastly temperature range. "It's an advantage to go out that late, for sure, but it's also pure luck," Kanaan said. "It's the number you draw. If you wanted to talk about luck with me this year, I think I deserve a little bit of the good kind." The effort knocked Andretti from P1, but also came with his help. After Andretti's run, Kanaan's crew made changes suggested by Andretti's crew, then took the pole from him. "We made an adjustment right before we went out based on the feedback we got from Marco," Kanaan said. "We've been working very well together, and we had the exact same set-ups. I was able to make my car a little bit quicker than his." With the track washed clean of rubber by an afternoon storm but conditions becoming increasingly conducive to fast times as the weather cooled, the evening qualifying session saw a number of surprises - including Graham Rahal grabbing third for Newman/Haas/Lanigan on a day when his teammate Justin Wilson, who had been much earlier in the order, only managed 23rd place. "We made changes and it got cooler," Rahal said. "We're so happy that it finally came together for us." Championship leader Scott Dixon held provisional pole for much of the session before being edged back to fourth as others benefited from the improving conditions. "We think we left a lot on the table," said Dixon, who has now qualified in the top four for eight of this season's nine races. "With the track cooling off, it got better." The Ganassi driver will start just ahead of the highly-impressive Buddy Rice, who earned a giant-killing fifth place for Dreyer & Reinbold. The result was Rice's best qualifying performance for nearly three seasons, and helped make up for the frustrations of Iowa a week ago, where he was classified 22nd. "It was disappointing last week," Rice said. "This is a place that's an equaliser. We left stuff out there. Hopefully we can rebound here." Dixon's teammate Dan Wheldon completed the top six, ahead of AGR's Hideki Mutoh and Vision's AJ Foyt IV, with Bruno Junqueira also producing a star underdog performance to earn ninth for Dale Coyne Racing. While several unlikely names starred, Penske were among those who struggled, with Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves ending up only 11th and 18th respectively. Ryan Hunter-Reay (Rahal Letterman Racing) fared worse: a technical problem preventing the morning practice pace-setter from even attempting a lap. He will be joined at the back by Enrique Bernoldi, whose Conquest Racing team narrowly failed to get his car repaired in time after his practice crash. Pos Driver Team Speed 1. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 167.876 2. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 167.795 3. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 167.250 4. Scott Dixon Ganassi 167.120 5. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 166.804 6. Dan Wheldon Ganassi 166.768 7. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 166.518 8. AJ Foyt IV Vision 166.126 9. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 166.032 10. Oriol Servia KV 165.815 11. Ryan Briscoe Penske 165.643 12. John Andretti Roth 165.275 13. Ed Carpenter Vision 164.963 14. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 164.396 15. Marty Roth Roth 164.326 16. Will Power KV 164.321 17. Vitor Meira Panther 163.844 18. Helio Castroneves Penske 163.353 19. EJ Viso HVM 163.170 20. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 162.566 21. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold 162.517 22. Darren Manning Foyt 160.616 23. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 159.652 24. Jaime Camara Conquest 158.884 25. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 26. Enrique Bernoldi Conquest
Go TK!! Indy TV sports reported was interviewing TK after he won pole. The reporter almost called TK Helio and admitted it to TK, so TK jumps back a little, puts his arms up and says, "Would you like to dance?" Both cracked up.
Not everyone can dial in on a particular track. If you watch NASCAR you will see reasonably strong teammates, Dale Jr and Jeff Gordan for example, and Dale is up in top five, while Jeff is doing his best to stay in the top 15.
Thanks for the post Ron. Kanaan always seems like a real decent chap, especially with what happened with Sarah Fisher.
Ted must be on holiday or Massa's last win must have disgusted him to no end. I still can't believe the little untalented Wanker won that race!
Geeze...you just had to go there?!? It was so nice we didn't have to deal with that in the Iowa thread.
