Castroneves takes provisional pole from teammate

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) " Helio Castroneves took the provisional pole for the Indianapolis 500 with less than two hours remaining Saturday in the first round of qualifying.

The two-time Indy winner voided an earlier qualifying effort that was third on the tentative grid and made the decision pay off with a four-lap average of 224.864 mph that knocked Penske Racing teammate Ryan Briscoe's 224.131 off the top spot for the May 24 race.

Castroneves, who came back to racing last month after being acquitted of tax evasion charges, would give boss Roger Penske a record 15th Indianapolis pole if his speed holds up through the final hour of Saturday's Pole Day qualifying.

With wind gusts up to 25 mph making the 2.5-mile Brickyard oval more treacherous than normal, many of the teams were trying to outguess the gusts and few of the early qualifiers were happy with their speeds.

Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indy winner, waited until the first flurry of qualifiers had finished and the track was opened for practice before he made a qualifying attempt. The guessing game worked well enough that the Scot moved into the second place on the tentative grid that Castroneves held after his first qualifying attempt.

Franchitti's 224.010 was just good enough to relegate Castroneves to the outside of the three-car front row with his 223.949 run.

The Penske team didn't wait too long to withdraw that speed and send the Brazilian driver, a two-time Indy pole winner, back onto the track. Each of his four laps was faster than Briscoe's fastest lap.

Scott Dixon, who won last year's 500 from the pole, and 2005 pole winner Tony Kanaan also waited for a while after the six-hour qualifying session began at noon. Dixon, Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, took the fourth spot at 223.781, moving 20-year-old Graham Rahal (223.266) to the middle of the second row.

"It was pretty good, but I had to lift on the last lap when I got hit by a big gust of wind," Dixon said. "It's just not real good out there."

Kanaan was considerably slower at 222.742, good for the middle of the third row in the tentative lineup. But his first qualifying run was disallowed because his car was underweight. He quickly regrouped and went back out, posting a 223.612 with less than an hour remaining in the six-hour session and moving him to the middle of the second row, just ahead of the sliding Rahal.

Eleven of the 33 starting positions for the 500 were up for grabs on the first of four days of time trials. Eleven drivers completed qualifying runs in the first hour, but Justin Wilson's 220.934 mph run was disqualified because of an unapproved weight location.

But the unique qualifying format at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway allows each of the entries up to three completed attempts on each of the four days of time trials leading up to the 500.

Even Briscoe, who was pleased with his run, was thinking he might have to do it again later.

"That's good, that's solid. It's a good start," the Australian said. "I think, having gone reasonably early, it gives us a chance to get through tech early and get the car back and look at the setup and everything and see what we can do to go faster if we need to."

Danica Patrick, who expected to have a shot at a spot on the front row, was confused and disappointed after a four-lap run at 221.785 left her 10th among the early qualifiers.

"I've never been this far off at Indy, never," she said. "It really just was slow. ... We're going to have to think about it and be ready to go back out."

She did just that, improving to 222.882, good tentatively for the middle of the third row.

Many of the 32 drivers who have been on the track since practice began on Wednesday opted to wait until later in the day, hoping the wind would die down.

Heading into the final 50 minutes of the session, Will Power, the third Penske driver, was seventh at 223.028, with Marco Andretti ninth at 222.789, followed by Mario Moraes at 222.470 and Paul Tracy, making his first appearance at Indy since 2003, at 221.915.

Raphael Matos (221.527), Ed Carpenter (221.272) and Hideki Mutoh (221.680) were all bumped out of the top 11.

Indy rookie Robert Doornbos crashed in the morning practice, his second wreck in two days, and 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon and rookie Nelson Philippe both crashed during afternoon practice. There were no injuries.