Ryan Briscoe has won the pole position for today's IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio. The Penske driver, who won the race last year, narrowly beat Dale Coyne's Justin Wilson in the final qualifying shootout. Reigning IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon will start third for Ganassi, ahead of NHL's Graham Rahal.
"Mid-Ohio has treated Team Penske well," said championship leader Briscoe. "It's a lot of fun around this track. It's been tricky conditions so far with the rain and some patches in the corner. It changes the balance of the car from corner to corner. The red Firestones in final qualifying were awesome. A lot of grip and as usual."
Ryan Hunter-Reay arguably put in the most surprising performance with a seventh spot. A season-best for the American and the best starting result for A.J. Foyt in two and a half years.
"We worked together well as a team this weekend, we made the ABC Supply car better from yesterday to today," said Hunter-Reay, who has a high finish of second this season with Vision Racing. "We made the right changes on it. I did the driving and A.J. did the right changes and together we got it up to seventh."
Paul Tracy will start from tenth, while subbing for KV's regular driver Mario Moraes, who returned his family to Brazil after his father's death.
Dutchman Robert Doornbos, who swapped his seat at Newman/Haas/Lanigan for a HVM ride, will start from 18th, while his NHL replacement Oriol Servia clocked a 14th time.
Starting grid:
1. Ryan Briscoe - Penske
2. Justin Wilson - Dale Coyne
3. Scott Dixon - Ganassi
4. Graham Rahal - Newman/Haas/Lanigan
5. Helio Castroneves - Penske
6. Dario Franchitti - Ganassi
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay - A.J. Foyt
8. Tony Kanaan - Andretti Green
9. EJ Viso - HVM
10. Paul Tracy - KV
11. Hideki Mutoh - Andretti Green
12. Danica Patrick - Andretti Green
13. Marco Andretti - Andretti Green
14. Oriol Servia - Newman/Haas/Lanigan
15. Raphael Matos - Luczo Dragon
16. Mike Conway - Dreyer & Reinbold
17. Dan Wheldon - Panther
18. Robert Doornbos - HVM
19. Richard Antinucci - 3G
20. Milka Duno - Dreyer & Reinbold
21. Ed Carpenter - Vision
Filip Cleeren
Written: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:18:56
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- (August 09, 2009)View all headlines from this date
