Watkins Glen: Briscoe to start from pole

Penske driver Ryan Briscoe will lead the field to the green flag tomorrow to start the Camping World Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International Raceway. Briscoe took the pole with a time of 1:29.3456 at the end of the final session of qualifying, topping Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon, Oriol Servia and Tony Kanaan. The six drivers at the front of the field represent six different IndyCar teams, and they all predict a tough race tomorrow.

In the first session, Vision driver AJ Foyt IV brought out a caution after crashing in Turn 7. This gave Helio Castroneves a chance to get a tow back to his pit after coming to a stop on the track earlier in the session. The second group of drivers ran cleanly, and the fastest six drivers of each session continued to the second session of qualifying.

With five minutes left in the second session, Will Power hit the Turn 7 barrier, bringing out a yellow flag. Wilson set a fast lap of 1:29.2544, the fastest of the session, before the caution, and when they went back to green no one was able to top Wilson. Bruno Junqueira planned to wait until the track became less busy before he went out to set a fast lap, but the caution took long enough to only allow Junqueira to complete three laps. The top six drivers advanced to the third and final round of qualifying.

Results of Session 2:

1 Justin Wilson (02)
2 Ryan Briscoe (6)
3 Tony Kanaan (11)
4 Scott Dixon (9)
5 Oriol Servia (5)
6 Ryan Hunter-Reay (17)
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7 Marco Andretti (26)
8 Darren Manning (14)
9 Dan Wheldon (10)
10 Vitor Meira (4)
11 Bruno Junqueira (18)
12 Will Power (8)[/kop]

Round three saw Briscoe take the pole from Wilson at the very end of the session, leaving only Dixon with the possibility to go faster. Dixon was unable to beat the times, and Briscoe survived.

The race is scheduled to get underway at 3:30 p.m. EST tomorrow, and will be broadcast on ABC. Full results of the qualifying session can be found in the link below.

Full results of the 1st qualifying session on Watkins Glen

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