IndyCar Sonoma Q: Power grabs eighth pole of 2010

Will Power continued his dominance on the road courses by claiming his eighth pole of 2010, sweeping the front row with teammate Helio Castroneves. "I wasn't sure I was going to pull it off in the second round of qualifying," said Power. I was two-tenths off from the Fast Six. I knew it was going to be very close for pole here. I'm really stoked to get the Verizon team a record eight poles this season. It is important that we start up front here. This is the toughest series I have ever raced in. It is just so tight now. You can't leave anything on the table.

With 30 seconds left in group one, Castroneves led Ryan Hunter-Reay, Simona de Silvestro, Ryan Briscoe, Raphael Matos, and Bertrand Baguette. However, Justin Wilson, then eighth, lept up to third in the closing seconds, bumping Baguette out.

Danica Patrick expected to make it out of group one, but failed to do so by a wide margin and will take the 23rd grid slot. "I was confident we could make it out of the first qualifying session and into the top 12, but it didn't end up working out that way for the GoDaddy team today," said a disappointed Patrick. I'm going to need to be strong on the start and restarts, and have solid pit stops so we can make up as much ground as possible during the race come tomorrow."

In group two, Will Power led the Ganassi duo of Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, followed by Alex Tagliani, Tony Kanaan, and Dan Wheldon. Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti, both hoping to break into round two, could only run eighth and ninth in their group, and will start 16th and 18th.

Moving into round two, Castroneves led Power, Briscoe, Hunter-Reay, Dixon, and Franchitti with about three minutes remaining. However, Justin WIlson, as he in the opening round, bumped his way into the top six, knocking out Franchitti. But, the Scotsman bumped his way back in, with Tagliani also improving his timen leaving WIlson out at the end.

When the dust settled, Hunter-Reay was also left out in the cold, and will take the eighth grid spot on Sunday. Still, after struggling through the weekend, the American remains optimistic. "We were so far off yesterday that we changed everything in the IZOD car for today and started fresh," he explained. "So, we really only had one practice session under our belts and I think that was the difference today. We were close, but the road course competition is ridiculous right now. Tomorrow is going to be a great race. We're starting eighth; we can work from there."

In the Fast Six, Power immediately, through down the gauntlet, laying down a quick time in the opening minutes before Castroneves bettered it. However, Power eventually retook the top spot from his teammate and never relinquished it.

Dario Franchitti, Alex Tagliani, Ryan Briscoe, and Scott Dixon rounded out the top six. "It was very consistent," Helio Castroneves, who will flank his teammate on the front row. "The Team Penske car was very good. We made some incredible changes and made great gains from yesterday. Ron Ruzewski my engineer did a n awesome job. It was one corner. I guess that made the difference. I didn't want to take too much of a chance, but when they told me I was P2, I only had one lap and the tires were already a little bit shot. Good job to Team Penske to sweep the front row. Now we need to be there at the end."

Franchitti, Power's main title rival at this point of the season, acknowledged that he didn't have anything to match Power in qualifying. "We're definitely going to try to get (Will) tomorrow. He did a great job in qualifying," he said. "There's no doubt about it. The Target car was probably a 95 percent car today. I think I left a half a tenth on the table myself with a slight mistake. We'll see what we have tomorrow, but I'm disappointed with third today."

Alex Tagliani continues an impressive season with newly formed FAZZT team, taking fourth on the grid. "With the tires the way they are, you only have about one lap," he explained. "The tires we had on the car, we used in the second segment and I missed Turn 3 by a little bit (on my flying lap). The car pushed and I missed 3A. That was the lap. The second lap was good, but it was not as good as the first lap could have been."

Sunday's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma begins at 5:45 EST.

Full results of the 1st qualifying session on Infineon Raceway