IRL: Franchitti earns Texas pole For Race #6

by Edmund Jenks | June 6, 2009 at 06:44 am

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Dario Franchitti took his first pole position since returning to the IndyCar Series from NASCAR at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night.

The 2007 champion deposed Ryan Briscoe early in qualifying, as Ganassi and Penske dominated yet another oval session.

Dario Franchitti will lead the field to the green flag for Saturday night's IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. The usual suspects will start from the front two rows with the Ganassi drivers on the inside and Team Penske drivers on the outside.

"It definitely helps to start up front at Texas," said Franchitti after earning his seventh series pole with four laps at 214.513 mph. "In qualifying it's all about how the crew puts the car together and the setup. Tomorrow I get to earn my money."

Briscoe qualified at 214.413 mph, missing the pole by 45 one-thousandths of a second over the course of four laps. "It was a pretty good run but Dario had just a little bit more speed," said Briscoe.

How the field qualified (** denotes Transition Player - we are down to six)

Pos Driver Team Speed
1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 214.513mph
2. Ryan Briscoe Penske 214.413mph
3. Scott Dixon Ganassi 214.296mph
4. Helio Castroneves Penske 214.228mph
5. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 213.929mph
6. Mario Moraes KV 213.717mph**
7. Dan Wheldon Panther 213.596mph
8. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 213.540mph
9. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan 213.479mph**
10. Ed Carpenter Vision 213.435mph
11. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 213.327mph
12. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 213.178mph**
13. Alex Tagliani Conquest 213.173mph**
14. Sarah Fisher Fisher 212.554mph
15. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon 212.137mph
16. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 212.108mph
17. Justin Wilson Coyne 212.021mph**
18. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold 211.741mph
19. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 211.686mph
20. Milka Duno Dreyer & Reinbold 211.601mph
21. EJ Viso HVM 211.553mph**
22. AJ Foyt IV Foyt 211.454mph
23. Ryan Hunter-Reay Vision 210.532mph
24. Jaques Lazier 3G 209.329mph

The race will be televised on VERSUS from The Texas Motor Speedway - Saturday at 9PM ET: "America’s Original Nighttime IndyCar Race” showcases Indy cars jetting three-wide around the track in excess of 220 miles per hour and routinely setting up for a dramatic finish. With last-lap drama and exciting finishes, you never know what’s going to happen.

(race description HT: VERSUS)

He is pretty much the only race car driver I know..

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IRL: Franchitti earns Texas pole For Race #6

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