Castroneves upsets AGR for Mid-Ohio pole

Lexington, OH (Sports Network) - Brazilian Helio Castroneves beat out five other drivers, including all four Andretti Green Racing teammates, in the "Firestone Fast Six" to capture the pole for Sunday's inaugural The Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio IndyCar race. The No.3 Penske Racing Honda driver circled the 2.258-mile road course in one minute, 06.8375 seconds.
The pole victory was Castroneves' sixth of the season and 23rd of his IndyCar career.
"This team is fantastic, they never let me down," said a happy Castroneves. "We've been struggling a little bit."
Starting alongside Castroneves will be Danica Patrick who posted a second-best time of 1:07.1257.
"This is by far the best that I've done on a road course," said Patrick. "I'm really proud of the team. It feels good to have the Motorola car in the front row, not on an oval, but on a road course."
Tony Kanaan (1:07.1757) and Marco Andretti (1:07.3931) will start in row two.
Andretti was quickest in the one-lap preliminary qualifying session and led Dario Franchitti, Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Patrick and Castroneves in the six- person "Firestone Fast Six" shootout.
But it was Castroneves who laid down the best lap and though everyone took a shot at the time, no one could surpass it.
Dixon, starting sixth, so far this year has a win (Watkins Glen) and a second place (St. Petersburg) in two road course starts. It's not a fluke either. In 2006 Dixon earned a first, second and fourth in the three road course events.
Dixon seeks to improve on last year's fourth-place overall finish. In 2006 he collected two wins and nine top-fives. He already has those numbers in 2007 with still six races left on the schedule and is working on a two-race win streak.
"To come back and repeat at both (Watkins Glen and Nashville) is fantastic," said Dixon. "To be honest, things seem to come a little easier for me. I think it is a confidence level. Coming into these two races that were back to back, we've proven ourselves (at Nashville) last year, so you do come into a race weekend with more confidence."
Series points leader Franchitti has made the most starts at Mid-Ohio, but has little success to show for it. In six starts, Franchitti has just one top-10 (third in 1999) and finished 16th or lower four times.
The IndyCar driver with the most success on the 2.258-mile circuit is Castroneves. In four CART starts between 1998-2001 the Brazilian collected three top-10s including back-to-back wins in 2000 and 2001.
The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (et).