Franchitti grabs pole for IndyCar race in Richmond

Dario Franchitti won the IndyCar Series pole on points the last time he came to Richmond International Raceway. That’s why he was happy Friday.

“It’s nice to earn one,” he said.

The bonus point that comes with it brought Franchitti, the 2007 series champion, to within two points of Ryan Briscoe for the lead. He can overtake the Team Penske driver with a solid run in Saturday night’s SunTrust Indy Challenge.

Franchitti will start first based on a four-lap average of 167.315 mph. He missed last year’s race due to his participation in NASCAR, which means with his ’07 win he’s trying to win two races here in succession. He did the same last week at Iowa Speedway.

Franchitti will start Saturday’s race alongside Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon, who admitted he made a mistake in qualifying. His four-lap average was 166.638 mph.

The second row includes Helio Castroneves, who nearly crashed on his third lap of qualifying, and Briscoe. The third row has Graham Rahal and Raphael Matos.

E. J. Viso qualified seventh, noteworthy because he is trying to end a streak of nine consecutive points-paying races without reaching the checkered flag. He crashed on the first lap at Iowa. This is his second-best qualifying effort of the season following the fourth at Long Beach, a race he got taken out of by Dixon.

Tomas Scheckter, who was the highlight reel at Iowa, qualified ninth with Danica Patrick 10th. Tony Kanaan qualified a disappointing 17th because his Andretti Green Racing team had an equipment failure that caused them to miss most of the morning practice.

There are 20 cars at this event.

source:autoweek