By Andrew Cutler
April 19 2009

When Helio Castroneves arrived at the Long Beach GP track last night, Will Power was removed from the seat of the #3 Team Penske car & put into a new car - the #12 - that would not turn a lap until the Saturday morning practice session. That didn't keep the Aussie from getting the car up to contention in time for the afternoon qualifying campaign.

In fact, Power had the car so dialed in that, after easily surviving the first two elimination rounds, he stuck it on the pole in the final session. Meanwhile, Castroneves and Briscoe, Penske's full-time duo, both fell by the wayside in round two.

"It was obvious in the first session that you had to use (Firestone alternate tires) to get through,"Power remarked afterwards. "So it was a matter of saving your reds a little bit and saving your energy to the final round. That's sort of what I did. I saved my big lap until the end."  

Power won this event last year, when it was the series finalee for the now-defunct Champ Car World Series.

For the second race weekend, the qualification results seem to indicate that the gaps between the normal front-of-the-pack and back-of-the-pack squads has tightened considerably. Five different teams are represented among the top six starting slots, & normal powerhouse outfit Andretti-Green Racing is, suprisingly, NOT one of them!

Here is the complete starting grid: http://www.indycar.com/grid/

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach begins on Sunday at 3:30pm ET.

The Firestone Indy Lights Series race at Long Beach begins at 12:30 pm ET and can be seen live via video streaming at www.indycar.com.  FIL veteran driver J.R. Hildebrand will start on the pole. Dutch rookie Junior Strous, who swept both halves of the FIL double-header at St. Pete two weeks ago, will start from the 12th position.