By Andrew Cutler
August 28 2010

Ryan Briscoe captured the Pole at Chicagoland for the third consecutive year on Friday, laying down a two lap qualifying (down from the usual four laps due to the 29 car starting field) average of 216.346mph, almost 3/4 of a mph faster than 2nd place Dario Franchitti.

Franchitti will probably start the race feeling like like the meat in a Team Penske sandwich because season points leader Will Power, who to this point has not seen the kind of race results on ovals that match his road/street dominance, and Helio Castroneves will line up behind him in Row Two. Dario's Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon, struggled in qualifying and will start back in 15th. “Hopefully, he’ll be up there [soon] to help me out or I’ll feel like I’m being ganged up on,” Franchitti said after qualifications finished.

For his part, Briscoe is eager for Saturday evening's (7pm ET/midnight Sunday GMT) race, a 300 miler around the 1.5 mile track. “It was a great qualifying run and I’m just really hoping that we can follow through tomorrow and have another good race. We’ve been strong here the last couple of years and I really enjoy racing around here. It’s always exciting.  It’s a completely wide track that’s really smooth.  It really promotes good racing so I always get excited to come back here.”

Here is the complete starting grid: http://www.indycar.com:8080/var/assets/PEAKAntifreezeandMotorOilIndy300startinglineup.pdf

The Firestone Indy Lights Series drivers practiced today, but will not hold their qualifying session for their late Saturday afternoon race until just a few hours earlier in the day.