Castroneves races to pole at Mid-Ohio

Helio Castroneves raced to the pole position for Sunday's Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The popular Brazilian driver traversed the tricky 2.25-mile road course at a speed of 120.878 miles per hour.

The Honda Indy 200 will mark the 12th round of the 17 race IndyCar Series season.

Pole winner Helio Castroneves celebrates. Photo by Kurt Dahlstrom.

For Castroneves, he took the top qualifying position for the second week in a row and for the 25th time in his storied career.

"It was extremely close among the six of us," he said. "I wasn't checking the times of everyone; I just drove the car. It is tough to describe how tough qualifying has become. Your tires and the weather are also important factors.

"We knew we had a good car and we just kept making small tweaks to make it better. I told (owner) Roger Penske this morning that I thought we could put both cars on the front row and we did it."

Ryan Briscoe put the second Team Penske car on the front row, just a blink of the eye behind Castroneves at a speed of 120.846 mph. "I thought we had a good day but we were not quite quick enough."

Row two qualifiers were Marco Andretti and Justin Wilson.

The third row went to Tony Kanaan and point leader Scott Dixon.

Buddy Rice, Oriol Servia, Bruno Junqueira and Hideki Mutoh rounded out the top-10 qualifiers.

Qualifying on road courses consists of three segments. In the opening segment, two groups of cars receive 20 minutes of track time. The fastest six cars from each group advance to the next 15-minute segment. And the fastest six cars then advance to the 10 minute Firestone Fast Six final segment.

The drivers don't seem to be thrilled with the format but realize rules are rules.

"I think the fans should decide," said Briscoe. "But this is the most challenging format I've ever been involved with."

Added Kanaan, "The drivers always have opinions but if the fans are happy, we will kill ourselves trying to get the pole. I like the old, single-lap format where you are either in or out."

Wilson agreed with his foes. "It is pretty demanding as you are giving 10 or 11/10ths on every corner. Some guys will try to hold their breath but the format wears you out very quickly."