Kanaan wins Indy pole

By MIKE HARRISAP Motorsports Writer

INDIANAPOLIS — The racing world will have to wait at least another year for a woman pole winner at the Indianapolis 500.

While reigning Indy Racing League champion Tony Kanaan took the pole, Danica Patrick bobbled on the first turn of her first qualifying lap and wound up fourth among the 22 drivers who qualified Sunday for the May 29 race.

‘‘When I got hired by this team, I think they had a lot of trust in me,’’ said Kanaan, in his third year with Andretti Green Racing, co-owned by former driving star Michael Andretti, Kim Green and Kevin Savoree. ‘‘I hadn’t had a lot of good results in my career up until that point and they put a lot of faith in me.

‘‘I gave them the (team’s) first pole position, the first win, the first championship and the first Indianapolis pole. The list is getting shorter. Maybe an Indianapolis 500 win is next.’’

Kanaan, whose best previous Indy start in three tries was second in 2003, has finished third and second in the race the last two years.

Sunday wasn’t an easy day for the Brazilian driver, the third qualifier of the day.

He posted a four-lap, 10-mile qualifying average of 227.566 mph on the historic 2 1/2-mile oval, then had to wait through nearly six hours while other drivers tried to knock him off his perch.

‘‘It was a long day, but I think it was good for the fans and exciting,’’ Kanaan said. ‘‘Obviously, it was nerve-racking for me. That last 45 minutes was really tough. I told Kim, ‘I’m probably going to have to check my heart tomorrow morning.’ ‘‘

He was referring to the fact that several drivers took advantage of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s new qualifying rules that allow up to three shots at qualifying on each day of time trials to try to beat Kanaan’s speed.

Two-time Indy Racing League champion Sam Hornish Jr., who had qualified 11th early in the day at 225.847, withdrew that speed and re-qualified at 227.273, taking the middle spot on the first of what will be 11 three-car rows for the race.

Dario Franchitti, one of Kanaan’s AGR teammates, also gave it a shot, withdrawing a 226.475 that was good for seventh at the time, and improved to 226.873, good for sixth.

The final serious pole contender to take a shot at Kanaan was two-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, Hornish’s Marlboro Team Penske teammate, who withdrew a 227.077 that was fourth on the grid, and slipped to fifth at 226.927 in the final 10 minutes of the session.

‘‘I wouldn’t have slept Sunday night if I didn’t try,’’ Castroneves said.

Franchitti, who had waved off a slower attempt after two laps earlier in the day, said the new format was good for the fans, but not a lot of fun for the drivers.

‘‘It is high pressure because the car is absolutely on the edge,’’ Franchitti said. ‘‘It’s risky. To do it once is hard enough. To do it three times is really pressure. One small mistake and you’ll be in the wall.

‘‘And I felt sorry for Tony, having to sit there all day,’’ he added. ‘‘He spent a lot of the day sitting back in the engineering room holding his head in his hands.’’

Kanaan spent most of the final hour sitting in his car, waiting to see if he needed to make another run at the pole.

‘‘I had my fingers crossed and I almost broke most of them. I was hiding them inside the car so nobody would know,’’ he added, grinning broadly. ‘‘It was a relief when Kim told me ‘OK, you can get out of the car.’ It definitely had my heart beating.’’

Scott Sharp, a former pole winner, another early qualifier, wound up third at 227.176, while Patrick managed to overcome the mistake on the first lap that resulted in a speed of 224.920. She backed that up with three of the fastest laps of the qualifying and an average of 227.004 that gave her fourth place on the tentative grid.

The 23-year-old Patrick, a rookie, is the fourth woman to qualify for the Indy 500 and the only female entered this year. The best previous qualifying effort by a woman was sixth by Lyn St. James in 1994.

‘‘I feel like I wasted a pole car,’’ lamented Patrick, who had a lap of 229.880 in the morning practice after being among the fastest drivers all week. ‘‘‘But, maybe I saved it, too.’’

‘‘I don’t know if it was my mistake or not. Whether an itty-bitty gust of wind or the tires weren’t up to temp, God knows. But it’s not easy to save an oversteer.’’

‘‘I never celebrate when people make mistakes or crash because I want to beat the best,’’ Kanaan said. ‘‘She made a mistake and I didn’t. That’s the way you win races and the way you win pole positions.’’

After some practice later in the day, team co-owner Bobby Rahal made the decision not to withdraw her speed and try again.

‘‘I don’t think we could have been consistent enough for the pole,’’ said Rahal, who won the Indy 500 in 1986. ‘‘The car was not quite there.’’

The disappointed Patrick said, ‘‘Bobby told me, ‘I’ve won from where you are. Let’s go.’ I guess I shouldn’t be mad. ‘‘

Other qualifiers Sunday included Patrick’s teammate Vitor Meira at 226.848, Kosuke Matsuura at 226.397 and 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier at 226.353.

Ryan Briscoe, another rookie, had a scary crash when he tried to qualify, nearly turning his Chip Ganassi Racing entry over. He was not injured and will have another chance to make the race in further qualifying next Saturday and Sunday.

The new qualifying rules mandated that 11 cars would qualify each of the first three days of time trials, with the fourth day reserved for bumping the slowest cars from the field. Saturday’s opening round of qualifying was rained out, so 22 drivers qualified on Sunday, with Alex Barron, Jaques Lazier and Patrick Carpentier all bumped out.

Among the drivers still to make it into the field is defending race winner Buddy Rice, another Rahal Letterman entry, who missed the opening weekend of time trials after suffering a back injury and concussion in a crash on Wednesday.