A large part of Ryan Briscoe's IndyCar Series history -- good, bad and indifferent - and present are linked to the historic Milwaukee Mile.
• In 2005, he didn't start the race because of a practice crash in a Target Chip Ganassi Racing car.• In 2006, he parked the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car after completing 13 laps, saying it was "scary to drive."• In 2007, he was out of an IndyCar Series ride; instead, hooking up with Penske Racing's sports car operation.
It also was in '07 that Team Penske, looking for a replacement for Sam Hornish Jr., turned to Briscoe. Penske Racing president Tim Cindric set up a test/tryout first though -- at the tight and bumpy Mile.
That's all history now - chapters in Briscoe's comeback story. He won the ABC Supply/A.J. Foyt 225 at The Mile last year, charging from the 11th spot on the grid, and will start from the pole this year. Briscoe, driving the No. 6 Team Penske car, set a four-lap qualifying track record of 1 minute, 26.7966 seconds (168.394 mph).
Graham Rahal will start second for the second consecutive year in the No. 02 McDonald's car for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing after posting an average of 168.117 mph (1:26.9392).
"The McDonald's car felt pretty good, but I had a big snap and a big moment on the last lap and our fourth lap time was three-tenths slower than the previous one," said Rahal, the pole sitter at the season opener in St. Petersburg. "If that hadn't happened, I think we would have had pole. Pretty much we showed up today exactly how we ended last year because we are pretty competitive."
Both front-row starters bettered Marco Andretti's 2008 record of 1:26.9591.
"I knew when I was in front of Rahal it was going to be good," said Briscoe, who's third in the championship standings after four rounds. "He seems to get around this place pretty good and was on the front row last year. The car was good. I was a bit worried about my teammate (Helio Castroneves) and the Target boys (Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti), but thankfully the time held up.
"We won from 11th last year, so hopefully starting on the front row can get me away from the chaos that always happens the first couple of laps. I had a good race car last year, so hopefully we can replicate that tomorrow."
Castroneves, the Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time Milwaukee pole sitter, bounced off the Turn 2 SAFER Barrier on his first qualifying lap and will start 20th in the No. 3 Team Penske car. That hasn't been a deterrent recently; he won the 2008 finale at Chicagoland Speedway after starting 28th and finished second to Dixon at Kansas Speedway in April after starting 22nd.
"We tried something different out there in qualifying from what we ran in practice," said Castroneves, who is five points behind points leader Franchitti. "I just went for it and the car wiggled a little bit. I thought I saved it, but unfortunately I ended up brushing the wall and couldn't qualify."
Tony Kanaan, a two-time winner of the event, recorded a four-lap average of 167.793 mph in the No. 11 team 7-Eleven car and will share Row 2 with Dixon (167.089 in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing entry). KV Racing Technology's Mario Moraes will start a career-high fifth (166.791), and will be joined on Row 3 by Andretti Green Racing's Hideki Mutoh (166.139). It's Mutoh's first top-10 start of the season in the No. 27 Formula Dream car.
"This is just my second time at Milwaukee, so I haven't got that much experience on short ovals," Moraes said. "But after our performance today, I am confident that we have a good car for the race tomorrow."
Mutoh's teammate, Danica Patrick (165.168) in the No. 7 Boost Mobile/Motorola car, will be on the inside of Row 4. Franchitti (164.706) will be on the outside in the No. 10 TomTom car for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Tomas Scheckter, making his debut with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, will make his 100th career IndyCar Series start from Row 5. Rookie Raphael Matos will be alongside in the No. 2 US Marines/Luczo Dragon Racing car.
Paul Tracy, a four-time winner at The Mile who is filling in for the injured Vitor Meira in the No. 14 ABC Supply Co. car for A.J. Foyt Racing, will start 16th.
"We changed it completely, front to back, top to bottom and I was really going in there blind and the car was much better," he said. "I took it easy the first lap and it just got better and better every lap. I felt we could have run mid- to low 22s but I didn't want to wreck. We're a lot better than we were when we unloaded. We'll just get the car better for race trim."
