Sat Apr 5 12:51:09 2008

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Kanaan edges Power for St. Pete pole

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St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan won the pole for Sunday's Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The No.11 AGR driver circled the 1.806-mile St. Petersburg street course in one minute, 02.5322 seconds (103.627 m.p.h.).

The pole victory was Kanaan's first of the season and ninth of IndyCar career.

"It's a great comeback from last week," said Kanaan, who started and finished eighth last week at Homestead.

Starting alongside Kanaan will be former CART driver Will Power who posted a time of 1:02.6096.

"We're really happy with Will," said KV Racing Technology co-owner Jimmy Vasser. "I'm proud of all my guys, they've been working everyday for the past month."

Justin Wilson (1:02.6426) and Helio Castroneves (1:02.6462) will start in row two.

Power showed that the former CART drivers were ready to compete this week after last week's slow start by winning the first session with a time of 1:02.6560 edging Kanaan. They were among six drivers, including Graham Rahal who missed the season opener, to advance to the third session.

Justin Wilson with a time of 1:02.7341 edged Ryan Briscoe in the second session and moved into the next round along with Marco Andretti, Castroneves, Oriol Servia and Dan Wheldon. The surprise of the run was the fact that Scott Dixon failed to move on.

The 12 quickest drivers, six from each qualifying group, then went at it for 15 minutes to eliminate six drivers for the final session - the Firestone Fast Six.

In session three, Power again showed the way, posting the best lap of the day at 1:02.1355. Joining him in the finale were Ryan Briscoe, Wilson, Kanaan, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Castroneves. In the final session Kanaan put up a time midway through the run and no one could better it.

The race is set to drop the green flag on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. (et).