[MotorSports News]

LEXINGTON, Ohio -- Ryan Briscoe entered the Firestone Fast Six - a 10-minute shootout to set the first three rows for the Honda Indy 200 presented by Westfield Insurance - with the advantage of a sticker set of Firestone alternate tires at his disposal.
The extra grip helped the Team Penske driver grab the PEAK Performance Pole Award and set an event-record lap of 1 minute, 06.6814 seconds.
Click it: Starting lineup | Timing & Scoring reports
Briscoe, who won the race last year in the No. 6 Team Penske car, will be joined on the front row by Justin Wilson (1:06.7007) in the No. 18 Z-Line Designs car for Dale Coyne Racing.
Reigning IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon will start third in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car, while Graham Rahal will share Row 2 after a quick lap of 1:07.0640 in the No. 02 McDonald's car for Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.
Helio Castroneves, who started from the pole in 2007 and '08 in the No. 3 Team Penske car, will be on Row 3 with Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti.
"Mid-Ohio has treated♫Team Penske♫well," said Briscoe, the IndyCar Series championship points leader. "It's a lot of fun around this track. It's been tricky conditions so far with the rain and some patches in the corner.♫It changes the balance of the car from♫corner to corner. The red Firestones in final qualifying were awesome.♫A lot of grip and as usual."
Ryan Hunter-Reay (1:07.2364) will start seventh in the No. 14 ABC Supply Inc. entry - his best starting spot of the season and the best for A.J. Foyt Racing since St. Petersburg in 2007 with Darren Manning behind the wheel.
"We worked together well as a team this weekend, we made the ABC Supply car better from yesterday to today," said Hunter-Reay, who has a high finish of second this season while with Vision Racing. "We made the right changes on it. I did the driving and A.J. did the right changes and together we got it up to seventh."
He will share Row 4 with Andretti Green Racing's Tony Kanaan (1:07.5083) in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven car. E.J. Viso (1:07.5712) in the No. 13 PDVSA HVM Racing car and Paul Tracy (1:07.6129) will be on Row 5. Tracy is filling in for Mario Moraes, who remained in Brazil with his family after the death this week of his father, in the No. 5 Azul-Votorantim entry for KV Racing Technology.
Andretti Green Racing teammates Hideki Mutoh and Danica Patrick will be on Row 6.
"We have been working really hard to turn this situation around and we are making small steps," Kanaan said. "If you look back to Edmonton, we started 17th and 18th; this weekend we have four cars in the top 12. I was disappointed because I thought we had a chance at making the Fast Six, but the other teams made better progress throughout the sessions that we are able to."




8/08 :: Briscoe blazes Mid-Ohio