Scott Dixon: Strong Qualifying Effort for Ganassi as Dixon Earns Indy Japan Pole

Scott Dixon earned his second Peak Performance Pole Award of the season at Japan early this morning for tomorrow's Indy Japan 300.

Dixon turned a lap of 109.143 mph in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Honda.

It was Dixon's 17th career pole in the Izod IndyCar Series, which ties him with Emerson Fittipaldi for 18th all-time.

Dixon has three things on his side with the pole for tomorrow's race.

First, he was the pole sitter of this race on the oval track in 2009 and won. Second, his only win this season came from the pole at Mid-Ohio. Finally, three of the last four race winners of the season came from the pole position.

Dixon's teammates had a great qualifying session as well. 

Graham Rahal qualified third with a lap of 108.919 mph in the No. 38 Service Central Chip Ganassi Honda.  Rookie Charlie Kimball qualified a season-best seventh with a lap of 108.702 mph in the No. 83 Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Honda.

The surprise of the Ganassi team was that points leader Dario Franchitti was the slowest of the four. Franchitti turned a disappointing lap of 108.611 mph in the No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Honda. 

This is the first time this season that the foursome all qualified in the top ten.  It was also the first time this season Franchitti was the slowest of the four.

Franchitti will have to make a bunch of moves to get to the front to hold onto the points lead, because the man chasing him, Will Power, joins Scott Dixon on the front row.

Power turned a lap of 109.113 mph in the No. 12 Verizon Wireless Honda for Team Penske. 

Power won the past two races in Sonoma and Baltimore and has closed the gap between Franchitti and himself to five points.

Power's Penske teammates had good qualifying efforts as well.  All three will start in the top six and make it difficult for Franchitti to move past them and catch Power.

Ryan Briscoe will start fourth in the No. 6 Penske Honda.  Briscoe turned a lap of 108.793 mph. Power and Briscoe's teammate Helio Castroneves will roll off sixth tomorrow with a speed of 108.501 mph.

Sandwiching the Penske- and Ganassi-dominated top six is rookie James Hinchcliffe.  Hinchcliffe will start fifth in the No. 06 Sprott Newman/Haas Honda. 

Hinchcliffe needs a good finish this weekend, as he comes in just a few points behind fellow rookie J.R. Hildebrand for the Rookie of the Year battle. Hildebrand will start 19th tomorrow

Rounding out the top ten are another driver making his best career start, rookie James Jakes (eighth), and Andretti Autosport's Marco Andretti (tenth).

The Indy Japan 300 will be shown live on Versus at midnight tonight.

Starting Lineup

1. 9 Scott Dixon

2. 12 Will Power

3. 38 Graham Rahal

4. 6 Ryan Briscoe

5. 06 James Hinchcliffe R

6. 3 Helio Castroneves

7. 83 Charlie Kimball R

8. 18 James Jakes R

9. 10 Dario Franchitti

10. 26 Marco Andretti

11. 5 Takuma Sato

12. 34 Joao Paulo De Oliveira R

13. 59 E.J. Viso

14. 19 Sebastien Bourdais

15. 77 Alex Tagliani

16. 2 Oriol Servia

17. 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay

18. 22 Giorgio Pantano

19. 4 J.R. Hildebrand R

20. 27 Mike Conway

21. 24 Ana Beatriz

22. 17 Hideki Mutoh

23. 7 Danica Patrick

24. 14 Vitor Maira

25. 82 Tony Kanaan

26. 78 Simona de Silvestro