Franchitti went to the top with a best lap of 59.5756s, which proved to be just good enough to see off a late flyer from Sebastien Bourdais’ Dragon car.

The Frenchman already had second locked down, albeit 0.4 seconds off Franchitti’s lap. He found a lot of time on his final lap, but ended up falling just 0.09s short.

“I was surprised how quick we could go on the blacks without doing a really good lap,” said Ganassi driver Franchitti, who had brushed the wall in practice earlier in the day.
“It feels good, especially after crashing this morning – the guys had to rebuild the right-side of the car.”

Will Power used his final lap to leap up to third, and said that that was all the speed he could get out of his Penske Dallara-Chevrolet.
“I was definitely pushing hard,” he said. “I don’t know how Dario and Bourdais do those lap times, but it is definitely impressive.”

Tony Kanaan will start from fourth, while Jakes Jakes set the fifth-fastest time but faces a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change. Scott Dixon completed the top six.

The main point of interest during the earlier elimination stages came when Takuma Sato hit the wall at Turn 1 towards the end of the second round, bringing out the red flag with just under a minute left and costing several drivers their final lap.

Among those affected was reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was taken out of last weekend’s Pocono race by the Japanese driver in a pitlane accident.
“I’d like to thank the crew for giving me a great car, and I’d like to thank Sato for knocking us out again today,” he said.