Front Row Seats

Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing struggled to find their form during the oval races of the 2008 IndyCar Season. Fixing that problem became a priority over the off-season. Now their work has paid off with their strongest team qualifying results since their days in the CCWS.

Graham Rahal will start Sunday's Roadrunner Turbo Indy 300 from the pole after clicking off four laps at better than 211 mph (average). Rookie teammate Robert Doornbos, who will be making his first-ever oval start, initially qualified in the forth grid spot, posting laps at 210+ mph.

Then came the news from IRL officials: Dario Franchitti and Helio Castroneves, who qualified in 2nd & 3rd, were having their runs thrown out. Both had dipped the left wheels of their cars below the inside white line on the backstretch - which marks the boundry between the race track & the pit/emergency lane - during their qualifying runs. Both will now start the race from the back of the grid. That moves Bobby D up to the outside of the front row.

Rahal is understandably pleased with the way that the 2009 season has started. "First of all, for us to get a pole when we go to St. Petersburg, and then to do it again here at Kansas, I think it's quite a shock. And obviously, in memory of Paul (Newman) it's great for us to have this success early in the season. Now, of course, there's still a long way to go, but for us to get our first (oval) pole here, I hope it's a sign of things to come."

Here is the complete starting grid for Sunday's race, which can be viewed via video streaming at www.indycar.com: just click on "multimedia" & then "Race Control". The race starts at 3:30pm ET/7:30pm GMT:

http://www.indycar.com/grid/

The race will preceeded by the Kansas Lottery 100, a Firestone Indy Lights Series race, to be run at 12:45pm ET/4:45pm GMT. It can also be viewed at www.indycar.com: go to "multimedia", then "media center", then "Indy Live". New Zealand's Wade Cunningham (the 2005 FIL champion) will start from the pole.