Detroit IndyCar: Dario Franchitti fastest but EJ Viso gets pole

Franchitti joined Graham Rahal, Charlie Kimball and Josef Newgarden in coming into the weekend with a grid penalty, and his Detroit weekend got off to a difficult start when he managed to complete just four laps in qualifying after a brush with the wall.

The Ganassi driver also had to overcome a drive-through penalty in the Fast Six session for a blend line violation, but still managed to go to the top of the timing charts with his 1m19.3311s lap.

Andretti driver Viso's best lap was 0.2 seconds down on Franchitti's, while Mike Conway did a great job to go third-fastest in his first weekend at the wheel of the second Dale Coyne Racing entry.

James Jakes finished up fourth-quickest in his first-ever Fast Six appearance, with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alex Tagliani rounding out the top six.

A heavy shower immediately prior to the first session forced the first group to qualify on a soaking wet track, although a dry line began to appear as the afternoon progressed.

Most drivers managed to navigate the changing conditions in one piece; the only significant exception being Helio Castroneves, who lost the rear and spun to a stop at Turn 4 halfway through the second phase.

Initially the incident was controlled under local yellows, however race control changed it to red after two minutes. There was consternation from several teams, including Schmidt Peterson Motorsport and AJ Foyt Enterprises, who felt that they were unfairly compromised by what they considered to be inconsistencies in how the flags were used.

"There was a local yellow, they kept going, the conditions didn't change, and they suddenly went red," said Foyt's Takuma Sato. "We're not happy about it."

A separate qualifying session for the Sunday race will take place on Saturday morning.

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Time        Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda    1m19.3311s          *
 2.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy   1m19.5572s  + 0.2261s
 3.  Mike Conway          Coyne/Honda      1m19.8285s  + 0.4974s
 4.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      1m19.9897s  + 0.6586s
 5.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   1m20.0030s  + 0.6719s
 6.  Alex Tagliani        Herta/Honda      1m20.3514s  + 1.0203s
 7.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    1m22.4997s  Round 2
 8.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda       1m22.7164s  Round 2
 9.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    1m22.8250s  Round 2
10.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     1m22.9537s  Round 2
11.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     1m26.8058s  Round 2
12.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy                 Round 2
13.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske/Chevy     1m37.7163s  Group 1
14.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      1m30.5258s  Group 2*
15.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     1m37.8023s  Group 1
16.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    1m30.6929s  Group 2
17.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda      1m37.8891s  Group 1
18.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         1m31.0623s  Group 2
19.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   1m38.0723s  Group 1
20.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         1m31.5555s  Group 2
21.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   1m38.2000s  Group 1
22.  Ryan Briscoe         Panther/Chevy    1m31.6222s  Group 2
23.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     1m38.8651s  Group 1*
24.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  1m33.3912s  Group 2
25.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    1m44.0316s  Group 1*

* Will get 10-place grid penalty
All drivers use Dallara DW12 chassis