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Briscoe beats Dixon to Chicago pole

Ryan Briscoe helped his Penske teammate Helio Castroneves' chances of winning the IRL IndyCar Series title by beating points leader Scott Dixon to pole position for the championship decider at Chicagoland

Ganassi driver Dixon, who had dominated practice, held provisional pole for most of the session, resisting strong challenges from the Andretti Green cars in particular.

But Briscoe, the last driver to take to the track, set a four lap average of 215.818mph to snatch pole away from Dixon, out-pacing the Kiwi by just over a tenth of a second.

Castroneves had to settle for fourth, behind AGR's Danica Patrick, following his qualifying effort, although there was further controversy after television replays suggested that the Brazilian had dipped below the white line separating the race track from the apron during his lap - an action that some in the pitlane felt should incur a penalty.

Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti will share row three, ahead of Dixon's Ganassi teammate Dan Wheldon and Luczo Dragon Racing's Tomas Scheckter.

Vitor Meira, who could be making his final start for Panther Racing if Wheldon takes his drive as early as the Surfers Paradise non-championship race, qualified ninth, with the much-maligned Marty Roth again showing better oval form to take 10th on the grid.

Detroit winner Justin Wilson (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) struggled on the 1.5-mile oval and only qualified 22nd.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Speed
 1.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               215.818
 2.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              215.553
 3.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       215.548
 4.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               215.372
 5.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       215.368
 6.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       215.064
 7.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi              214.967
 8.  Tomas Scheckter    Luczo Dragon         214.855
 9.  Vitor Meira        Panther              214.796
10.  Marty Roth         Roth                 214.794
11.  Will Power         KV                   214.583
12.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       214.444
13.  Oriol Servia       KV                   214.441
14.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               213.875
15.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  213.523
16.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               213.485
17.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman      213.430
18.  Jaime Camara       Conquest             213.417
19.  Sarah Fisher       Sarah Fisher         213.389
20.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest             213.305
21.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    212.857
22.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  212.753
23.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold    212.682
24.  Darren Manning     Foyt                 212.406
25.  Franck Perera      Foyt                 212.126
26.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne           212.040
27.  EJ Viso            HVM                  211.996
28.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           211.451

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