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Franchitti takes crucial Miami pole

Dario Franchitti crept a little closer to Will Power in the IndyCar title battle by grabbing the bonus point for pole position at Homestead

As well as seeing his points deficit come down to 11 - which means if he wins and leads most laps tomorrow night, Franchitti is champion regardless of where Power finishes - the Scot has his Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon alongside him on the front row.

"They all add up," said Franchitti of his extra point. "We weren't the best in the morning, I didn't feel, and [engineer] Chris [Simmons] worked his magic and the balance was very, very good.

"To have Scott there with me is a big help. So we'll see what we can do tomorrow night. If we can make the same jump with the race car as we did with the qualifying car then we'll be in good shape."

Power held provisional pole for much of the session, deposing his Penske team-mate Ryan Briscoe and looking secure until Franchitti produced a two-lap run 0.1432 seconds quicker than the Australian, who then lost second to Dixon too.

Briscoe held on to fourth, but Penske's third driver Helio Castroneves was back in 10th, relieved just to end his run "in one piece" having lacked grip.

Dan Wheldon, who it emerged this week is taking legal action against his current team Panther Racing, took a superb fifth on the grid, with his occasional team-mate Ed Carpenter also showing well in seventh.

They were split by a great run from Justin Wilson, as the Dreyer & Reinbold driver scored his best oval qualifying result in the series in sixth.

Tony Kanaan was Andretti Autosport's top runner in eighth, while his team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay was way back in 20th, but optimistic his car would work better in the race.

Takuma Sato (KV) produced another good oval qualifying run in ninth place. Other rookies catching the eye were Bertrand Baguette (Conquest) in 14th and Dreyer & Reinbold's substitute driver Ana Beatriz in 15th.

Newman/Haas had a tough day, a mystified Graham Rahal and Hideki Mutoh qualifying only 18th and 26th respectively.

The season finale starts at 7pm local time on Saturday night, with a final half hour practice session under the lights at 7.45pm this evening.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            213.187mph
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            212.908mph
 3.  Will Power           Penske             212.580mph
 4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             212.158mph
 5.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            211.933mph
 6.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  211.630mph
 7.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     211.444mph
 8.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           211.392mph
 9.  Takuma Sato          KV                 211.355mph
10.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             211.240mph
11.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           211.013mph
12.  EJ Viso              KV                 210.928mph
13.  Mario Moraes         KV                 210.741mph
14.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           210.738mph
15.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  210.715mph
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           210.698mph
17.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       210.671mph
18.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas        210.629mph
19.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              210.520mph
20.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           210.030mph
21.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               210.017mph
22.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         209.433mph
23.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   209.311mph
24.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           209.308mph
25.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                208.986mph
26.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        208.579mph
27.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         207.961mph

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