Grand Prix: Penske, Ganassi Cars Dominate Qualifying

A few minutes after one "Dancing With the Stars" winner took the checkered flag in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race, another Mirror Ball champion took the pole position for Sunday's running of the 42nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Helio Castroneves scored the 47th pole of his Verizon Indycar Series career, his second in a row this season, and his second in a row at Long Beach as he hopes to win the race for the first time since 2001.

His performance Saturday came on the heels of Alfonso Ribeiro winning the 40th and final Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race and cemented his position as a favorite to win.

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Castroneves, who also took the pole in the oval race at Phoenix a couple weeks ago, needs two more poles to tie Bobby Unser for third all-time.

"Always, his strength since we were like 8 years old was to put that perfect lap together," said fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan, who will start outside of Row 2 on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile layout.

Castroneves emerged top dog in the knockout qualifying that culminated with the Firestone Fast Six and the Verizon P1 Award, which is worth a point toward the championship. He moves into a tie for fifth place in the series with Kanaan, two points behind Ryan Hunter-Reay (56 points).

Castroneves was one of four cars owned by Roger Penske that reached the Fast Six, with series leader Simon Pagenaud starting third, Juan Pablo Montoya fifth and Will Power sixth. Castroneves clocked 1 minute 7.1246 seconds, a 105.547 mph average, to Dixon's 1:07.4455.

Chip Ganassi had the other two drivers in the Fast Six. Defending series champion and Phoenix winner Scott Dixon will start alongside Castroneves, in addition to Kanaan.

The fastest Honda was James Hinchcliffe in seventh; because of trouble with timing and scoring, for a while it looked like Hinchcliffe would advance to the Fast Six and Castroneves would be left out.

Qualifying well is a huge part of the Long Beach game plan. The deepest starting position by any winner is 17th, but it's a rarity to win from outside the top 10. However, there were some intriguing drivers who failed to make it out of the first of the three rounds of qualifying. Sebastien Bourdais will start 14th, Graham Rahal 17th, and Marco Andretti last at 21st.

It was especially tough on Bourdais, who won the race in 2005, 2006 and 2007 while driving for Newman/Haas in the Champ Car World Series. He bumped his way into the second round on his last lap, but he failed to trip the scoring stand by two-tenths of a second before the session ended, so the lap was disallowed.

With nothing to lose, Castroneves said Bourdais in a Chevy and Rahal and Andretti in Hondas could be key players before the day's over.

"It depends on the yellows," he said. "They can play completely different strategies and they have better tires" because they didn't use them up in qualifying. "It could be a game-changer. It's outside of my control. All I can do is start at the front and try to not look back. ... I have to look forward and stay ahead.

"Whatever happens to my competitors -- I'm not the one who has to chase them, they have to chase me."

Photo: Tony Kanaan (left) and Helio Castroneves enjoy a light moment during the post-qualifying press conference. Photo/Martin Henderson