Australian driver Ryan Briscoe took the provisional pole position for the Indianapolis 500 in early qualifying on Saturday. The fastest driver in practice this week showed the way on a cool, windy afternoon with a four-lap average of 224.131 mph (360.69 kph). Dario Franchitti, the 2007 Indy winner, waited until the first flurry of qualifiers had finished and the track was opened for practice before he made a qualifying attempt. The guessing game worked well enough that the Scot bumped Briscoe's Penske teammate Helio Castroneves out of second place on the tentative grid. Franchitti's 224.010 (360.490) was just good enough to relegate Castroneves, a two-time Indy pole and race winner, to the outside of the three-car front row with his 223.949 (360.389) run.
