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Franchitti leads front row sweep for Ganassi at Richmond

Fri 26th, June 2009

Richmond, VA (Sports Network) - Six days after his Iowa victory, Dario Franchitti continued to be on a roll by winning Friday's qualifying for the SunTrust Indy Challenge at Richmond International Raceway.

Franchitti turned in a four-lap average around the .75-mile oval at 167.315 m.p.h. He was 0.3 seconds quicker than his teammate Scott Dixon, as Target Chip Ganassi Racing secured the front starting row for Saturday's race.

"It feels pretty good right now," Franchitti said. "We did a good job by running the field, Dixon and myself, so both Target cars up front, I'm feeling good."

Franchitti captured his second pole of the season and the eighth of his IndyCar career.

Last Sunday, the 2007 series champion picked up his second win this season at Iowa. He has now moved to within two points of leader Ryan Briscoe after collecting a bonus point for his pole victory.

Franchitti won the IndyCar event at Richmond the last time he was here in 2007. He competed in NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series competition most of the 2008 season before returning to IndyCar last September.

Dixon's outside pole is the best starting position for the defending series champion so far this year.

"We struggled towards the end of last practice, and I think we got the car way too low, and I was bottoming a lot," Dixon said.

Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Briscoe will start from row two, while Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal and Raphael Matos from Luczo Dragon Racing will roll off from the third row.

E.J. Viso from HVM Racing, Andretti Green Racing's Hideki Mutoh, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing's Tomas Scheckter and Danica Patrick, also from Andretti Green, will start seventh through 10th, respectively.

Tony Kanaan, teammate to Mutoh and Patrick, is the defending race winner. Kanaan qualified 17th in the 20-car field.

Saturday's race is scheduled to start around 8:45 p.m. (et).