©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
By Peter Burke
With a new track record, Dario Franchitti recorded his second career pole today atEmerson Fittipaldi Speedway at Nelson Piquet International Raceway. He set the record speed in his second qualifying lap. His lap of 39.005 seconds represents an average of 172.039 miles per hour (276.812 km/h).This is the first pole for Team Kool Green since their sponsor signed on. Franchitti's teammate Paul Tracy will startfrom the ninth grid position.
Alex Zanardi qualified next to Franchitti on the front row. He missed his second pole (his first came in 1996)at Rio byonly 0.159 seconds, but put himself in a great position to try to grab the points lead from Greg Moore, who onlycompleted one qualifying lap and will start seventh.
Rookie Brazilian Tony Kanaan was digging deep as he put his car onto the third grid position early in the session, running a 39.176 second lap, which is almost six tenths of a second faster than his fastest practice lapof the weekend. This marks the best career qualifying position for Kanaan.
Several drivers who dominated the practice sessions couldn't back up their performances in qualifying: the topthree cars in practice - de Ferran, Fittipaldiand Andretti - will start fourth, fifth, and seventh, respectively. Jimmy Vasser, winner of the Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix two weeks ago also faded in qualifying after practicing fifth fastest. His best qualifying lap was about six tenthsof a second slower than his best practice lap, placing him 13th on the grid.
Arnd Meier of Davis Racing surprised with the best qualifying performance of the season and his career in 19th, putting the lone Lola in the field ahead of last year's pole sitter Mauricio Gugelmin. PacWest drivers Blundell and Gugelmin both recorded disappointing qualifying laps again, ranking 18th and 21rst. The number ofaccidents during the qualifying session may have had some impact on their approach - both returning to thetrack from rather heavy accidents at Nazareth.
Disappointment also at Team Penske - Andre Ribeiro, winner of the inaugural race at Rio in 1996, will start from the16th grid position, while Al unser Jr. will have to come from the back of the pack after spinning out in turn 4before even starting the first timed lap. Earlier, Richie hearn spun on his first warmup lap and aborted the run. He will start the race from the back of the field, next to Al Unser Jr. The qualifying session saw two drivers make contact with walls around the speedway, as they attempted to get the maximum performance out of their vehicles. Alex Barron and Max Papis made contact with the wall in theirsecond timed lap. Both drivers were uninjured.
Greg Moore spun on his last qualifying lap, but didn't make any contact. "I got deep intothe turn and the car started to drift, so I backed off and then it snapped around on me," said Moore.
The top four qualifiers all are powered by Honda engines, which makes this the best qualifying showing for Honda ever.firestone tires take the top three spots, after Goodyear had dominated the practice sessions.
See the full qualifying results in our Rio 400 section
The Rio 400, Round 5 of the FedEx Championship Series, takes the green flag at noon ET(1 p.m. local time) Sunday. The race will be televised on a tape delay basis on ABC-TV,beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET.
