Alex Tagliani of Player's ForsytheRacing continued his impressive rookie run in the FedEx Championship Serieson Saturday by capturing the pole for the Rio 200 on the Emerson FittipaldiSpeedway at Nelson Piquet International Raceway (12:30 p.m. ET Sunday, live,ESPN).

Tagliani (Player's Forsythe Racing Team Ford Reynard) secured the first poleof his career with a lap of 173.903 miles per hour (38.587 seconds) on the1.864-mile oval. He will be chasing his first career victory when the greenflag falls 1:30 p.m. local time for Sunday's third of 20 races in the 2000FedEx Championship Series.

Thanks to the point he earned for the pole, Tagliani, who spent the previousfour seasons competing in the Toyota Atlantic Championship, enters Sunday'sevent ranked sixth in the championship with 17 points. His is the highestchampionship ranking among the six rookie drivers currently competing in theFedEx Championship Series. Prior to Saturday, Tagliani's most recent polecame during an Atlantic event at Montreal last year.

Defending Rio 200 and series champion Juan Montoya of Target/Chip GanassiRacing earned the outside pole at 173.413 mph (38.696 seconds). It is hissecond front-row qualifying effort of the season, following a pole positionearned at Nazareth earlier this month. The Nazareth event, postponed on raceday (April 9) due to inclement weather, will be completed on Saturday, May27.

FedEx Championship Series points leader Paul Tracy (KOOL Honda Reynard) ofTeam KOOL Green qualified third fastest at 172.757 mph (38.843 seconds). Itmarks a career-best start for Tracy, a 1999 CART All Star, in fiveappearances at Rio, improving on fifth, en route to victory, in 1997.

Tracy enters Sunday with a 34-26 lead over Jimmy Vasser (Target Toyota Lola)in the championship. Vasser qualified sixth at 172.313 mph (38.943 seconds).

Rounding out the top five drivers were rookie Kenny Brack (Shell FordReynard) of Team Rahal, fourth at 172.610 mph (38.876 seconds) and ChristianFittipaldi (Big Kmart/Route 66 Ford Lola) of Newman/Haas Racing, fifth at172.597 mph (38.879 seconds). Brack's effort improves on a season best offifth established at Homestead in the season opener, while Fittipaldi, anative Brazilian, earns his second consecutive top-five start at Rio deJaneiro, after claiming his first career FedEx Championship Series poleposition here last year.

The top 18 drivers were separated by less than one second.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

ALEX TAGLIANI, Player's Forsythe Racing Team Ford Reynard: "When I got ontrack I saw that Juan had a (lap of) 38.6. He improved quite a bit from thismorning. We weren't expecting him to be so fast. We ran a 38.6 this morningtoo but we had a small draft running behind Jimmy (Vasser). We tried tomanage the tires on the first three warm-up laps and we turned a 38.8. Neil(Micklewright) came on the radio and said we needed another two tenths of asecond. When I came through the first corner I knew it was going to be agood time. This isn't really a difficult track to drive but it's achallenging track for the engineers. This pole is really for thePlayers/Forsythe team today."

JUAN MONTOYA, Target Toyota Lola: "The car was pretty good. When I got thegreen flag I thought, 'Oooh, this is going to be interesting today.' Comingaround turn one I was just trying to get a clean lap. We were pretty cleanand very fast but I thought whomever had a balanced car was going to get(the pole). We tried it but it just didn't work. The car was too loose."

PAUL TRACY, KOOL Honda Reynard: "We've really been concentrating on wherethe team's been lacking in order to make it to the front of the grid. We'vebeen looking for more balance in qualifying. The car's been good allweekend. We got kind of a scare in tech. The car had been bottoming out andwe had a problem with the skid plate. But we got it straightened out and thecar's through tech now. I think we've got a great race car and starting upfront will make the race a lot better for me."

WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY

By claiming the pole in his fourth FedEx Championship Series event,Alex Tagliani (Player's Forsythe Racing Team Ford Reynard) matches defendingFedEx Championship Series champion Juan Montoya, who also earned his firstcareer pole in his fourth event, at Nazareth last year. Among other recentrookies of note, two-time series champion Alex Zanardi earned the pole forhis second career start at Rio de Janeiro in 1996. Nigel Mansell earned hisfirst career pole and victory in his rookie debut at Surfers Paradise,Australia in 1993 and went on to the FedEx Championship Series title.

Tagliani's pole also makes it possible to keep alive a streak whichhas seen the Rio pole winner go on to record his first career FedExChampionship Series victory during the same season in which he has claimedthat pole. Zanardi's '96 pole was followed by his first career victory atPortland. Mauricio Gugelmin won the 1997 pole at Rio and went on to hisfirst career triumph at Vancouver. Dario Franchitti was the 1998 pole winnerat went on to his first career triumph at Road America while ChristianFittipaldi won the pole last year and continued the run with a victory atRoad America.

Outside pole-sitter Juan Montoya has qualified fifth or better fornine of 10 oval events, dating to a pole last year at Nazareth. Poles atGateway last year and Nazareth this year are also part of the run, as is anoutside pole at Homestead, starts of third Rio, Michigan and California lastyear, and fifth at Milwaukee last year.

Paul Tracy's (KOOL Honda Reynard) third-place qualifying performancewas his best on an oval since winning the outside pole at Gateway last year.

Daniel Pedroso, Operations Director of the Rio 200, announced lateSaturday afternoon that the Rio 200 is a sellout. A crowd of nearly 60,000is expected.

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