Castroneves on Indy 500 pole

Team Penske's double Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves covered his four qualifying laps with an average speed of 225.817mph (363.4kph) around the century old 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Fellow Brazilian Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing) fell short of the pole time by a mere 4 hundredths of a second, while the 'outside pole' went to veteran Dario Franchitti (AGR).Delighted 'Spiderman' Castroneves stated: "This pole position means a lot to me, to the team. I had a great car and a great opportunity. I learned from Sam [Hornish Jr., Penske team-mate] to hold the car through turn one [against a ten mile per hour wind], and it was just what I needed to do."Castroneves also pocketed the one hundred thousand dollar prize that goes to the fastest man of the day. "We found some things on Sam (Hornish)'s car that were beneficial and they really paid off for Helio", team owner and former Indy 500 racer Roger Penske said. Defending '500' winner Hornish Jr. clocked the fifth best time of the dayPenske Racing is the most successful team in the history of the Indianapolis 500-Mile race, having started from pole-position on 14 different occasions. More importantly, Penske cars parked on Victory Lance on Indianapolis Motor Speedway 14 times, including four wins from the start of the new millenium.Despite Castroneves' qualifying effort, Briton Dan Wheldon (Ganassi Racing) is still the bookmakers' favourite to win this year's race. Both Ganassi cars of Scott Dixon and Wheldon showed an impressive pace in the four IndyCar races run so far and they are both well placed on the grid, in fourth and sixth respectively.A total of six former winners made it to the 33-car Honda-engined field. The 2007 Indy 500 will feature an unprecedented number of three women at the start, with hyped rookie Milka Duno joining IndyCar regulars Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher. Duno and former F3000 driver Phil Giebler are the only two rookies that qualified.Odd field fillers include returning veteran John Andretti (the nephew of racing legend Mario Andretti), who last raced an Indy car at IMS in 1994 before switching to NASCAR, or former winner Al Unser Jr., who spent more time with his lawyers lately than on the track. Earlier this year, 44-year old 'Little Al' was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, hit and run, failure to render aid in an accident and failure to report an accident in Nevada, USA. The race is scheduled for Sunday, May 27.The 91st Indianapolis 500 line-up: 1. Helio Castroneves (Dallara-Honda) W