Kanaan claims IndyCar pole; points leaders on ninth row

Las Vegas got a piece of the pole for the IZOD IndyCar World Championships when Tony Kanaan qualified first Friday in a car co-owned by longtime Las Vegas resident Jimmy Vasser.

Kanaan won his first pole in three years by covering the 1.5-mile oval at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a two-lap average time of 30.0582 seconds and speed of 222.078 mph for KV Racing Technology, owned by Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven.

Oriol Servia will start outside on the front row of Sunday's race, which begins at 12:45 p.m.

Kanaan, the 2004 series champion, last won a race a year ago at Iowa Speedway.

Series points leader Dario Franchitti and Will Power, who trails Franchitti by 18 points, will start in the same row. Unfortunately for them, it will be the ninth row; Power qualified 17th and Franchitti 18th.

Danica Patrick, who will compete in her last IndyCar race Sunday before moving full time to NASCAR next year, was the fastest in Thursday's practice sessions and qualified ninth for Andretti Autosport.

■ NOTES -- IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard and speedway president Chris Powell announced the IndyCar season finale will return to Las Vegas next year on Oct. 14. Powell added that the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series again will be part of the racing weekend. …

Victor Carbone, who drives for a team owned by Henderson's Sam Schmidt, won the pole for Sunday's developmental Firestone Indy Lights Series preliminary race that starts at 9:45 a.m.

Jeff Wolf is a freelance reporter. He can be reached at 702-406-8165 or nitrorodeo@gmail.com.