MAY 16, 2004

Rahal gets pole at Indianapolis

Bobby Rahal has been out of the spotlight a fair bit since he returned to the United States after his adventures with Jaguar Racing but on Saturday Rahal's driver Buddy Rice took pole for the 88th Indianapolis 500. Rice is a stand-in for the team's injured star driver Kenny Brack, who ruled himself out of the 500 a couple of weeks ago because he did not feel he was fit enough to compete. Brack is recovering from massive injuries he received at a shunt in Texas last autumn.

Rice completed his four lap qualifying run at an average speed of 222.024mph in his G Force-Honda ahead of Andretti Green racing duo Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti, who clocked 221.524mph and 221.471mph respectively. The second row will consist of Newman Haas Racing's Bruno Junqueira, Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan and Adrian Fernandez in his own G-Force Honda.

It was a bad day for Penske Racing with Helio Castroneves in eighth place on the grid and Sam Hornish Jr. 11th.