For the second consecutive weekend, the Marlboro Team Penske duo of Helio Castroneves and Sam Hornish Jr. dominated IndyCar Series qualifying Saturday to capture the front row at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday's Firestone Indy 400. It makes the fourth pole of the season for Castroneves, who also was the fastest qualifier last weekend at The Milwaukee Mile.

Castroneves posted an average speed of 216.777 miles per hour around the two-mile superspeedway to again edge teammate Hornish by four-hundredths of a second. It extends his IndyCar Series record for pole runs to 16.

Earlier this season, Castroneves started from the pole at Twin Ring Motegi, Watkins Glen and Richmond,but in all three cases qualifying was canceled due to rain. At Motegi, where rain washed out both practice and qualifying, Castroneves started first due to his leading the IndyCar championship standings at the time; at the other two events, practice speeds were used to set the starting field when rain interrupted qualifying runs.

Last week's race winner in Milwaukee, Tony Kanaan, will start third, followed by Vision Racing's Ed Carpenter in fourth, his IndyCar career-best starting position.

Sunday's 300-mile event, the 11th round of the 14-race 2006 IndyCar season and second-longest of theseason next to the Indy 500, starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT, with live television coverage on ABC.

Helio Castroneves (#3 Marlboro Team Penske Honda) pole qualifier:
“Sam and I both had fast cars in practice this morning. As usual, we shared our information after the practice and made just a tweak or two for qualifying. I think the wind helped me a little bit more during my run and that may have been the difference between us. Because of the [championship] points situation, I have to drive the race tomorrow like it is the last one of the season. I'm looking forward to it, because I'm going to go for it!”