For the third 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 Kentucky Speedway for Sunday's Meijer Indy 300. It is the sixth pole of the season – and third in a row – for Castroneves.

Castroneves posted an average speed of 218.328 miles per hour around the 1.5-mile speedway to again edge teammate Hornish by just over two-thousandths of a second. It extended Castroneves' career IndyCar Series record for pole runs to 17, and he is now just one pole away from again tying the IndyCar record of four consecutive poles that he already shares with Billy Boat.

Defending series champion Dan Wheldon qualified third for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, with Milwaukee Mile race winner Tony Kanaan alongside in fourth. The third row of the 19-car starting field is made up of Wheldon's teammate Scott Dixon, in fifth, and Dario Franchitti sixth in his Andretti Green Racing Honda.

Sunday's 300-mile event, the 12th round of the 14-race 2006 IndyCar season, starts at 3:30 p.m. EDT,with live television coverage on ABC.

Helio Castroneves (#3 Marlboro Team Penske Honda) pole qualifier, his sixth IndyCar pole of the season and third consecutive pole, one shy of the series record:
“The car was already quick right out of the trailer this morning, but we worked on it a bit and made it even better. I knew that Sam [Hornish Jr.] and I would be very close in qualifying, and the difference in the end probably came down to something small, like maybe the wind helped me a bit more, but I don't know for sure. I'm very happy for today, but I've never won here, so that's my goal for the weekend. The track is much smoother this year, which should make the race even more competitive on Sunday.”