Scott Dixon continued to demonstrate his mastery of the 7/8th-mile Iowa Speedway, qualifying on the pole for Sunday’s Iowa Corn Growers 250 at the newest facility on the IndyCar Series circuit, located just east of Des Moines.

It is Dixon’s seventh career IndyCar pole, and his first pole since the 2006 race at Infineon Raceway.Dixon and teammate Dan Wheldon were 1-2 in a Series “Open Test” held here on Friday prior to the start of the official race weekend.

Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves qualified second and will start on the front row for the fifth time in eight races this season. Reigning Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti qualified third for Andretti Green Racing, followed by the Rahal Letterman Racing’s Scott Sharp in fourth.

Vision Racing’s Ed Carpenter posted his strongest qualifying run of the season to start fifth, with the Ethanol-sponsored car of Jeff Simmons rounding out the top six.

Sunday’s 250-lap race starts at 1 p.m. EDT, with live television coverage on ABC.

Scott Dixon (#10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) pole qualifier, his first pole of 2007, seventh career IndyCar Series pole, 2003 IndyCar Series champion:
“Yeah, it was a very good run for us,more than I actually thought was in the car. It was a great effort from the team today, and a great reward for all the hard work the team had to do after the crashes we had [two weeks ago] at Texas. Tomorrow’s race is going to be very tough, very physical and very tight on this short oval. Starting up front will definitely help us out. The job now is to stay out front – all day if possible!”