INDYCARNATION

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Will Power wins the pole and the Peak Performace Award.

EDMONTON, Alberta – Helio Castroneves jokes that he has a full-proof plan to derail Team Penske teammate Will Power’s success on road/street circuits. “I’m going to call him William from now on.”

Yeah, that’s probably not going to make a dent in Power’s psyche for the Honda Indy Edmonton.

Power earned his sixth PEAK Performance Pole Award of the season (the fifth on road/street courses), slipping past Castroneves by 0.0765 of a second in the Firestone Fast Six session on the 1.973-mile, 14-turn City Centre Airport course.

“We had a very good lap out there and I just made a little mistake, and this place is about not making mistakes,” said Castroneves, who recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 0.7891 seconds in the 10-minute shootout. “Will is making us better – me, Ryan (Briscoe) and the team. He’s pushing hard and I’m pushing hard, too. It’s a shame we couldn’t make it, but we’re getting closer. We can win the race from there.”

He proved that at Barber Motorsports Park in mid-April, advancing from Row 2 to thwart Power’s drive for three victories in a row. He’ll again attempt to tie the IZOD IndyCar Series record in the 95-lap race July 25 (he won at Watkins Glen and Toronto).

“It’s awesome to get the Verizon car on the pole again,” said Power, who won the race last July from the pole. “All the points count and I know here it’s important to be at the front because it is tough to pass. If all the strategy goes well, like it did last year, it makes it easier to win. It’s a long day tomorrow. We have a good starting spot and we have to keep going to win this championship.”

Scott Dixon, the 2008 race winner, in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car had a best lap of 1:01.2395 in the Firestone Fast Six and will start next to teammate Dario Franchitti (1:01.2481) on Row 2. Briscoe (1:01.3799) and E.J. Viso, making his first appearance in the Firestone Fast Six this season in the No. 8 PDVSA KV Racing Technology car (1:01.6122), will be on the third row.

“We felt we could do this kind of performance all season, but we had so many obstacles early in the season,” said Viso, in his third year in the series. “Now I feel we are in position to do this all of the time. After Iowa (where he finished third), things are changing in our direction.”

Rookie Simona de Silvestro will start a season-high seventh in the No. 78 Team Stargate Worlds/HVM Racing car, and Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay also will be on Row 4 in the No. 37 IZOD entry.

Of note: Raphael Matos qualified a season-high 10th in the No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing car. ... Hideki Mutoh qualified 11th in the No. 02 Formula Dream/Panasonic car for Newman/Haas Racing, his best on a road/street course this season.