After slow start and turn in the dirt, Franchitti takes pole for Sonoma Grand Prix

Franchitti comes back to win pole

SONOMA, Calif. — Dario Franchitti made an impressive comeback on his final qualifying lap to capture the pole for the Sonoma Grand Prix.

Franchitti turned in a lap of 76.7987 seconds on the tough 12-turn, 2.303-mile road course Saturday at Infineon Raceway, narrowly beating out Ryan Briscoe for his fourth pole of the season. It was an unlikely finish considering Franchitti left the pits late and then missed a turn near the end of the final session, winding up with all four tires in the dirt.

Defending champion Helio Castroneves, the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner of Team Penske, will start in the second row along with Marco Andretti followed by Hideki Mutoh and Graham Rahal in the third row.

Castroneves took the pole in the 2008 race and went on to win.