FONTANA, Calif. -- Tony Kanaan was thinking more about the tough road ahead than the pole he had just won at California Speedway.

Kanaan led a Brazilian sweep Saturday of the top three positions for the 500 presented by Toyota. But the celebration of his second pole of the season and the fourth of his Champ car career was tempered by thoughts of what to expect Sunday in the race.

	Mo Nunn Racing's Tony Kanaan steers his car to the pole for the The 500 at Fontana, Calif.

"It feels good to win the pole but, by Turn 1, I'll probably be third or fourth, but then first again by Turn 4,'' he said. "The pole doesn't mean that much here.''

Nineteen drivers swapped the lead a series-record 73 times last year -- and that was only at the finish line, where official lead changes are registered.

With the cars traveling at speeds above 220 mph in the race, and often swarming like an angry horde of bees, there were many passes around the fast track that were never recorded.

"This is our hardest race,'' Kanaan said. "Not physically, but the most distressful mentally.

"You have to pay a lot of attention because you're always so close to each other. And, sometimes, your car does things you're not expecting it to. You can't be thinking about anything else or having a good time.''

This year, the grid for the 250-lap event includes only 18 cars, but the time differential between Kanaan's lap and that of last-place starter Oriol Servia was just 0.794 seconds.

Kanaan went 232.011 on the 2.029-mile oval. Servia's speed was 226.304.

Bruno Junqueira qualified second at 231.145, followed at 230.575 by series champion Cristiano da Matta, who can match the CART record of eight victories in a season by successfully defending his title in this race.

Besides being hard on the drivers mentally, CART's only 500-mile event puts considerable stress on the engines. This year, at least the drivers won't have to worry about fuel economy.

CART's new rules divide up the race and require mandatory pit stops within a specified number of laps, enabling drivers to go flat out between fuel stops. On Sunday, the window is 33 laps.

"Last year, we had the problem that nobody wanted to lead because of fuel economy and because of their engine durability, too,'' da Matta said. "This year, you only have to worry about the durability.

"You want to be in the front of the pack, but not be leading, until the end.''

Kanaan said his crew wasn't happy when he was leading last year.

"I had a problem when I was going up in front,'' he said. "My guys are yelling into the radio to go back to the back. I said, 'What's the deal?' but, obviously, you wanted to try to save your engine and save a little bit of fuel.''

Da Matta chimed in, "Why are you going to lead, just to be in front of everybody and maybe put a little more stress on the engine because you're not getting towed as much? You know you're not going to pull away.''

Kanaan nodded at da Matta's comment and added, "As long as you're in the pack, you can be up front at the end.''

All that racing side-by-side and nose-to-tail at high speed also can lead to complaints that some drivers are making dangerous moves or blocking.

Kanaan hopes the drivers will use good judgment Sunday.

"There will be a lot of passing, but people will try to take care of each other a little more,'' he said. "Last year, it kind of got crazy in the middle of the race.''