De Ferran

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Long shot championship contender Gil de Ferran added some extra drama to the five-man IRL title battle Friday night, winning the pole position at Texas Motor Speedway.

De Ferran, who will retire following Sunday's Chevy 500, bounced back from two straight disappointing races by earning the fifth pole of his IRL career and his first front row start of the year.

The Brazilian racer, who earlier this year won the Indianapolis 500, turned a fast lap of 222.865 mph on the 1½-mile Texas oval.

That was barely enough to bump Scott Dixon, deadlocked with Helio Castroneves for the series points lead, to the outside of the front row in the 22-car field.

Dixon had taken the early lead with a lap of 222.856.

Castroneves will start fifth after qualifying at 221.881, while Tony Kanaan, seven points behind the leaders in third, qualified ninth at 220.839. Two-time defending series champion Sam Hornish Jr., 19 points behind Dixon and Castroneves, qualified 12th at 220.443.

De Ferran goes into the 500-kilometer season finale fifth in the standings, trailing Dixon and Marlboro Team Penske teammate Castroneves by 30 points.

"Certainly, it's a great place to start, but we can't get too carried away,'' de Ferran said. "I don't want to get too emotional here. I've still got a couple of days of work to do.''

De Ferran gave Castroneves much of the credit for his strong qualifying effort.

"Helio came here to test,'' de Ferran said. "He has a much higher mathematical chance than I have, so we decided to concentrate on him and give him the tires allocated to me for the test.

"The second lap (of practice), the car was real good. It was right away much more competitive than the last couple of races.''

De Ferran lost ground in the championship in the last two races by qualifying 12th at each and finishing 12th and 15th. He also missed a race early in the season due to injury.

"I've got to win the race or finish second and I think everybody else has to stop in the first lap,'' de Ferran said of his title hopes.

Actually, de Ferran could win the third title of his career -- the other two came in the rival CART series in 2000 and 2001 -- by winning the race, if none of the others finish ninth or better.

"I'm approaching it like it's the first race of the season,'' de Ferran said. "I can't try any harder than I try every race.''

The 35-year-old de Ferran, who will be replaced next season by Hornish, 11 years his junior, said he is trying hard not to think about this being the last race of his career.

"I've always thought being a rational driver is better than being an emotional driver because you make better decisions,'' de Ferran said. "I'm very experienced in the mind management game and I'm trying hard to push it out of my mind and just think about the race.''

The time difference between the top two cars was .0009-seconds, the second closest front row in the history of the IndyCar Series. The record came in August 1999 at Pikes Peak, when Greg Ray and Sam Schmidt tied for the top spot.

"Gil was definitely a surprise,'' Dixon said, shrugging off disappointment. "He got a little more speed out of his car and I think everybody else lost speed (from practice).''

Castroneves, who lost the title to Hornish last year by 20 points, appeared to be enjoying all the buildup to this year's championship showdown.

"It's great to be in this kind of situation again,'' Castroneves said. "It's probably going to go down to the last lap in the last corner again, and we just have to keep focused on our team.''

Hornish goes into the race riding a string of three victories and a second-place finish in his last four races. He isn't quite as big a long shot as de Ferran, but the youngster understands it will take the right circumstances Sunday to win another title.

"There's a lot of guys that will be battling it out, and we'll be right there with them,'' he said. "We'll try to stay out of trouble, have good pit stops and be there at the end.''