Edmonton: Series qualifying report

James Hinchcliffe earned the pole for the Edmonton 100, edging championship points leader J.K. Vernay late in the qualifying session.

Hinchcliffe, the driver of the No. 2 TMR-Xtreme Coil Drilling car, recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 6.2159 seconds. It's the fourth time this season that Hinchcliffe will start on the pole and fifth time on the front row.

Martin Plowman (1:06.2707) in the No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers/KEP Printing car for AFS Racing Andretti Autosport will join teammate Charlie Kimball (1:06.3802), driving the No. 26 Levemir FlexPen entry, on Row 2.

DAY 2 NOTEBOOK:

Firestone Indy Lights driver James Hinchcliffe is doing double duty this weekend. The Canadian is serving as a driver analyst for the Honda Indy Edmonton public address system during IZOD IndyCar Series practice and qualifying.

"I've done some television and radio work in the past and was the color analyst at the Indianapolis 500 this year for the IMS Radio Network," he said. "I'm happy to lend my expertise to the event when I can. Obviously, driving the TMR car takes priority.

***

SUNOCO POLE QUALIFYING NOTES

* This is James Hinchcliffe's fourth pole of 2010. He was previously on pole at St. Petersburg, Long Beach and Watkins Glen.

* J.K. Vernay will start on the front row for the fifth time in eight races

SUNOCO POLE QUALIFYING QUOTES:

JAMES HINCHCLIFFE (No. 2 Xtreme Coil Drilling- TMR, SUNOCO Pole Award winner): "It never hurts to start up front, but it was a little bit too close there. As I said to my engineer Lee Dykstra, it's a little bit of payback for Toronto, where we sort of sat up at the top and then J.K. (Vernay) pulled it out on us at the end. But credit to him, he's been super quick all weekend. He's such a tough competitor. A huge thanks to Team Moore. This is sort of (team co-owner) Tom Wood's hometown here so to get a pole at the home race is great."

MARTIN PLOWMAN, (No. 27 Automatic Fire Sprinklers/KEP Printing, qualified third): "That was a really tough qualifying session. The times were extremely close. At one point, I was two-thousandths from pole. I put in another quick lap, but we ran out of time. The top three were separated by less than half a tenth. When it's that close, it's just about who gets it that day. I think I got the best out of the car today. I know we have a really strong race car, so it's going to be a great race tomorrow."

CHARLIE KIMBALL (No. 26 Levemir FlexPen, qualified fourth): "That was a great effort by everyone. Qualifying is really close. We didn't quite have that last couple of tenths to put it on pole. I know the #26 Levemir® car will be quick on lap 50 tomorrow, when it really matters. I think we should be ready to go have a good race tomorrow."

SUNDAY'S SCHEDULE (All time local):
9:20 - 9:40 a.m. Firestone Indy Lights warmup
12:30 p.m. Firestone Indy Lights Edmonton 100 pre-race
1 p.m. Firestone Indy Lights Edmonton 100 (50 laps

***

The 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season continues July 25 with the Honda Indy Edmonton at Edmonton City Centre Airport. The race will be telecast live in High Definition at 5 p.m. (ET) by VERSUS. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, XM channel 145 and Sirius channel 212. The race also will be carried on www.indycar.com. The 2010 Firestone Indy Lights season continues with the Edmonton 100 on July 25 at Edmonton City Centre Airport.

-source: irl