Rookie Patrick enters new territory with first pole win

Danica Patrick has another first on her short Indy Racing League resume.

The 23-year-old rookie won her first IRL pole Saturday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., becoming the second woman to take the top spot.

Patrick, the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500, turned in a quick lap of 214.688 mph on her second try around the 1 1/2 -mile tri-oval in qualifying for today’s Argent Mortgage Indy 300. Sarah Fisher was the first female pole-sitter at a 2002 race in Kentucky.

With teammates qualifying second and third, Patrick’s chances of earning her first IRL victory are even better.

“It’s very satisfying,” said Patrick, who edged out Rahal Letterman teammate Buddy Rice for the pole. “I’m very proud of how hard this team has worked, how hard I’ve worked. I’m just proud of the whole situation for this team.”

Patrick, making her eighth career start, was fastest in her morning practice session, too. Her pole-winning time drew a big cheer from the capacity crowd waiting for the start of a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Her best previous start was second at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan in April.

“This is not untouched territory,” Patrick said. “What’s going to make the difference is going out (today) and staying up there and competing with my teammates who did such a great job last year.”

In May, Patrick finished fourth at the Indianapolis 500, the best finish by a woman in the 89-year history of the race, and her second fourth-place finish in the IRL series.

“I know a lot of this started because I’m a chick in a race car,” Patrick said. “Now it’s turning into, ‘Look what this rookie can do.’ “

Rice, last year’s race champion, will start on the outside front after qualifying at 214.65 mph. Vitor Meira was third at 214.548 mph, followed by Tomas Scheckter and Darren Manning.

This year’s Indy 500 winner and the current points leader, Dan Wheldon, qualified 13th.

“The car has been very slow since we rolled it off the truck, and we really don’t know why,” said Wheldon, who has won four of seven events this year. “We just don’t have an answer for it. Right now, I’ve got a lot of people in front of me that are going to be difficult to beat.”

Helio Castroneves, who won last week at Richmond, Va., qualified 14th.

Last year, Rice won the pole and then held off Meira by .0051 seconds to win the second-closest race in IRL history.

It was the first 1-2-3 qualifying by one team since Scheckter, Rice and Eddie Cheever did it at Michigan in 2002 for Eddie Cheever Red Bull Racing.

“We’ll just have to see,” Rice said. “But all three cars qualified strongly, they’ve been strong all day, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t all three be running up front and going for a finish like last year.”

Patrick agreed – to a point.

“That’s the plan is that the three of us will hopefully take off and, you know, tow each other out to a country mile lead, and then we don’t have to worry about anybody,” she said. “In a perfect world, that’s what would happen.

“But it’s not going to happen like that. There are going to be twists and turns in the race. There’ll be yellow flags and fuel strategy and changes within the car as the race goes on. So it’s definitely helpful to have friends around, but at the end of the day we’re all trying to individually win the race.”

Craftsman Trucks

Todd Bodine withstood a series of late restarts, then pulled away in a three-lap shootout to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway.

It was the first victory of the season and third in the series for Bodine, a former Winston and Nextel Cup driver who owns 15 Busch series wins. It was also the first win for Toyota this year, breaking Chevrolet’s five-race streak.

“My truck was so strong on restarts that I could run wide open,” said Bodine, who led 81 of 170 laps. “A green-white-checker is basically two laps, and I knew I could run it wide open for two laps.”

Rookie Todd Kluever won a back-and-forth battle with David Reutimann in the late laps to take second – his best finish this year – in a Ford.

Dennis Setzer, the points leader, finished 11th. He still widened his lead by five points – to 38 – over Bobby Hamilton, who finished 12th.

Kelly Sutton’s record-breaking day, meanwhile, ended in a scary moment that brought out a red flag late in the race.

With 13 laps to go, Chris Fontaine’s truck hit the wall and crossed back into traffic. Sutton’s truck hit Fontaine and flipped onto its top, spinning and skidding down the backstretch of the 1 1/2 -mile tri-oval before rolling back onto its wheels on the apron.

Sutton, whose 33rd career start broke the series’ record for race appearances by a woman, got out of the truck on her own.

Jimmy Kite, the only truck racer also running in the Indy Racing League event, finished 22nd. He will start 22nd today.