Indycar Race, Indy 500 Indianapolis Motor Speedway Live 29 May 2011

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Alex Tagliani shocked the "big boys" at Penske and Ganassi and dominated qualifying, claiming pole position for Sam Schmidt Motorsports ahead of Scott Dixon and Oriol Servia.

Well, Alex Tagliani has looked fast all week. But still everyone expected Penske and Ganassi to sweep in when it came to Pole Day. They didn't - and it turned out no one was a match for Tagliani and his inspirational team owner Sam Schmidt.

Scott Dixon qualified in second position but ran out of fuel in the final yards of the last of his four qualifying laps - which was at least better than his Ganassi team mate Dario Franchitti, who ran dry mid-qualifying attempt and who was last seen stalking back down the paddock to his trailer, pointedly not speaking to anyone.

Shockingly, only Will Power in fifth place on the grid was in the pole shoot-out for Penske. Helio Castroneves was in 16th place and therefore qualifies for the race (unless bumped on Sunday) but Ryan Briscoe suffered after losing his race car in a Saturday morning practice crash and failed to make it into the top 24.

Despite the burns to her hands sustained in a serious crash in the Thursday practice session, Simona de Silvestro made it onto the provisional grid. However, she will start Bump Day in 24th and will be expecting to have to make more qualification attempts to ensure her position in the race.

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