Ryan Briscoe rolls off the grid second, and if his personal history at Texas is an indication that is precisely where he will finish. In 2005, he started and finished 12th in this race. Last year, he finished third after starting on the inside of the second row.
Like Briscoe, Scott Dixon does a good job of finishing what he starts at Texas. His first attempt there came in spring 2003 when he started second and finished sixth. In fall 2003, he started and finished second. In fall 2004, he started fifth and finished sixth. He went from fourth to second in 2006 and last year he won from the pole. He starts third on Saturday.
The king of Texas qualifying, however, may just be Helio Castroneves. In 10 previous attempts, he's never started outside the top 10 and he converted two of those strong starts into victories and another pair of races into runner-up results. He kept that streak alive with a fourth-place start.
Danica Patrick rounds out the top five in fifth, which is her fourth top-10 start in five Texas attempts. In those races, she's never finished worse than 13th and has back-to-back top-10s in 2007/2008.
Lineup with avg. start/finish
Start | Driver | Avg. Fin | Avg. Start | Attempts |
1 | Dario Franchitti | 8.40 | 7.40 | 5 |
2 | Ryan Briscoe | 7.50 | 7.50 | 2 |
3 | Scott Dixon | 6.75 | 6.50 | 8 |
4 | Helio Castroneves | 6.30 | 5.70 | 10 |
5 | Danica Patrick | 9.50 | 7.00 | 4 |
6 | Mario Moraes | 18.00 | 22.00 | 1 |
7 | Dan Wheldon | 9.11 | 11.89 | 9 |
8 | Marco Andretti | 17.33 | 11.67 | 3 |
9 | Robert Doornbos | |||
10 | Ed Carpenter | 17.00 | 15.43 | 7 |
11 | Hideki Mutoh | 6.00 | 4.00 | 1 |
12 | Graham Rahal | 11.00 | 18.00 | 1 |
13 | Alex Tagliani | |||
14 | Sarah Fisher | 14.25 | 17.88 | 8 |
15 | Raphael Matos | |||
16 | Tony Kanaan | 4.50 | 7.50 | 8 |
17 | Justin Wilson | 27.00 | 23.00 | 1 |
18 | Tomas Scheckter | 15.33 | 6.00 | 9 |
19 | Mike Conway | |||
20 | Milka Duno | 14.00 | 23.00 | 2 |
21 | E J Viso | 14.00 | 28.00 | 1 |
22 | Anthony Foyt IV | 17.43 | 16.43 | 7 |
23 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 20.00 | 10.00 | 1 |
24 | Jacques Lazier |
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