It was a tough day at Iowa Speedway as persistent weepers in the track canceled qualification. The Indy Racing League did their dead-level best to get the session in the books, but could never send more than two cars out without stopping the action. That forced them to set the lineup by owner points, which places Helio Castroneves on the pole. That is familiar territory; in two previous starts on this track, he's started second on average, but doesn't have nearly as good a record in race trim. In two races at Iowa, he's finished eighth and 14th.
Scott Dixon starts second and he would seem to be a much better value. In his two starts, he's started on the pole in both events. He's swept the top-10 on this track, but the greater recommendation is that he swept the top five on the IRL's short tracks last year with a fourth in Iowa and a third at Richmond.
The best value this week, however, is Dario Franchitti. In his last two short track races, he swept victory lane at Iowa and Richmond in 2007. He rolls off the grid fourth.
Lineup with avg. start/finish
| Start | Driver | Avg. Fin | Avg. Start | Attempts |
| 1 | Helio Castroneves | 11.00 | 2.00 | 2 |
| 2 | Ryan Briscoe | 7.00 | 5.00 | 1 |
| 3 | Scott Dixon | 7.00 | 1.00 | 2 |
| 4 | Dario Franchitti | 1.00 | 3.00 | 1 |
| 5 | Danica Patrick | 9.50 | 8.50 | 2 |
| 6 | Dan Wheldon | 6.00 | 6.00 | 2 |
| 7 | Tony Kanaan | 17.00 | 5.50 | 2 |
| 8 | Marco Andretti | 2.50 | 10.00 | 2 |
| 9 | Graham Rahal | 10.00 | 16.00 | 1 |
| 10 | Justin Wilson | 12.00 | 20.00 | 1 |
| 11 | Hideki Mutoh | 2.00 | 7.00 | 1 |
| 12 | Raphael Matos |
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| 13 | Ed Carpenter | 14.50 | 7.00 | 2 |
| 14 | Robert Doornbos |
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| 15 | Mario Moraes | 19.00 | 24.00 | 1 |
| 16 | Tomas Scheckter | 19.00 | 14.00 | 1 |
| 17 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 8.00 | 14.00 | 1 |
| 18 | E J Viso | 13.00 | 13.00 | 1 |
| 19 | Mike Conway |
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| 20 | Jaques Lazier |
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