Franchitti grabs Toronto Pole; Saavedra gets Indy Lights win.

Apologies for missing the Watkins Glen race. I spent the fourth at the lake, and spent as much time as possible away from my computer. Congrats to Justin Wilson and Dale Coyne on a great victory!

Sabastian Saavedra won the Indy Lights race today. He led 40 of the 50 laps, and started on the pole. Teammate J.R. Hildebrand finished second, and widened his points lead to 51 points. James Davison recorded the fastest lap with a speed of 95.886 mph. They run about 5-10 miles per hour slower than the IndyCars. Ana Beatriz started 7th and finished 13th to drop to 8th in the standings. Not what she was looking for here.

News early at the Knockout Qualifying in Toronto is Andretti Green Racing's failure to put a driver in the second round. The only driver in the four contenders for the championship in the Firestone Fast Six is Franchitti. Here is the results from the second round of qualifying, 7 through 12 is set for the grid. The top six go for the pole in a few minutes:

Firestone Fast Six:

Alex Tagliani (what?! you almost weren't in the field!)

Graham Rahal (c'mon kid, more performances like this!)

Dario Franchitti (duh!)

Mike Conway (you are the oddest driver in the series, horrible to great to horrible to great)

Justin Wilson (keeps the momentum going!)

Will Power (Too bad you don't have a full-time ride, I want to see more of you)

7. Robert Doornbos

8. Scott Dixon (You're human, maybe?)

9. Raphael Matos

10. Helio Castroneves (Wow!)

11. Ryan Briscoe (Yuck!)

12. Ryan Hunter-Reay (thatta kid RHR!)

.......

Franchitti has won the Peak Performance Pole Award with a speed of 103.532 mph. This will be his third start in P1 in the last five races. The championship point he receives puts him in sole position of second place going into Sunday.

Will Power will start second. Rahal third... Wilson (4), Tagliani(5) and Conway (6).

Should be a really interesting race! Can AGR come from the back to the front? What kind of strategy will they use? Penske starting back in row 5 and 6, can they make a move on the Target drivers in the championship? Or is this where Dixon and Dario make the statement that its a two man championship race? Tagliani, Power, Conway, Doornbos, Matos... will be up front early.. how will they handle the spotlight? Should also be fun to follow Paul Tracy around in the Canada car.

My picks: Justin Wilson makes it back to back for Dale Coyne... Dario and Graham battle for second all day, with Franchitti taking second... Will Power finishes fourth... Biggest mover tomorrow? Look for Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick both to slip into the top 10.