Scott Dixon qualifies fourth for Indy300

IndyCar Series points leader Will Power has qualified second for the Indy300 at Kentucky Speedway, hoping to put some distance between himself and defending champion Dario Franchitti.

Veteran racer Ed Carpenter captured the first pole of his career.

New Zealand driver Scott Dixon qualified fourth for the race.

Power's seemingly comfortable series points lead took a major hit at the previous race in Chicago when he didn't receive enough fuel during a late pit stop, forcing him to head back in with a few laps remaining. The miscue dropped Power to 16th and when Franchitti took the chequered flag, the Australian's advantage had been trimmed to just 23 points with three races remaining.

After admittedly stewing about it on the short drive back to Indianapolis, Power says he was over it by the time he went to bed.

A week later, he'll start from the front row for the 11th time this season on Saturday.

"We're got to have a good finish," Power said. "We can't afford another bad one."

Not the way Franchitti is driving. Power has joked he hears the theme music from "Jaws" every time he sees Franchitti in his rear view mirror. The two-time Indy 500 winner is suddenly larger than ever.

"I'm chasing him as hard as I can," said Franchitti, who will start 11th.

Franchitti chastised Power, a road racing ace who is still searching for his first win on an oval for erratic driving in Chicago.

"He was being pretty crazy on Saturday night," Franchitti said.

"He was doing some stuff that was really beyond what you would normally consider almost safe at some points. He had three or four accidents; he just didn't hit anything."

Power politely disagreed, arguing he had to race as aggressively as possible just to keep up.

"I just raced like all the other maniacs were racing out there," Power said.

"When you go to a track that creates a pack race that requires everyone to race 100 per cent throttle all the time, you have to do crazy things to get to the front."

- AAP