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That drew a huge cheer from the crowd of about 40,000 at the sprawling speedway, the biggest spectator turnout for pole day in more than a decade.
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Patrick set off a national "DanicaMania" in 2005 when she qualified fourth, the best starting position for a woman at Indy.
But Wheldon spoiled her storybook moment Saturday when he came out about 20 minutes later and pushed Patrick to the middle of the tentative front row.
Patrick, who was doing an interview in the media center during Wheldon's run, just shook her head and smiled ruefully when Wheldon's speed was announced. She got back onto the track later for some practice, but never made another qualifying run and wound up fifth.
Other Saturday qualifiers included Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan at 224.794, teammate Marco Andretti at 224.417, Vitor Meira of Panther Racing at 224.346, rookie Hideki Mutoh of Andretti Green at 223.887, Ed Carpenter of Vision Racing at 223.835 and Tomas Scheckter of Luczo Dragon Racing at 223.496.
Andretti, Mutoh, who had an earlier speed nullified after his car failed inspection, and Scheckter also made into the field on their second try of the day.
Coming up just short was 19-year-old rookie Graham Rahal, son of 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal, who was the fastest of the drivers transitioning from the defunct Champ Car World Series into the recently unified IRL IndyCar Series. His first run of 223.355 was bumped out and he cut short a second effort after three laps averaging just over 223.2 late in the session.
Others who had completed qualifying runs bumped out of the lineup included rookies Will Power, Oriol Servia and Mario Moraes -- all transition drivers -- as well as veterans
A.J. Foyt IV and Bruno Junqueira, another transition driver, both spun without hitting anything. Foyt was on a warmup lap, but Junqueira had just begun a qualifying attempt. Neither made a second attempt.
Eleven more spots will be decided Sunday, with the final 11 positions to be determined in qualifying next Saturday. After that comes "Bump Day" next Sunday, the last chance for drivers to knock the slowest qualifiers out of the field.
With the entry list beefed up by the open-wheel unification, 32 cars took part in practice Saturday.
