Patrick proved to be best of the rest and will start fifth, sharing row three with KVRT's Mario Moraes. The Andretti Green Racing star had been one of the first cars on track, and held top spot for a while, but remains confident for Saturday's race under the TMS floodlights.

"The car felt really good as soon as I went out," Patrick reported, "We made a few small changes to the car for the qualifying run that were helpful, but we are trying to have as many options as we can. I wish we could've held on to the pole, but I think we are going to be really competitive tomorrow night."

Moraes paid tribute to KVRT's ongoing development on its oval set-up as he managed to keep Wheldon at bay. The Briton was frustrated not to have been able to repeat his Thursday night form as he starts Panther Racing's bid for a sixth Texas win from the inside of row four.

"We did the same time that we did on our own earlier in the day in practice, and we're still not quite where we need to be, but we're looking for areas where we can improve," Wheldon revealed, "You can see where the big teams were able to make a big jump from what they ran in practice and, over time, we'll figure those things out. The car is certainly good for the race, we've rolled off the truck here very competitive, and that's what we need to do. We still don't have our first win of the season and we're trying desperately for that, but this is going to be a very, very competitive race, and we're in pretty reasonable shape."

Marco Andretti, who ran strongly for AGR in 2008, will line up alongside Wheldon, with leading rookie Robert Doornbos and Ed Carpenter completing the top ten. The Dutchman was particularly pleased with his effort, which left him three places ahead of Newman/Haas/Lanigan team-mate Graham Rahal and six clear of closest rookie rival Raphael Matos.

"This is obviously a very special oval - it's an exciting place and I really love it," he commented, "On the banking, you feel like Spiderman. I have raced on three ovals now, and this is definitely up there.

"I think we had a good run. You always want more as a driver, and I pushed the pedal so far that I think I almost bent it, but I think we can be happy and I look forward to a fun race tomorrow. We just stayed on the white line, and I hit the pedal hard - I was flat, flat, flat. There was no more in the car, so we can be happy."

Rahal, having annexed two front row spots this year, was only twelfth fastest, and will start jut ahead of Conquest's Alex Tagliani and owner/driver Sarah Fisher, who returned to the series with 14th spot. Further back, AGR veteran Tony Kanaan was only 16th fastest, admitting little other than frustration at being slow.

Tomas Scheckter, AJ Foyt and Jaques Lazier - all either returning to the series or embarking on stints with new teams - were 18th, 22nd and 24th fastest respectively, while Ryan Hunter-Reay's recent travails continued as he proved able only to put the second Vision Racing entry on the back row alongside Lazier's Team 3G car.