Brit Justin Wilson took pole position for the Bridgestone presents the Champ Car World Series powered by Ford season finale in Mexico, making the seconf pole of the season for the RuSPORT driver.
Wilson put in a time of 1min 26.602secs on Saturday's qualifying running and will join team-mate AJ Allmendinger on the front row.
"We've had an interesting day, up and down," said Wilson. "There have been times when we really struggled and there have been times when we just happened to get it right and be quick. Fortunately, we've gotten it right at the end of the session when it counts.
"On the second run, it came together. Every time going through the axis, I kept leaning on the car. It felt great. We were very pleased that we might turn it around and have a better weekend. I think tomorrow it will be a strong pace and a long race. We'll have to play it as smart as we can and try to make sure we have a good car tomorrow in warm-up and the same throughout the race."
Allmendinger found Saturday's running harder than the Friday. "It's been a struggle today," he said. "We seemed to have a great car, but you know we're right about on the edge of having a car that's magnificent. We just kind of battled back and forth today trying to get a good baseline set-up."