Briscoe off Target as Patrick pinches pole.

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Danica Patrick inherited her third career Indy Racing League IndyCar Series pole position on Saturday when her fellow rookie of the year contender Ryan Briscoe saw his pole winning time erased by officials at the Chicagoland Speedway.

Australian born rookie Briscoe, who also won the Marlboro Pole award in the most recent event on the calendar at the Infineon Raceway, looked all set to lead the IRL field to the green flag in Sunday's Peak Antifreeze Indy 300 until his car, and those of his Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Jaques Lazier failed post qualifying technical inspection and were relegated to the rear of the field…

Briscoe had lapped the 1.5-mile Chicagoland oval in a time of 25.2011-seconds on his qualifying run, one tenth quicker than Patrick who now moves into a tie with Tomas Scheckter and Bryan Herta for the most Marlboro pole awards so far this year.

Buddy Rice made it an all Rahal-Letterman Racing front row as he moved into second starting spot with Scheckter and Sam Hornish Jr occupying row two. Championship leader Dan Wheldon will start fifth with Herta and Buddy Lazier completing the top seven.

Dixon and Jaques Lazier had qualified ninth and tenth fastest respectively but will now join Briscoe and Vitor Meira, who changed an engine, at the rear of the field for Sunday's race. As a result of Dixon and Lazier moving to the back, Tomas Enge, Scott Sharp and Dario Franchitti all moved into the top ten.