G Force shares front row in closest IRL grid ever.

The strong performances of the Panoz G Force chassis continued on Saturday at the Kentucky Speedway as three of the five drivers using the Anglo-American built chassis qualified inside the top ten in the closest starting grid in series history.

Only .5367 of a second separated the entire 20-car field around Kentucky's 1.5-mile tri-oval with Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon again leading the way for Panoz G Force in 2nd place ahead of Sunday's Belterra Casino Indy 300.

The Kiwi was fastest in both practice sessions but was just beaten to pole by defending IRL champ Sam Hornish who used the new Cosworth-built Chevrolet engine to good effect.

However, Panoz G Force had both the fastest Toyota (Dixon) and Honda (Greg Ray) powered drivers in qualifying as the outnumbered chassis once again proved to be very potent, if a little tricky to set-up.

Ray bounced back after waiving off his first qualifying attempt due to a deflating tyre. He returned at the end of qualifying to attempt the single lap run and finished fifth fastest.

"Scott did a great job again, but Greg's performance to come back like that was very impressive," Panoz G Force Director of Sales, John Biddlecombe said. "The GF09 is always very strong on larger ovals like this and I think we will certainly be challenging for the win tomorrow.

"Unfortunately Alex Barron and the Mo Nunn squad missed a little on gearing and are a bit further down that what they expected but this is a very close field - I am sure they will be contenders tomorrow."

Tomas Scheckter qualified seventh for the second week in a row while Michigan winner, Barron, was 17th in the lone Mo Nunn Racing G Force. A.J. Foyt IV completed the Panoz G Force roster in 19th.

Ray's fifth place on the grid equals his best start of the season from Richmond earlier this year.

"On the first qualifying attempt, we had a valve-stem failure and had a tyre start to go down," Ray said.

"We normally expect the air pressure to come up about 45 pounds, and when I came in, it was at 32 pounds. A huge problem. I was pretty lucky. I thank the big Lord upstairs because it was close to a crash.

"We came back in, threw a set of tyres on it, put fuel back in it, and we were pleased. I think we would have been quicker on the second lap, but all in all, we were happy with that."

Dixon is hoping to bounce back into the winner's circle after falling out with gearbox failure at Gateway last week.

"Not quite enough, I guess. I don't know. The car was pretty good," said Dixon. "I was surprised, actually, at the speed we had for that first lap. I was thinking we were going to be more around (2)18.8 or (2)18.5 (mph).

"We seemed to find a little more in the car. Team Target did a great job all weekend. I don't know where that Cosworth (Chevy) came from. It was pretty fast. I think the track conditions were pretty similar.

"Of course, it may have been a little hotter this afternoon. The track may have had a little more grip, but most of the field stayed pretty close to their times, fairly close to what they did in the morning.

"We seem to have the speed this year, but St. Louis was going fairly well when, with 40 laps to go, the gearbox quit.

"You look at the races we didn't finish in, and we were leading. I think we will just keep doing the same thing we have been doing."