Ed Carpenter must be wondering what his 2010 season would have been like should he had a full run on the ovals – positive runs at this years Indianapolis 500 an last weekend’s Chicagoland 300 km had left the part-time driver confident, but his first ever IndyCar pole position for tonight’s IndyCar race at Kentucky Speedway was probably not on the cards.  Qualifying was dictated to a degree by high winds, but it was Carpenter who had the best set up to deal with the gusty conditions.

It’s all rather timely too as several sets are still to be decided for next year – including that of his temporary team mate, Dan Wheldon. It’s unlikely that Wheldon is too disappointed with his Kentucky run, as the Manchester-born man will be starting on the inside of row 2 just behind Carpenter.

In between the two Panther Dallara’s is championship leader, Will Power as he aims to reinstate the points gap to challenger Dario Franchitti following a late race problem with fuel last weekend. Franchitti will not be buoyed on by his qualifying performance – the Scot starts in 11th place. Franchitti’s Ganassi team mate, Scott Dixon will start on the outside of row 2, ahead of the Newman-Haas of Hideki Mutoh and Belgian rookie Bertrand Baguette.

Mario Moraes (KV Racing) heads up an all-Brazilian fourth row alongside Helio Castroneves, followed by Ryan Briscoe (9th) and part-timer Tomas Scheckter (10th). AJ Foyt Enterprises’ sole entry, Vitor Meira ran a solid qualifying run, picking up the outside of row 6 (alongside Franchitti), while the single FAZZT Racing car driven by co-owner Alex Tagliani will start from 13th.

The second KV runner, Takuma Sato goes from the outside of row 7, well ahead of his other team mate EJ Viso – the Venezuelan has had a poor season so far and it may continue as starting from 22nd spot. Marco Andretti will lead the four the Andretti-Autosport entries from 15th spot in what was an abysmal session for the team – Danica Patrick will line up from 17th and Tony Kanaan from 26th spot following a difficult run. Ryan Hunter-Reay had a crash in turn 2, meaning he did not post a time – he will start 27th and last.

Justin Wilson (16th) is sandwiched by the two leading Andretti-Autosport cars and will be tailed by fellow Briton, Alex Lloyd (18th). Simona de Silvestro and Raphael Matos make up row 10, followed by the Fisher Racing entry driven by Sarah Fisher (21st). Paul Tracy returns for both this race and the next one in Motegi, but has left himself with much to do with his 23rd starting position. Tracy will be alongside Dale Coyne’s Milka Duno (24th), while Graham Rahal moves back to Sarah Fisher Racing and will start from 25th spot.

In last year's race at Kentucky, Ryan Briscoe just nudged ahead of Carpenter at the line to claim the win in what one of the best races of 2009 - this year Carpenter will be looking to go one better.  There are some small celebrations around this race as it is the 200th "Indy Racing League" event to be run since the series started racing in January 1996, but in these days of trying to build a reunited IndyCar series, it all seems a little bit pointless.

Coverage for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Kentucky 300 begins on indycar.com from 1am Sunday morning and from 1.30am on Sky Sports 3.

Short Highlights of the 2009 Kentucky Indy 300

Indy Lights

Pippa Mann secured her second pole position of the season for the Firestone Indy Lights Series at Kentucky Motor Speedway. The 29-year-old pipped (unavoidable, sorry) fellow Briton Martin Plowman by 0.165 mph as she registered an average speed over two laps of 190.474 mph around the 1.48-mile oval.

Plowman’s AFS / Andretti-Autosport team mate, Charlie Kimball, notched up the inside of row number two with Championship leader JK Vernay alongside. Vernay’s Championship challenger, James Hinchcliffe starts directly behind on the outside of row 3, while Lights rookie ‘Speedy’ Dan Clarke is place between the pair.

Adrian Campos Jr, Brandon Wagner, Arie Luyendyk Jr and Stefan Wilson line up from 7th – 10th respectively, with Rodrigo Barbosa taking up 11th position. Sebastian Saavedra, Philip Major and Gustavo Yacaman did not set times and will claim the final three spots as a result.

Since her return from injury a few weeks ago, Mann has delivered her finest performances since she started in Indy Lights – if she can convert this pole into a victory, it would indeed be well deserved and a popular one.

Vernay can claim the title in tonight’s race – he leads Hinchcliffe in the title hunt by a comfortable 53 points with 105 still available. However a bad day for the Frenchman could potentially bring Hinchcliffe right back into it, bringing the title down to the wire at Homestead in four weeks.

By the end of Saturday evening, we will know for certain.

Coverage for the 2010 Firestone Indy Lights Kentucky 100 will begin at 10.15pm (BST) from indycar.com.