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INDIANAPOLIS - Buddy Rice wasn't the driver everyone expected to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500.
Perhaps the only one not surprised to find Rice at the top of the tentative grid for May 30 race after Saturday's first day of time trials was Rice himself.
"That's obviously what I was brought here to do when I came to sub for Kenny Brack," said Rice, 28, who replaced injured former Indy 500 winner and IRL champion this season.
Despite winning his first IRL pole in the opener at Homestead, Rice wasn't among the favorites going into the first of three days of qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
But the man filling in at Rahal Letterman Racing topped 21 other qualifiers with a four-lap, 10-mile average of 222.024 mph.
"I'm not sure we knew we were going to run 222, but we knew we had enough to go for the pole, for sure," Rice said. "People say we were under the radar all month."
Tony Kanaan, fastest during six days of practice, said he was surprised by Rice.
"Yeah, everybody was," said Kanaan, who wound up fifth at 221.200, trailing Andretti Green Racing teammates Dan Wheldon (221.524) and Dario Franchitti (221.471) plus Newman/Haas Racing's Bruno Junqueira (221.379).
Helio Castroneves, last year's pole-sitter and a two-time Indy winner, was eighth at 220.882. His Toyota-powered Dallara was the only car without a Honda engine to break into the top nine.
The day began without enough car-driver combinations in line to fill the traditional 33-car field.
Then morning rain delayed the start of qualifying for more than three hours and unseasonably cold temperatures made the 21/2-mile asphalt oval slower and more treacherous than usual.
Running on cold tires and on the cold track, Bryan Herta, Felipe Giaffone and Alex Barron all crashed moments after taking the green flag for the start of a qualifying run.
Herta came away from his collision with the energy-absorbing SAFER barrier at close to 220 mph with some abrasions, Barron bruised his right knee and Giaffone was not injured.
All three are expected to try again today, along with Tora Takagi and rookie Marty Roth.
In the wake of a fatal crash by Tony Renna in testing at Indianapolis last fall, the IRL decided to slow the cars with new, less powerful engines and a new aerodynamic package.
It appears the changes worked, with Rice's pole speed nearly 10 mph slower than Castroneves' 231.725 of last year. The slowest speed in last year's 33-car field was 223.609 by Airton Dare.
Robby Gordon qualified early, then flew to Richmond, Va., to race in Saturday night's NASCAR Nextel Cup event. Gordon, who wound up 18th, plans to drive in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day for the third consecutive year.
The frantic schedule affected Gordon's qualifying run. He put himself in the field at 216.522 mph, a slower four-lap average than he expected.
"If we didn't have to leave, we would have waved it off, for sure," Gordon said. "We couldn't do that because of the circumstances."
BUSCH SERIES: Kyle Busch started first and stayed there almost all the way, leading 236 laps and earning his first career victory in the Funai 250 at Richmond.
On a night when many eyes were on how the new asphalt surface held up and whether a second racing lane developed, Busch showed the front was the place to be. He repeatedly pulled away on long runs and restarts, including two after a 13-minute red-flag stoppage with 12 laps left.
On the last one, with three laps left, Busch never led by more than a car length on Greg Biffle, but hung on to win by 0.150 seconds.
NHRA: David Grubnic earned the top spot in Top Fuel qualifying at the Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., as his time of 4.469 seconds at 324.44 mph in the quarter-mile stood. Tony Pedregon (Funny Car) also held on to the top spot as nobody could surpass his track record in elapsed time (4.765 seconds) or speed (329.83 mph). Larry Morgan in Pro Stock (6.796 and 203.80, both track marks) and Angelle Savoie (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also topped qualifying for today's eliminations.
CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS: Jack Sprague will sit on the pole for today's Ohio 250 in Mansfield after qualifying was rained out. Positions 1-30 were based on 2003 owner points. The rest of the 36-truck field were based on past champions and 2004 owner points.