Morning Warm-Up: Edmonton 2012

Ryan Hunter-Reay took his first pole in over eight years but will start eleventh after an engine change. The winner of the previous three pole positions, Dario Franchitti will move from second to pole for tomorrow's race. Ryan Briscoe will start second and Takuma Sato third. Alex Tagliani was the highest qualifying Canadian and will start fourth. Will Power and Scott Dixon will also serve ten grid spot penalties for engine changes and will start seventeenth and eighteenth respectively. Oriol Servia and Simona de Silvestro will also serve ten grid spot penalties and will make up the final two positions on the grid.

Other notables on the grid are Rubens Barrichello starting from the seventh position, Graham Rahal will be eighth and the other Canadian, James Hinchcliffe will roll off from ninth on the grid. Sebastien Bourdais did not make it out of round one of qualifying and starts twelfth. Tony Kanaan did not have a good qualifying session and will start from the twenty-first position.

Some Edmonton facts, the farthest back a winner come from was tenth by Sebastien Bourdais at the first Edmonton race in 2005. Only once has the winner come from pole, that was Will Power in 2009. Three times the pole-sitter has failed to finish in the top ten at Edmonton. This is the first race on July 22nd since 2007, when Sebastien Bourdais won his second Edmonton event and on that same day, Scott Dixon won the IRL race from Mid-Ohio. Tomorrow will also be Scott Dixon's 32nd Birthday.

On a personal note, I will be traveling to Pittsburgh, Pa tomorrow and may miss the Edmonton race. First impressions may be delayed a little bit in case you are wondering. I am hoping to land and be able to catch the race from my hotel room either on TV or listening to the race from my 1070 The Fan app. If I do not catch it, I hope everyone gets to see an exciting race. Coverage begins at 2pm ET on NBC Sports Net with green flag around 2:45pm ET. IndyCar 36 and the Indy Lights race can be seen prior starting at noon ET.