Champ Car: Power, Tracy Front Row for Las Vegas Grand Prix

You can see the Las Vegas Grand Prix on NBC at 3:30 PM ET.

Paul Tracy will start second in Sunday's Las Vegas Grand Prix.

LAS VEGAS - Team Australia's Will Power has taken pole for Sunday's opening race of the Champ Car World Series in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada.

Born and bred in Toowoomba Queensland, Power beat his nearest rival Saturday by an amazing 0.886 of a second and will start from pole alongside series veteran Paul Tracy, who claimed his front row spot after being quickest in yesterday's opening qualifying.

The effort came after a mishap in qualifying yesterday which cost Power valuable track time and saw him finish the day seventh.

Today's result supports Power's maiden pole at his home race at the Lexmark Indy 300 on the streets of Queensland's Gold Coast last October.

Power then went on to claim his first podium in the final race of the year in Mexico and clinch the "Rookie of the Year" title as a result.

Power has been impressive in pre-season testing for the Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards team which is co-owned by Australian businessman Craig Gore and Indianapolis-based racing legend Derrick Walker.

Power's second career pole was just the beginning of the youth movement as rookies Robert Doornbos and fellow Team Australia driver Simon Pagenaud scored top-five starting spots while established stars struggled to find results on a warm Saturday afternoon in Vegas.

Power's track-record time of 1:17.629 around the 2.44-mile (3.93km) Vegas street course was nearly a full second ahead of second-placed Doornbos, who will start third in his first-ever Champ Car event.

Power and Doornbos were joined in the top three by Tracy who earned a front-row grid position by virtue of leading Friday's qualifying.

The guaranteed starting spot ended up being a blessing to Tracy, who ran only the ninth-quickest time in Saturday's final round.

Power needed just four laps to eclipse Tracy's Friday-leading time, but nearly saw it count for nothing as a mechanical problem caused him to roll to a stop on the course with 10 minutes left on the session clock.

Luckily, Power's stoppage came after action had already been halted, with Sebastien Bourdais crashing and bring out a red flag.

Bourdais had been running second in the order and had posted a time that would have put him sixth on the final grid, but right-side contact not only left him unable to continue, it cost him his best time of the day and left him 16th on tomorrow's race grid - the worst starting spot in his 60-race Champ Car career.

To seal the deal, Power came out after being towed back to the pits and ran his best lap of the day, setting the new track record.

Las Vegas Grand Prix Starting Lineup:

1. Will Power Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/Panoz
2. Paul Tracy Indeck Cosworth/Panoz
3. Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA Cosworth/Panoz
4. Alex Tagliani LNX2 Cosworth/Panoz
5. Simon Pagenaud Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/Panoz
6. Bruno Junqueira Sonny's Bar-B-Q Cosworth/Panoz
7. Mario Dominguez Telmex Cosworth/Panoz
8. Justin Wilson CDW Cosworth/Panoz
9. Neel Jani Red Bull Cosworth/Panoz
10. Graham Rahal Medi | Zone Cosworth/Panoz
11. Tristan Gommendy Pay By Touch Cosworth/Panoz
12. Dan Clarke Ticketmaster Cosworth/Panoz
13. Katherine Legge Dale Coyne Cosworth/Panoz
14. Matt Halliday 42 BELOW Cosworth/Panoz
15. Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Cosworth/Panoz
16. Sebastien Bourdais McDonald's Cosworth/Panoz
17. Alex Figge Imperial Capital Bank Cosworth/Panoz

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