Power-Pagenaud fued overshawdows Franchitti's qualifying victory

TORONTO -- Dario Franchitti earned his 29th career IndyCar pole Saturday at Exhibition Place, but the story was Will Power and other drivers.

Power overcame contact with Simon Pagenaud in the morning practice and Takuma Sato in qualifying to earn the No. 2 starting spot. Sato was docked his two fastest laps for slowing down Power.

Pagenaud tried to apologize to Power for causing the contact, but Power, the series point leader, shrugged him off.

"That's B.S., ask Dario," Power said of Pagenaud's explanation of the Turn 8 incident. "He knew exactly what he was doing; he was paying me back for yesterday."

On Friday, Power said he had to slow for the car in front of him only to get in Pagenaud's way. Pagenaud was not happy, and now they have tension between them.

"But we can't have that," Power said Saturday. "This sport is too dangerous to be running into each other."

Justin Wilson earned the No. 3 spot a day after running into five Dragon Racing crew members. All of those struck returned to the track Saturday, although the most seriously injured, car starter Chuck Homan, was on crutches due to a small fracture in his right foot.

Sebastien Bourdais qualified fourth, a strong effort for the small Dragon team. That also means he'll start alongside Wilson in Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto.

Scott Dixon and Montreal's Alex Tagliani rounded out the Firestone Fast Six.

Franchitti's qualifying time was 59.2510 seconds. He won last year's race from the pole.

Toronto-area native James Hinchcliffe, whose popularity has soared since replacing Danica Patrick in the GoDaddy car, qualified ninth, but he must start 19th due to his team changing an engine. The penalty for that is 10 starting positions.