He made a push, but in the end James Hinchcliffe had to settle for a 6th place showing in qualifying for Sunday's Honda Indy of Toronto.
Hinchcliffe nicknamed the "Mayor of Hinchtown" will start on the 3rd row,
despite matching his best Toronto qualifying effort of sixth with a lap time of 1 minute, 0.14145 seconds.
After a strong start to the second round, Hinchcliffe fell back but was able to recover on a final shootout lap.
`The last shootout in Q2 is always exciting,'' said Hinchcliffe, who's coming off a career best third-place finish here last year. ``You're just trying to save your life and give it everything you've got.
`We turned this into a podium last year so fingers crossed we've got a strong race car and things go our way in the race.''
It's been a big turnaround for Hinchcliffe in his hometown race after struggling prior to last year. He won at the Grand Prix of Long Beach in April and finished third in the first of two races at the Detroit Grand Prix in June.
Hinchcliffe credits his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team's consistency for the shift in success.
"Coming off the best start and best finish last year we wanted to build on that,'' he said. ``We didn't necessarily roll off the truck that way but we've got ourselves in a position to be at the sharp end.
`It's just hard work. A lot of times we've been quick here, just had the worst luck ever.''
Frenchman Simon Pagenaud, the reigning Verizon IndyCar Series champion, set a track record
with a lap of of 58.9124 seconds, en route to the pole position for Team Penske.
Graham Rahal qualified second for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.
Pagenaud Team Penske teamates Helio Castroneves and Will Power finished 3rd and 4th respectively.
A final 30-minute warmup practice is scheduled Sunday at 11:30 a.m. while the race is set for 3:40.
Hinchcliffe will look to become the first Canadian since Toronto's Paul Tracy took the checkers
at the Indy back in 1993.
with files from Canadian Press