SONOMA, Calif. — Dario Franchitti made an impressive comeback on his final qualifying lap to capture the pole for the Sonoma Grand Prix.

Franchitti turned in a lap of 76.7987 seconds on the tough 12-turn, 2.303-mile road course Saturday at Infineon Raceway, narrowly beating out Ryan Briscoe for his fourth pole of the season. It was an unlikely finish considering Franchitti left the pits late and then missed a turn near the end of the final session, winding up with all four tires in the dirt.

Franchitti, the 36-year-old Scot racing for Target Chip Ganassi Racing, was able to get the dirt off his tires over the next half-lap, saving him from needing a stop in the pits for new tires.

Defending champion Helio Castroneves, the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner of Team Penske, will start in the second row along with Marco Andretti followed by Hideki Mutoh and Graham Rahal in the third row.

Castroneves took the pole in the 2008 race and went on to win.

Franchitti is looking for his first victory at Sonoma after a couple of near misses — placing second in 2006 and third in '07 after staring on the pole that year. Franchitti is coming off a third-place finish at Mid-Ohio, his sixth top-three this season.

IRL points leader Scott Dixon, the '07 Sonoma champion and Franchitti's teammate with Target Chip Ganassi Racing, qualified 10th and Danica Patrick was 11th.

Dixon leads the points race with 460, three up on Briscoe and 19 ahead of Franchitti, who picked up a valuable point for taking the pole.