Long Beach, CA (My Sportsbook) - On the same day Team Penske transferred him from the No.3 car to the team's new No.12 entry, Will Power captured the pole for the 35th annual Grand Prix of Long Beach, but the first time the IndyCar Series will run on the Southern California street course.

Power, who won this race one year ago in the final event for Champ Car, turned in the best lap during the "Fast Six" final session at one minute, 9.7107 seconds (101.631 m.p.h.) to record his first career pole in the series.

"There's a lot of factors that are going to play into this race this weekend, a lot of uncertainty," Power said. "I just kept my head down, because I want a long career in this series. I just did my absolute best."

Power had been filling in for Helio Castroneves in the No.3 car during his tax evasion trial in Miami, but the two-time Indianapolis 500 champion and "Dancing With The Stars" winner was acquitted Friday. Power prepped the car for Castroneves in practice before he arrived last night in Long Beach. The Aussie was then moved over to a new team Penske car, which he will also drive in the next month's Indianapolis 500.

Dario Franchitti will start on the outside pole after posting the second quickest time at 1:09.8675 (101.403 m.p.h.).

"I'm happy to be back at Long Beach," Franchitti said. "We had a really good lap going, and I ran out of fuel in turn nine. Starting second is not bad. It's better than fifth at St. Pete."

Rookie Raphael Matos was third, followed by EJ Viso and Justin Wilson.

Scott Dixon, the defending series champion, qualified sixth.

Power was the only one of the three Penske drivers that made it into the "Fast Six," as Castroneves qualified eighth and Ryan Briscoe was 10th.

During the second round of qualifying, Castroneves lost control of his car heading into turn one, with his rear end slamming into the wall.

"I locked the rear a little bit, and then I was along for the ride there," Castroneves said. "Hopefully I wasn't going to hit that hard...it felt like an oval (track) hit."

Castroneves' damaged car had to be towed back to the garage area, where his crew attempted to make repairs. Castroneves, who had not been in a race car since last October, practiced for 60 minutes earlier in the day with a seventh-place result.

Briscoe, who won the season-opener two weeks ago at St. Petersburg, FL, also crashed in the second round.

Sunday's race is scheduled to start around 4:30 p.m. (et).