INDIANAPOLIS - Tony Kanaan watched anxiously as Danica Patrick's car wobbled in the first turn of her qualifying attempt at Indianapolis.

He was relieved when she didn't take another shot at improving her speed.

Kanaan earned the top spot in the tentative 33-car field with a four-lap qualifying average of 227.566 mph, then waited more than five hours before finally celebrating his victory.

Patrick was expected to be Kanaan's strongest challenger, but the wiggle slowed her down on the 21/2-mile oval, dropping her to fourth - right behind Kanaan for the May 29 race. She still averaged 227.004 on Sunday, earning the best starting position by a woman in Indy history.

"I said, `Oh, they should give her another try,'" Kanaan said jokingly. "She is a very strong, a very good race-car driver. She was a strong contender for the pole. ... I thought she did a really good job of catching it. Once it goes that way, man, I mean you just pray because you don't know what's going to happen.

"But I was relieved."

Kanaan's angst typified what may have been the longest day of his racing career.

The Brazilian was the third qualifier on the track Sunday, with four straight laps that topped 227.2 mph. It was more than 5 mph faster than Buddy Rice's pole-winning run last year.

But for the next 5 hours and 44 minutes, all Kanaan did was fidget.

He put his head in his hands inside the Andretti Green Racing garage. He tried convincing his bosses he needed to practice in case Patrick, or someone else, bumped him from the No. 1 starting spot. He cheered his teammates - Dario Franchitti, IRL points leader Dan Wheldon and Bryan Herta - as they tried to qualify. He watched the clock, impatiently counting down the minutes. And, finally, he wound up back in the cockpit before team co-owner Kim Green ordered him out in the closing minutes.

"He's the boss, so I said, 'OK, I'll get up,' " Kanaan said. "It was a big relief, for sure."

While Kanaan worried, Patrick, a 23-year-old rookie, was frustrated.

She recovered from the mistake on her first lap, which resulted in a speed of 224.920, by posting three of the fastest laps in qualifying. It was enough to improve on the best previous start by a woman - Lyn St. James started sixth in 1994.

But after missing a chance to become the first woman to win the prestigious pole at Indianapolis, she climbed out of her car and immediately started talking about a second attempt.

Former Indy champion Bobby Rahal, the team's co-owner, decided later not to make another run.

Patrick, the only woman entered this year, became the fourth woman to qualify for the race and will start in row two of what will be 11 three-car rows. It was little solace after she went 229.880 in the morning practice.

"I feel like I wasted a pole car," Patrick lamented. "But, maybe I saved it, too."

Patrick wasn't the only driver Kanaan monitored.

With Indy using a new qualifying format, giving each car three attempts on each day of qualifying, some drivers took advantage of the new rules.

Kanaan's own AGR teammate, Franchitti, waved off his first attempt, then withdrew his second attempt after qualifying seventh. When Franchitti returned to the track in the final hour, Green thought Franchitti might win the pole.

As a backup plan, Kanaan sat in the cockpit with his helmet strapped on ready to make one more attempt. Kanaan has finished second and third in the race the last two years.

"I think Dario was just a tweak away from knocking Tony off," Green said. "He was just a small adjustment away from doing that."

When Franchitti qualified sixth at 226.873, only one contender remained - two-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves who knocked Kanaan off the pole in 2003.

Castroneves lost that gamble, dropping from fourth to fifth with a speed of 226.927.

"There's not very many drivers you have the confidence in to bring it home," Team Penske president Tim Cindric said. "But if you have a chance to go for the pole with someone like Helio, you go for it."

For Kanaan, it was a nerve-racking final hour after Sam Hornish Jr., a former two-time series champion, requalified. Hornish, who also drives for Penske, improved his starting position from 11th to second with an average of 227.273.

Scott Sharp, a former pole winner and another early qualifier, wound up third at 227.176.

Wheldon and Herta also qualified Sunday, and the only accident occurred when rookie Ryan Briscoe crashed on the second lap of a qualifying attempt, nearly overturning his car. He wasn't injured and will have another chance to make the race in time trials next Saturday and Sunday.

The new qualifying rules mandated that 11 cars would qualify each of the first three days of time trials, with the fourth day reserved for bumping the slowest cars from the field. Saturday's opening round of qualifying was rained out, so 22 drivers qualified Sunday.

Alex Barron, Jaques Lazier and Patrick Carpentier were all bumped out, but Barron later got back in as the slowest qualifier of the day at 221.053.