Australian Ryan Briscoe won pole for Sunday’s IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach, but won’t start anywhere near the front of Sunday’s race.

Reigning champion Dario Franchitti of Scotland will start from the front after engine-change violation penalties were imposed upon rivals on Saturday.

Briscoe was actually the fastest qualifier for the 38th edition of the event by turning a lap in a course record 1:08.6089 over the 3.17 km, 11-turn street circuit layout.

Countryman and Roger Penske Racing teammate Will Power was second, .0984 of a second back, with American Ryan Hunter-Reay third and Franchitti fourth.

But race officials imposed a penalty of 10 spots on the grid for 11 cars using Chevrolet engines that followed the manufacturer’s advice and switched engines on Friday before the power plants had reached minimum usage levels.

“It bites,” Briscoe said. “The important thing is we know we have a fast car and we’re making the best of the situation.”

Officials also imposed the engine switch penalty on the Lotus-powered cars of England’s Katherine Legge, Spain’s Oriol Servia and France’s Sebastien Bourdais, a three-time Long Beach winner.

As a result, Honda-powered Franchitti will be joined in the front row by US rookie Josef Newgarden with England’s Justin Wilson and France’s Simon Pagenaud in row two and New Zealand’s Scott Dixon and Japan’s Takuma Sato in row three.

This is the first year since 2005 that IndyCar has featured competition among enginemakers.

Brazil’s Helio Castroneves leads the season points race with 86 to 84 for Dixon and 77 for Power.