Hornish has secured a record 13th pole for Team Penske

Hornish's team-mate Helio Castroneves is second, with defending champion Dan Wheldon completing the grid front row.

Scott Dixon was fourth with Brazilian duo Tony Kanaan and Vitor Meira fifth and sixth respectively.

"Credit to Penske and Sam, they've been very powerful and deserve to be where they are," said Britain's Wheldon.

Each car is allowed up to three qualifying attempts and Wheldon was poised to make a late bid for pole in the later session.

But the Ganassi Racing driver decided it was not worth the risk of withdrawing his qualifying speed of 227.338mph, enough to give him a solid start to next week's 500-mile race.

Wheldon added: "I would like to have made a run, but I don't know if I had anything.

"Sam has been pretty dominant the whole month."

The Briton drove to victory last year after passing Danica Patrick with just seven laps remaining.

Patrick, the only woman in the field, struggled to match last season's form and posted an average time of four laps of 224.674 mph to qualify for the fourth row.

Scotsman Dario Franchitti will start 17th after running 223.345mph.

Rookie Marco Andretti, the grandson of 1969 winner Mario Andretti, did well to start from the fourth row.