Indianapolis ? Buddy Rice wasn’t the driver everyone expected to win the pole for the Indianapolis 500.

Perhaps the only one not surprised to find Rice at the top of the tentative grid for May 30 race after Saturday’s opening round of time trials was the youngster himself.

“That’s obviously what I was brought here to do when I came to sub for Kenny Brack,” said Rice, who replaced the injured former Indy 500 winner and IRL champion this season.

Despite winning his first IRL pole in the season-opener at Homestead, Rice wasn’t even among the favorites going into the first of three days of qualifying at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

At the end of the day, though, it was the man filling in at Rahal Letterman Racing who topped 21 other qualifiers with a four-lap, 10-mile average of 222.024 mph.

“I’m not sure we knew we were going to run 222, but we knew we had enough to go for the pole, for sure,” the 28-year-old Rice said. “People say we were under the radar all month.

“I just think that we don’t cheat ourselves. We make sure we know where we’re running and where we need to be.”

Tony Kanaan, the fastest driver during the six days of practice leading to the first of three days of qualifying, said he was surprised by Rice.

“Yeah, everybody was,” said Kanaan, who wound up a disappointing fifth at 221.200, trailing Andretti Green Racing teammates Dan Wheldon (221.524) and Dario Franchitti (221.471), as well as Newman/Haas Racing’s Bruno Junqueira (221.379).

Helio Castroneves, last year’s pole-sitter and a two-time Indy winner, was a disappointing eighth at 220.882. His Toyota-powered Dallara was the only car without a Honda engine to break into the top nine.

“We had a range where we were going from being brave to being stupid,” Castroneves said. “Unfortunately, this place is amazing. That’s why it’s so difficult because it’s constantly changing.”

Saturday was not vintage Indy, though. The day began without enough car-driver combinations in line to fill the traditional 33-car field. To make matters worse, morning rain delayed the start of qualifying for more than three hours, and unseasonably cold temperatures held down the crowd and made the 21/2-mile asphalt oval slower and more treacherous than usual.