And then there were 25… As we now know that Graham Rahal’s entry has been scrubbed from the season opening Indy Car race after young Messer Rahal earned his Darlington stripe during pre-season testing earlier this week. Yet, surprisingly there were two back to back crashes as first rookie Jay Howard lost control of the second Roth Racing entry, immediately followed by Dan Wheldon pirouetting into the wall! Wheldon will start from the rear of the grid in a back-up machine most likely, while Howard was awaiting further clearance after being released from the trackside medical facility sporting a pair of crutches. Surprisingly Tony George’s Vision Racing entries will roll off in P2-P3, as Edward Carpenter flirted thru the first three laps with winning his very first pole before fault erring to second on the final lap, giving TCGR’s Scott Dixon his ninth career pole. As for the rest of the gang here’s a quick look at some of the others participating, as that much beloved Kuh-Nuck Marty “Turtle” Roth has scored his career best starting position… Indeed continuing to lead the Champ Car refugees, as interestingly seven of the nine drivers making the switch have been deemed rookies this season by Brian Barnhart with only Bruno Junqueira and Oriel Servia being granted Veteran status. So, will Scott Dixon win for the Cheepster? Or will Danny Boy blitz the field from the rear of the grid… And don’t forget the Team Penske duo along with the Andretti Green crew. Oh crap, even the Princess has an outside chance tomorrow night…
GAINSCO Indy 300 qualifying results
Pos) Driver, Team, Speed (4-lap avg.)
1) Scott Dixon, Target Ganassi, 213.341
2) Ed Carpenter, Vision, 213.311
3) A.J. Foyt IV, Vision, 212.211
4) Danica Patrick, Andretti Green, 212.129
5) Ryan Briscoe, Penske, 212.108
6) Marco Andretti, Andretti Green, 211.838
7) Helio Castroneves, Penske, 211.581
8) Tony Kanaan, Andretti Green, 211.580
9) Hideki Mutoh, Andretti Green, 210.508
10) Marty Roth, Roth, 211.458
11) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Rahal Letterman, 210.744
12) Vitor Meira, Panther, 210.315
13) Buddy Rice, Dreyer & Reinbold, 209.486
14) Darren Manning, Foyt, 210.315
15) Franck Perera, Conquest, 209.230
16) Oriol Servia, KV, 209.021
17) Justin Wilson, Newman/Haas/Lanigan, 208.757
18) Milka Duno, Dreyer & Reinbold, 208.308
19) Enrique Bernoldi, Conquest 208.130
20) Ernesto Viso, HVM, 208.101
21) Will Power, KV, 208.029
22) Bruno Junqueira, Coyne, 207.434
23) Mario Moraes, Coyne. 207.067
24) Dan Wheldon, Target Ganassi, No time, No speed
25) Jay Howard, Roth, No time, No speed
