Kanaan qualifies as Tracy misses out

Kanaan's pair of accidents this weekend and Sato's big crash yesterday had left both on the outside going into today's six-hour session to decide the final nine spots in the field.

As both made it in, Tracy eventually ended up on the bubble in 33rd, having also started today outside the cut as he had failed to muster sufficient speed on Pole Day.

Confident he could improve his pace, he withdrew his time with 10 minutes to go but effectively knocked himself out of the race as his new attempt was slower than his existing speed. When Sarah Fisher Racing's Jay Howard did likewise minutes later, rookie team and driver combination Sebastian Saavedra and Bryan Herta Autosport were elevated back into the field despite having crashed during a practice run an hour earlier.

The initial qualifying runs at the start of the afternoon saw Fazzt's Bruno Junqueira, Dale Coyne's Alex Lloyd, Andretti Autosport's John Andretti, owner/driver Sarah Fisher and Foyt driver Vitor Meira qualify comfortably, with Tracy (KV), Howard, Mario Romancini (Conquest) and Saavedra those left feeling vulnerable.

Milka Duno in the second Coyne car, Sato in the KV car repaired after his massive Saturday morning practice crash and Foyt Racing's late substitute Jaques Lazier - who replaced AJ Foyt IV just hours ago - were all too slow to make the top 33 on their first runs, while Kanaan was still sat in the Andretti garage as his crew worked frantically to get his #11T car back in shape.

As the crucial final hour approached, Saavedra's hopes of making the field seemed to be dashed when he crashed heavily at Turn 1 - leaving him unable to respond if any of the non-qualified drivers beat his speed.

Kanaan was first to try, and although his practice laps in the repaired car had been disappointing, his four-lap average of 224.072mph was good enough to get him into the field in 30th and knock Saavedra out.

That left Romancini on the bubble in 33rd. Keen to avoid a repeat of last year's heartbreak - when driver Alex Tagliani was bumped and unable to respond, so had to commandeer team-mate Junqueira's car to make the race - Conquest withdrew Romancini's time and sent him out again. He duly produced a 224.641mph average to elevate himself to a safe 27th place and leave Howard on the edge.

Lazier and Duno's next attempts were still too slow, but Sato managed a massive improvement over his tentative earlier effort and grabbed 31st, pushing Howard out and Tracy down to 33rd.

Although Howard's immediate retaliation was not quite quick enough, Tracy and KV still decided to withdraw their speed of 223.892mph with just 10 minutes to go and try for a safer position - but the gamble backfired. A big slide on his first lap cost Tracy speed and he waved off the attempt, allowing Howard back in.

Howard responded by withdrawing his time too only to also go slower than he had previously, which allowed Saavedra - who had moved back onto the bubble because he had been bumped rather than withdrawing his time - to take 33rd place after all, giving former driver Herta's new team its IndyCar debut in the most incredible circumstances. With no more time left to respond, Tracy, Howard, Duno and Lazier ended up as the four non-qualifiers - Tracy and Howard kicking themselves for having voluntarily scrubbed times that would have got them on the grid.

The huge drama of the final half hour overshadowed the incredible achievement of Junqueira, the fastest qualifier of the day, who had just nine practice laps in Fazzt's second car before the Bump Day session, a sponsorship issued having sidelined him for all of practice and Pole Day. Despite his non-existent preparation, Junqueira immediately turned in a speed that would have got him into the top 10 alongside team-mate Alex Tagliani had he run yesterday.

Penske's Helio Castroneves and Will Power will start first and second, with Ganassi's Dario Franchitti completing the front row.

Pos  Driver               Team               Speed
 1.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             227.970mph
 2.  Will Power           Penske             227.578mph
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            226.990mph
 4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             226.554mph
 5.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              226.390mph
 6.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            226.223mph
 7.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Letterman    225.519mph
 8.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     224.507mph
 9.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        223.487mph
10.  Townsend Bell        Ganassi/Schmidt    225.097mph
11.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  225.050mph
12.  Raphael Matos        de Ferran Dragon   225.029mph
13.  Mario Moraes         KV                 224.888mph
14.  Davey Hamilton       de Ferran Dragon   224.852mph
15.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold  224.583mph
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           224.575mph
17.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           224.548mph
18.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            224.465mph
19.  EJ Viso              KV                 224.380mph
20.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold  224.261mph
21.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  224.243mph
22.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                224.228mph
23.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           224.219mph
24.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           224.189mph
25.  Bruno Junqueira      Fazzt              225.662mph
26.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         224.783mph
27.  Mario Romancini      Conquest           224.641mph
28.  John Andretti        Andretti           224.518mph
29.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       224.434mph
30.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               224.388mph
31.  Takuma Sato          KV                 224.178mph
32.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           224.072mph
33.  Sebastian Saavedra   Herta              223.634mph

Did not qualify:

     Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher
     Paul Tracy           KV
     Jaques Lazier        Foyt
     Milka Duno           Dale Coyne