Al Jr faces difficult debut

With rain forcing the abandonment of the session, the starting line-up will be based on team points from 1999. Unser's reconstituted Galles-ECR Racing squad is technically considered a new outfit, leaving him way back in 24th place.

'I really felt we had a car that could qualify in the top five,' he mused. 'That would have been a big deal for me based on my qualifying performances in the last five year. It's very disappointing.'

However, the American legend has not totally given up hope of scoring a good result.

'On the ovals qualifying isn't critical,' he said. 'There are so many passing areas that it's not imperative that you qualify up front. We've got a long enough race, I'm sure we'll be in the top half of the field.'

He still plans a cautious approach though, given his unfamiliarity with his new IRL adversaries.

'I'm treating everybody out there as a rookies to me,' Unser explained. 'We're going to be real careful on those opening laps and wait until they get single-file and start singling them out, one by one.'