'Comeback Kid' Zanardi finds his form

"Friday morning was a struggle for me," Zanardi admitted. "This was a tough place for me to come for my first oval race in nearly three years. It's unlike anywhere else we run, and I must say it was a real shock. I had to talk myself into staying in the car. On top of that, my car was so bad, I thought it was haunted.

"But the team did a lot of good work, and in the afternoon, we understood why the car was frightening me," he continued. "I'm getting more and more comfortable, and the car is very good in race trim."

Zanardi's Mo Nunn Racing teammate Tony Kanaan was extremely disappointed to qualify 19th at 230.542mph after running near the front for the last two days. Kanaan said he just missed on the set-up.

"I got a little too close to the wall on my second lap and I had to correct," he said. "I looked for a little extra speed running on my own, and I don't know what happened. Sometimes you take chances with the set-up and they don't work out the way you want them to. The good news is that we really do have a good car for traffic, so I'm reasonably confident about the race."