Frankly Franchitti

Practice wasn't great - it was interrupted by the rain. We were working pretty hard on the car, trying to get the balance. That was our big objective, but we didn't really get there on Friday, and then we didn't really get any time on Saturday to work on it. So basically for the race, myself and my engineer Iain Watt had to go in with a bit of guesswork.

Once qualifying was cancelled I went off with Jimmy Vasser to an antique shop. I feel it's my duty to report that he bought a very tacky lava lamp!

The grid was done on championship positions, so I was a bit upset-but what can you do? I'd have liked to have started further up the front, but that's the way it goes.

At the start, Helio Castroneves and Kenny Brack came together in turn 2, so I backed off, the yellow came out and the lights were on and I got hard on the brakes. But seven guys got by me under yellow. I got on the radio to the team to tell CART that I'd been passed.

We started bitching to CART about it, and the observer in the pitlane said that CART didn't agree. Then later I spoke to Chris Kneifel, the chief steward, and he knew nothing about it! He said that if seven cars had passed me, he'd have done something about it.

The observers and the in-between people at the track weren't doing their job properly, and that's frustrating, because the chief steward is bloody good at his job. And he's actually doing stuff, but he's working with people who aren't up to that standard.

We decided to short-fill on the first stop because we were at the back, and we had nothing to lose. It would also open up our window for any yellows that would come. We left the tyres on, but because they were warm, we stalled.

It was exactly the same as I had in Vancouver last year when I was leading. It's all to do with the pit lane limiter. What it does is that it limits the amount you can rev the car so we don't blow the engine leaving the pit box getting too much wheelspin. So unfortunately I stalled it twice, then we switched the thing off and I had no problem. Anyway, that was a bit of a mis-cue, and that put me a lap down.

The rest of the day I just spent the time trying to get the lap back. I passed more cars on Sunday than I think I ever have! I must have passed 40 cars. The car was fantastic. At one point I had fastest lap by three tenths. But it didn't do us any good Things just didn't go our way. I passed a lot of cars, and we were quick enough. We need a bit of luck , and we need the people at CART to do their job properly.

It's frustrating because every oval we've done this year we've had a good car.

I won't watch it yet but I have the race on video, and hopefully they'll have some good moves of mine. I put in some fairly decent ones! I was passing the same guys three or four times, I was like, "Hi! Me again!" - waving on my way by.

But it's Detroit next, and we're back on the street courses so we can see what we can do there. Let's just keep our fingers crossed.