Herta makes low-key comeback

The double race winner could only manage 20th on the grid in his Mo Nunn Racing Reynard-Mercedes. Herta, out of a drive this season after being dropped by Team Rahal at the end of 1999, had mechanical problems in morning practice but had been off the pace all weekend.

"It's been one of those weekends so far," he said. "We haven't gotten nearly as many laps as we could have. This morning's problems set us back even further.

"We just don't have the car to my liking yet. You need seat time to get that done. We just have to keep chipping away at it.

"It's a good car, and this is a solid team. I have every confidence we can do it. We just need a few breaks."

Kanaan broke his left arm when he crashed heavily in qualifying for the last round of the series in Detroit a week ago. The Brazilian is expected to be out of action for around six weeks.

Herta was to have driven the Forsythe Championship Racing entered Swift-Honda in the Fedex series this season but a row over franchise arrangements and the uncompetitiveness of the Swift chassis meant that Jerry Forsythe pulled the team out of CART prior to the season opener.

Since then Herta's only race appearances have come while substituting for Walker Racing's Shinji Nakano after the Japanese driver was concussed in a testing shunt. He qualified and finished fifth in the car at Long Beach.