Past and present Ganassi drivers struggle

The sight of the Target cars at the back of the field will be an unusual one for Champ Car fans. Ganassi's squad won four consecutive CART titles between 1996 and 1999 with Jimmy Vasser, Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya.

"The balance of the car changed from the morning practice session, when the car was very tight," remarked Bruno Junqueira, the faster of the Target pair by 0.235 second. "When we went out to qualify, the car was very loose. We'll just have to go back and make a few changes to the car before the race."

"I had a fast lap going until we ran into some traffic," lamented Minassian. "After that, I was never able to get a clean lap on the track. Overall the car was pretty good today, but I'm disappointed we didn't qualify better."

Zanardi had another tough day on his return to the FedEx Championship Series. The Honda engine in his Pioneer Reynard exploded in a ball of smoke and flames near the end of the morning practice session, and he was not pleased with the balance of his machine in qualifying. 22nd on the grid marks the worst qualifying effort of Zanardi's CART career. He lined up 21st at Nazareth Speedway in 1997.

Jimmy Vasser (who drove for Ganassi between 1995 and 2000) wound up as the fastest of Chip's former pilots after slotting his Patrick Racing Toyota/Reynard into ninth place on his final qualifying lap, while Ganassi's 1995 driver Bryan Herta was 18th in his Zakspeed/Forsythe Ford/Reynard.