Tagliani withdraws from Milwaukee

The damage incurred in his shunt in morning practice is too extensive to repair at the track, and the team has no back-up car.

Said team co-owner Derrick Walker: "It's a bad situation and there is no safe way out of it. When we realised the extent of the damage, we looked into borrowing a car, and a lot of the teams considered it, which was nice: it shows they had the best interests of the sport at heart.

"However, because it's been such a bad weekend for a lot of teams, and that makes everyone jumpy because there's a lot more track action to come. They don't want to be without a spare if another accident happens."

Walker said the very nature of ovals is what made the decision to withdraw Tagliani the only sensible one. "We could have fudged it. But that's not something we'd ever do.

"Ovals are all about getting the car set-up well or disastrously, and there's just no point in building up a car that we were not 100 per cent satisfied with.

"If the driver's white-knuckling it round an oval in a car that's way off the pace, then he's a hazard to himself and others. There are people's lives at stakes, and doing things in a cock-eyed way is not what we're about. Ovals are unforgiving."

Tagliani believed he had the strongest chance of beating the Newman/Haas drivers to pole position, having been quick in all sessions and track conditions this weekend, and Walker agreed with his driver's assessment.

"Yep, certainly we'd have had a shot at it. Last year at this track we were really searching for what an oval set-up is all about with a Lola.

"We had run Reynards for the previous decade. This year we have that additional experience, added to which we had a couple of new engineers from other teams with new ideas and it was reflected in our lap times. That's one positive to take from a horrible situation."

Walker went on to praise Tagliani's teammate Will Power, who will start his first oval race from a remarkable fifth on the grid.

"He's been great," said Walker. "As we got the car closer and closer to an optimal set-up and put Alex's settings on the car, it worked with how Will was also logging up the laps and learning how the car feels here and what is needed for a good oval car. And it culminated in fifth.

"This morning he had a wastegate acting up on his engine causing a misfire down the straight, and that ate up too much of his time for him to try a simulated qualifying run.

"So he pushed it as hard as he dared while staying sensible and it paid off perfectly. Another positive to take away with us tonight."