91st Indy 500 grid nears formation

John Andretti, Al Unser Jr and Milka Duno put themselves on the starting grid on Saturday as all but one position was filled for the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500.

Roger Yasukawa led the way, capturing the 23rd starting position with a four-lap average of 222.654 mph in the No. 24 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Honda/Dallara.

But the buzz after Saturday's third qualifying session for the May 27th race surrounded two famous names. John Andretti, who hadn't competed in the Indy 500 since 1994, captured the 24th position, while Al Unser Jr, who has won the race twice, took the 25th spot.

It marked the 44th time in the past 45 years that either an Andretti or Unser has entered the race.

"It's funny," Andretti said. "Some people pick a career path and stick to it. My path goes where the wind blows. I'm glad the wind got strong enough to blow me back to Indianapolis."

Andretti has spent most of the past 13 years pursuing a career in NASCAR, including 10 attempts at the Brickyard 400. But, until this week, he hadn't sat in an Indy car since 1994.

Unser, who has competed in six of the previous seven 500s and 18 overall, offered some advice.

"He's going to enjoy it," Unser said. "I think John will enjoy the formula of the cars we're running. They do handle better in traffic than the cars he ran back in the early '90s. You can feel these cars. You can feel when they're going off. There are no real surprises."

Yasukawa's qualifying effort may have been the biggest surprise of the day. Andretti had clocked impressive laps in practice Friday, and he was expected to take the top position in Saturday's session. Instead, Yasukawa qualified for his fifth 500.

"This is so special to me that I just can't miss it," Yasukawa said. "Even after four or five times, you still get nervous about qualifying, and you still get nervous before the race."

Following Yasukawa, Andretti and Unser on the grid as the back third of the field was nearly filled Saturday was Alex Barron, whose last-minute deal with Curb Records/Beck Motorsports resulted in the fourth-best qualifying run of the day.

Following Barron were Jon Herb, Jaques Lazier and Milka Duno, whose average of 219.228 mph currently stands 29th on the 33-car grid.

If that stands, Duno will be the third female driver in the field. Danica Patrick will start eighth, and Sarah Fisher will start 21st.

"Women have shown they can do anything they want," Duno said. "You see women presidents, economists, engineers, doctors and race-car drivers. When you talk about professions, it doesn't matter of you are a woman or a man. The importance is how good you are."

When the back of the grid wasn't being filled by qualifiers on Saturday, those already in the field continued to perfect their race setups with practice laps.

Dan Wheldon had the fastest lap of the session - 224.895 mph - in his backup car, while Helio Castroneves was second best, also in his T-car.

Thirty-two cars recorded a total of 1,925 laps on Saturday, by far the busiest session of the month. Other fast laps were recorded by Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Michael Andretti, Sam Hornish Jr. and Tomas Scheckter.

Late in the day, rookie Phil Giebler crashed during the final lap of a solid qualifying run in the No. 31 Playa Del Racing Honda/Panoz, putting that team's plan to field two cars in jeopardy.

Giebler doesn't have a backup car, but teammate Jaques Lazier, who qualified 28th Saturday, does have a backup. It was unclear late Saturday whether the team would try to qualify that car with Giebler during Sunday's final qualifying session.

Giebler was well into a run over 221 mph, which would have been good enough for the 25th starting position, when his car went high into Turn 2 on the fourth lap and hit the wall. Giebler was not hurt, but the Panoz chassis was extensively damaged.

Following Duno on the grid are Marty Roth, currently 30th, Roberto Moreno and Jimmy Kite. Giebler, PJ Jones and Richie Hearn, who is expected to try to qualify a car owned by Ron Hemelgarn, remain to battle over the final position on the grid.

The qualifying order for Sunday's bump-day session also lists four Foyt Enterprises cars and a second Curb car, which could go to PJ Chesson.

But the talk of the track was the return of some familiar names and faces, including John Andretti, who will compete in a race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the 18th time in his career.

"To get another starters' ring is awful nice," he said, "even if you can't wear them all."

Pos  Driver             Make           Speed
 1.  Helio Castroneves  Dallara-Honda  225.817
 2.  Tony Kanaan        Dallara-Honda  225.757
 3.  Dario Franchitti   Dallara-Honda  225.191
 4.  Scott Dixon        Dallara-Honda  225.122
 5.  Sam Hornish Jr     Dallara-Honda  225.109
 6.  Dan Wheldon        Dallara-Honda  224.641
 7.  Ryan Briscoe       Dallara-Honda  224.410
 8.  Danica Patrick     Dallara-Honda  224.076
 9.  Marco Andretti     Dallara-Honda  223.299
10.  Tomas Scheckter    Dallara-Honda  222.877
11.  Michael Andretti   Dallara-Honda  222.789
12.  Scott Sharp        Dallara-Honda  223.875
13.  Jeff Simmons       Dallara-Honda  223.693
14.  Ed Carpenter       Dallara-Honda  223.495
15.  Darren Manning     Dallara-Honda  223.471
16.  Buddy Rice         Dallara-Honda  222.826
17.  Kosuke Matsuura    Dallara-Honda  222.595
18.  AJ Foyt IV         Dallara-Honda  222.413
19.  Vitor Meira        Dallara-Honda  222.333
20.  Davey Hamilton     Dallara-Honda  222.327
21.  Sarah Fisher       Dallara-Honda  221.960
22.  Buddy Lazier       Dallara-Honda  221.380
23.  Roger Yasukawa     Dallara-Honda  222.654
24.  John Andretti      Dallara-Honda  221.756
25.  Al Unser Jr        Dallara-Honda  220.876
26.  Alex Barron        Dallara-Honda  220.471
27.  Jon Herb           Dallara-Honda  220.108
28.  Jaques Lazier      Panoz-Honda    219.409
29.  Milka Duno         Dallara-Honda  219.228
30.  Marty Roth         Dallara-Honda  218.922
31.  Roberto Moreno     Panoz-Honda    216.229
32.  Jimmy Kite         Panoz-Honda    214.528