Bell fastest on second qualifying day

Bell set his 222.539mph average on his first and only attempt of the afternoon, and it remained unbeaten for the rest of the day.

"I'm pretty happy with the way it went," Bell said. "We had good qualifying practice today and last night, and we knew we'd be pretty close.

"We always say we just want to be comfortably in the show, but when you get out there you realise every position is one less car you have to pass. We had a decent first lap and then slowed down a little. We knew we wanted a consistent four-lap run."

The Dreyer & Reinbold driver beat Graham Rahal to the quickest time today, with Darren Manning (Foyt) third-quickest, giving him 14th on the grid.

Rahal will be the highest starter amongst the drivers who switched from Champ Car for this season. On Pole Day a week ago he had been highly critical of his Newman/Haas/Lanigan team's tactics after missing out on a place in the top 11, but he apologised for those comments after his qualifying run today.

"It's nice to get in, and obviously I feel bad about my comments last week," Rahal said. "This team is certainly known for its preparation, and we showed it today.

"We've had a good car so far. Even yesterday when we were doing the long runs with high downforce, we were really good. This is only the first step, though."

Manning was also extremely upbeat after taking 14th spot.

"We were cautious with downforce, so we were surprised to go so fast," he said. "It was just because the car was that much better. With the downforce we're on, we're nearly at race set-up. That really bodes well for the race."

2002 Indy pole-sitter Bruno Junqueira produced a highly impressive run for the small Dale Coyne Racing team to secure 15th on the grid, ahead of Rahal's teammate Justin Wilson and Bell's teammate Buddy Rice, who had looked capable of better than 17th last week.

"This weekend, the weather is completely different," said 2004 Indy winner Rice. "It's windy, it's cold, it's everything. That's what makes this place awesome. It's tough. It's not supposed to be easy."

Today's six-hour session should have decided the final 11 spots on the grid, but with last Sunday's running having been cancelled due to rain, positions 12 to 33 were up for grabs instead.

Four drivers are yet to make the field - three of them because they were sidelined by accidents today.

Phil Giebler suffered the only crash during qualifying itself. He had only taken to the track for the first time today after his deal to drive for American Dream Racing came together at the last minute, and had yet to make a qualifying attempt when he spun violently into the wall while on a practice lap.

His Panoz chassis - the only one in the field - was heavily damaged, and Giebler was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for treatment of bruised lungs. He will be kept in hospital overnight.

Max Papis (Rubicon) and Mario Dominguez (Pacific Coast) both had to sit out the session because of their crashes in morning practice. Both drivers were cleared to continue, and their teams were confident that the cars would be repaired ready to earn a place on the grid during tomorrow's Bump Day session.

The other driver who failed to make it onto the grid today was AJ Foyt IV, who endured a nightmare afternoon. The Vision Racing driver abandoned his first qualifying attempt after an error, then waited until the final 20 minutes to make another run, only to become jammed in gear on his first lap and have to pull back into the pits.

All bar Foyt IV and Marty Roth set their times at the first attempt. Roth continued to work on his car throughout the afternoon before finally making a qualifying run with ten minutes to go, but he was still struggling for speed and ended the day 33rd and last.

Foyt IV, Papis, Dominguez, and potentially Giebler and any drivers who manage to complete last-minute deals, can all attempt to win a place on the grid during Bump Day tomorrow.

Struggling Conquest driver Jaime Camara, Roger Yasukawa (Beck), 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier (Hemelgarn) and Roth are the drivers vulnerable to being bumped out of the field when those yet to qualify make their attempts.

Current Indianapolis 500 grid:

Pos  Driver            Team                     Speed (mph)
 1.  Scott Dixon       Ganassi                  226.366
 2.  Dan Wheldon       Ganassi                  226.110
 3.  Ryan Briscoe      Penske                   226.080
 4.  Helio Castroneves Penske                   225.733
 5.  Danica Patrick    Andretti Green           225.197
 6.  Tony Kanaan       Andretti Green           224.794
 7.  Marco Andretti    Andretti Green           224.417
 8.  Vitor Meira       Panther                  224.346
 9.  Hideki Mutoh      Andretti Green           223.887
10.  Ed Carpenter      Vision                   223.835
11.  Tomas Scheckter   Luczo Dragon             223.496
12.  Townsend Bell     Dreyer & Reinbold        222.539
13.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan      222.531
14.  Darren Manning    Foyt                     222.430
15.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne               222.330
16.  Justin Wilson     Newman/Haas/Lanigan      222.267
17.  Buddy Rice        Dreyer & Reinbold        222.101
18.  Davey Hamilton    Vision                   222.017
19.  Alex Lloyd        Rahal Letterman/Ganassi  221.788
20.  Ryan Hunter-Reay  Rahal Letterman          221.579
21.  John Andretti     Roth                     221.550
22.  Sarah Fisher      Sarah Fisher             221.246
23.  Will Power        KV                       221.136
24.  Jeff Simmons      Foyt                     221.103
25.  Oriol Servia      KV                       220.767
26.  EJ Viso           HVM                      220.356
27.  Milka Duno        Dreyer & Reinbold        220.305
28.  Mario Moraes      Dale Coyne               219.716
29.  Enrique Bernoldi  Conquest                 219.422
30.  Jaime Camara      Conquest                 219.345
31.  Roger Yasukawa    Beck                     218.010
32.  Buddy Lazier      Hemelgarn                217.939
33.  Marty Roth        Roth                     215.506