Conway, Hunter-Reay miss the cut

Patrick had looked set to miss out earlier in the day as rain arrived before she can even make a qualifying attempt. But the weather relented and when the track reopened for a final hour, Patrick swiftly got herself onto the grid with a run good enough for 26th place.

Long Beach winner Conway, who had ended last year's Indy 500 with multiple injuries after a horrific crash on the final lap, could not muster the same speed from his car. He used up all three of his qualifying attempts without managing a quick enough time to get into the field.

Patrick's performance had put her team-mate Andretti 'on the bubble' in 33rd place - and the 2006 runner-up then found himself staring at non-qualification after Dale Coyne Racing's Alex Lloyd (who had been bumped by Patrick) produced a 223.957mph lap to jump back into the field in 31st.

Time was running out for Andretti to respond, but when Lloyd's Dale Coyne team-mate James Jakes waved off an unsuccessful late qualifying run, Andretti was able to get out on track with just a minute to spare. A spectacular run then took him into the field in 28th place, but at the expense of his Andretti team-mate Hunter-Reay, who had been shuffled down to 33rd amid the late changes and will now miss the Indy 500.

Conquest's Sebastian Saavedra, AFS driver Raphael Matos and Jakes all used up their maximum number of qualifying attempts without finding enough speed to make the field.

Big name drivers who had managed to make the cut earlier in the day included Ganassi's Graham Rahal and Charlie Kimball, Paul Tracy (Dreyer & Reinbold), and Penske's Ryan Briscoe.

Alex Tagliani took pole position for Sam Schmidt Motorsports in yesterday's Pole Day session, ahead of Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia.

Pos  Driver               Team                          Speed
 1.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt              227.472mph
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                  227.340mph
 3.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas              227.168mph
 4.  Townsend Bell        Sam Schmidt              226.887mph
 5.  Will Power           Penske                   226.773mph
 6.  Dan Wheldon          Herta                    226.490mph
 7.  Buddy Rice           Panther                  225.786mph
 8.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher             225.121mph
 9.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi
10.  Takuma Sato          KV                       225.736mph
11.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                     225.590mph
12.  JR Hildebrand        Panther                  225.579mph
13.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas              225.572mph
14.  Bertrand Baguette    Rahal Letterman Lanigan  225.285mph
15.  Davey Hamilton       Dreyer & Reinbold        225.250mph
16.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                   225.216mph
17.  John Andretti        Petty/Andretti           224.981mph
18.  EJ Viso              KV                       224.732mph
19.  Bruno Junqueira      Foyt                     224.691mph
20.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold        224.511mph
21.  Jay Howard           Rahal/Schmidt            224.483mph
22.  Tomas Scheckter      KV/SH                    224.433mph
23.  Tony Kanaan          KV                       224.417mph
24.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                      224.392mph
25.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold        224.939mph
26.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                 224.861mph
27.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                   224.639mph
28.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                 224.628mph
29.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi                  224.499mph
30.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi                  224.380mph
31.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne               223.957mph
32.  Pippa Mann           Conquest                 223.936mph
33.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold        223.879mph

Did not qualify:

     Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti
     Raphael Matos        AFS
     Mike Conway          Andretti
     James Jakes          Dale Coyne
     Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest
     Ho-Pin Tung          Schmidt/Dragon
     Scott Speed          Dragon