Fine first day for Bell

Bell will start seventh Sunday in the Argent Mortgage Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway after recording a lap of 208.839mph during Saturday's qualifying session.

"I felt like I've been on this team for six months," said Bell. "These guys are winners. I think we're going to accomplish some good things."

The 29-year-old former CART driver and 2001 Indy Lights champ had been trying to reach Formula 1 via Formula 3000, but surrendered that pursuit to replace Mark Taylor, who was fired by Panther after crashing out of five of the first six IRL races.

Bell had not competed on oval in more than two years, but he'll start inside the fourth row for Sunday's race around Kansas City's 1.5-mile tri-oval.

"I had four or five opportunities to race in the US in the last 18 months and said no because I still wanted to get into Formula 1," added Bell. "Nothing was offered to me anything like the opportunity I've taken now."

Meanwhile, the other freshman in the field didn't fare as well. Jeff Simmons, who replaced the retired Al Unser Jr in Patrick Racing's Dallara-Chevrolet, qualified 20th in the 21-car field with a lap of 205.761mph.

"It's a little disappointing that we were not a little bit quicker," said Simmons, who is competing in his second IRL race after a one-off at the Indianapolis 500 in May. "I didn't necessarily expect to be any faster, because that was about all we could run alone in the practice sessions."