Qualifying: Rain scuppers pole fight

That means IRL point's leader Sam Hornish Jr will start on the pole alongside his nearest pursuer, Buddy Lazier. Hornish, who once had a huge lead in the IRL standings, enters Sunday's race at Gateway International Raceway with a 25-point lead over Lazier, the defending champion.

Scott Sharp will start third followed by Eliseo Salazar and Billy Boat.

Anthony Lazzaro, who is making his IRL debut in Sunday's race, starts last in the 23-car field.

Now that the two points combatants are starting alongside each other, it should make their mission easier to follow. Lazier must finish ahead of Hornish to close the lead in the standings.

"Obviously, we have to finish in front of Sam and the Panther Racing team because it's a 25-point deficit," Lazier said. "That's not much. It's getting serious. There are three races until the end of the season. If we finish in front of Sam, then we gain points in the championship.

"Ultimately, if you win the race, you are racing everybody else. Right now, it's my team and Sam's team that is going after the title. It is real simple mathematics. But, if one team drops out of one race, it can have a big impact. But we both have great race teams that provide great race cars."

A full practice session was held in place of qualifications and Sharp was the quickest with a lap at 169.5262 miles per hour. Hornish was second at 168.705 mph followed by Lazier's 168.116 mph, Jaques Lazier's 168.110 and Felipe Giaffone's 168.063.

Although Lazier is rapidly closing in the point's standings, the 21-year-old Hornish remains calm.

"At the beginning of the year, we were moving up in the point standings, now we are going in the other direction," Hornish said. "But, we believe we have a car that is capable of winning on Sunday. It's real hard to gain an advantage over the other person because of the fact we both have cars with Firestone tyres, engines built by Speedway Engines and Dallara chassis.

"You can run up front in any given race. Both races where Buddy and I were out of the top 10 were in the same race, so it's hard to get an advantage."

Because Friday's first practice session was cancelled because of rain, and Saturday afternoon's second session was washed out, the IRL teams are limited on a track they have never raced on before.

"The race track has changed a lot since the rain," Lazier said after Saturday's only practice session. "It was kind of like a reconnaissance mission today. We were out there getting information that we can use for Sunday.

"It's so hard before a race on a track where you haven't raced before to know what you are going to do on the race track. I try not to have any preconceived notions. This race track is very unusual because it has one real tight corner and one very wide corner. You can be really tight or really wide. It's going to be a learning experience because it is a race track of compromise."

That may make the early laps in Sunday's race a high-speed test session for the 23-car field.

"I think you will see a lot of people feeling out what the track is going to do and how the tires are handling," Hornish said. "As the race goes along, you might see more people venture out to a second line. Traffic and back-markers can be a problem here so you will have to find other raceable lines.

"If the track feels good on one end, it's not going to feel good on the other. There is a big difference how you approach the corners because of the difference in the two turns. The key to running up front in this race is to be able to find out what the strengths of your car are compared to the weakness of the car in front of you and learning how to use those strengths to be able to get by. It's all momentum here and timing your passes."