Ray on pole - de Ferran starts from fifth

Ray was able to knock second-year driver Sam Hornish Jr off the pole after the youngster ran a lap at 176.801 mph in a Dallara/Aurora under ideal weather conditions in the Arizona desert. Ray's pole was the 10th of his IRL career.

"I'm very proud of the guys at Team Menard, they did a great job," said Ray, the 1999 IRL champion. "We have been focusing on trying to have good cars in the race. This morning was the first time we tried to get the car to go quick. We knew the conditions were pretty good, but we had no idea how fast we could go. Qualifying is one of those things where you have to go out and try your best and Team Menard did a great job today."

Hornish, a 21-year-old driver from Defiance, Ohio, is in his first race for Pennzoil Panther Racing and was the fastest driver in Friday's practice session. Ray was the fastest driver in Saturday morning's session when Team Menard started to look for more speed out of its race car.

"We had a very good set-up," Hornish said. "The guys do a 100 per cent job every time they put a car out there. We came up a little short today, but we will work on that for the race and before we go to Homestead."

Jeff Ward was third quickest at 175.710 mph in a G Force/Aurora followed by Stephan Gregoire's 174.442 mph in a Dallara/Aurora and defending CART champion Gil de Ferran's 174.000 in a Dallara/Aurora for Penske Racing.

Before Ray made his qualification run, team owner John Menard said after last year's miserable season where Ray won six poles, but only won one race, the team was going to de-emphasise qualifying and focus on race victories.

Given a chance to go fast, however, Ray is going to take a pole if it is available.

"Every team tries to do the best job they can in qualifying and every team tries to do the best job they can in the race," Ray said. "Unfortunately for us, in 1999 everything went right both ways. Last year, we had great qualifying cars and good race cars, but between mistakes that I made and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we didn't do well. We stumbled a little bit.

"I think every team tries to do the best job on both. It's not like we only concentrated on qualifying, we want to do well in both qualifying and the race."

Ray did not earn any points for winning a pole because points in qualifications were eliminated by the IRL this year in an attempt to keep teams from building special qualifying engines. Ray would have earned three points under last year's rules.

But Buddy Lazier started last in the field in last year's race and went on to win the event, proving that starting up front doesn't necessarily matter at the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway.

"Starting up front helps you stay out of trouble," Hornish said. "The biggest thing about this race track is negotiating traffic. When you start at the back, you are moving up on slower traffic. It's really all set-up. You can start anywhere on this race track and do well. It's about patience and consistency."

With Gil de Ferran, the defending CART champion, starting fifth and his team mate, Helio Castroneves starting 17th, Sunday's race has an added element of interest as Penske Racing continues to prepare for a return to this year's Indianapolis 500. Penske Racing has not been at Indy since it failed to make the field for the 1995 Indy 500.

"I think everybody is excited," Ray said. "Last year, when Chip Ganassi came with Jimmy Vasser and Juan Montoya, everybody wants to race whoever wants to come. You want to race against the best and beat the best. I think everybody is happy to have 'The Captain' here in Roger Penske. He is one of the most powerful men in motorsports. Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran are both incredible drivers. Gil is the defending CART champion and Helio is on the gas. They are great guys and great competitors.

"I'm excited to have them here, but there is none of this 'We, us, them' it's everybody is a racer here. That is the great thing about the IRL. If you want to come, that's great. If you don't, that's fine, too, but you are going to miss a hell of a race if you don't."

De Ferran will have plenty of attention in Sunday's 200-mile race as the defending CART champ attempts to master a new type of race car against the IRL regulars.

"It's been a very steep learning curve for me," de Ferran said. "I wasn't 100 per cent pleased with my qualifying effort. I was a little slow getting up to speed. We changed absolutely everything in the car. We changed springs, bars, everything. We really improved for Saturday and we're looking forward to a good, clean race on Sunday."