Townsend Bell, driving the #99 William Rast-sponsored entry, was the only Dreyer & Reinbold driver to attempt to qualify on Saturday, but his posted four-lap average of 222.397mph was short of the 223.496mph needed to secure a place on the first four rows.
"It was way less than what we thought we'd be," Bell admitted, "The car was sliding around a bit too much and, when it's sliding, it just gets slower each lap. It is what it is. We were definitely trying to make a stab at that eleventh spot, but we just had to find more speed."
Justin Wilson admitted that he was happy with the balance of the #02 NHLR/McDonald's car, but believed that there was more speed to come from it, accepting that he wasn't going to qualify in the top eleven as a result.
"We're too far behind some of these guys that have been doing it for years, so we have to keep ourselves in check and keep making positive progress," the Briton noted, "Doing that, I was able to run flat-out and not worry about the consequences. Tomorrow will be our day, when I think it's more realistic to get in that 12-15 space. We'll come back and give it another go - providing the weather is good."
Will Power will also be back on track after he could only manage the 16th fastest four-lap time in Pole Day qualifying. As a result, his times will be voided and he will join all the other hopefuls attempting to make the cut second time around.
“We needed to find about 1mph more to contend for that eleventh spot and we just couldn't get that today," the Australian concluded, “We will go back and have a look at the data. It was an easy run for me, so maybe we can trim the car out a bit. I think you need to be a little bit on edge around here to be fast.”
![Graham Rahal - Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing [pic credit: IRL/Payne]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/436622.jpg)
