"The day's not very nice, with all this wind and the temperature has been getting up there, so we were a bit cautious on downforce. As a result, we were actually surprised to go so fast, but it was just because the car was that much better. I had to actually come off the gas a little on Turn Two on the last lap, which dropped me out of fastest for the day but, with the downforce we got in, we're nearly on race set-up, so that really bodes well for the race."
Junqueira overcame the lack of a back-up car to reward the hard work of his Dale Coyne Racing crew with 15th spot, ahead of Justin Wilson and 2004 race winner Buddy Rice.
"Every corner was different - and difficult," Wilson reported, "Turn Two was the worst. Every time you turned in there, if felt like the front end was lifted off the ground and skated off the track. You're reluctant to lift, but you have to, so you do a quick lift and back on. It feels good to get in the show, but I wanted to go again. I think we could do a much better job the second time around. But that's quite a gamble."
Row five was completed by veteran Davey Hamilton, but there was bad news for Vision Racing team-mate AJ Foyt IV, who failed to post a time and will require another attempt on Bump Day.
Foyt prepared to qualify twice on Saturday, but waved off the first attempt after a bobble in Turn Two, and then experienced mechanical difficulties on the out-lap of his second attempt.
"The gearbox went to crap out there," he complained, "When I tried to shift, it just wouldn't go into second. It jumped into third and, then, when I finally got up to speed, it jumped back into second. It's a bad day here today, but hopefully we'll come back out here tomorrow and get in the race."
Owner-driver Marty Roth bagged the 33rd and last qualifying spot but, having averaged 215.506mph in the final qualifying attempt of the day, is poised to be the first man 'bumped' on Sunday after opting to withdraw a better time from earlier in the day.
![AJ Foyt IV - Vision Racing [pic credit: IRL/Snoddy]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/426206.jpg)
