“It was hard-fought as usual," Briscoe confirmed, "You have to work so hard to get into the Fast Six, and then you have to hang it out there. I thought we had a really good day, and the car was handling well. We just weren't quite quick enough, but it was so close, and you can definitely see our cars are very strong here.”
Andretti will start from the inside of row two, where he will be joined by Justin Wilson, who made the Fast Six for the second time in as many road course outings wit Champ Car convert Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing. The Briton also made the final group on the streets of St Petersburg at the start of the year.
“This morning, I was asking what the deal was if we don't make the top twelve, as the car was a little tricky to drive and I couldn't get it all out," Wilson admitted, "I thought I might be able to sneak up a little bit closer but, at the end of the day, I'm pretty happy with where we are.”
Andretti will make his third top three start of the season, but admitted that he had not been helped by his car.
“It was the toughest couple of runs of my life physically," he revealed, "The steering was so heavy - I will definitely need a bit of rest before the race tomorrow. I gave it everything I had, and that is all we had.”
Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon completed the top six, with the Brazilian maintaining his record of having made every one of the 14 Fast Six sessions held in series history, and Dixon cementing a similar position to that which yielded victory in the same race last year. It was, however, the first time the Kiwi had qualified outside the top five since gridding 13th in St. Petersburg.
