“We had a lot of understeer in the car," Kanaan revealed after finishing the session three tenths from pole, "We tried to improve, but obviously we didn't. We also had a problem with the throttle cable - one of the wires came loose, and my idle was at 6000rpm. That doesn't make it easy to stop the car in the hard braking zones. We managed to put a lap together, and I'm pretty pleased. Despite the circumstances, we made it to the Firestone Fast Six again, and we'll see what's going to happen tomorrow.”
Buddy Rice and Oriol Servia came closest to joining the Fast Six session, but will line up seventh and eighth respectively, just ahead of Bruno Junqueira, who again underlined his road racing prowess by qualifying ninth, tying his best start of the season, and rookie Hideki Mutoh, who rounded out the top ten. Rice, however, felt that he should have made the final group.
“You're pushing, it's hard, it's a narrow line," the veteran commented, "What I'm personally disappointed with is myself. I ran a 1min 07.4 in that previous session, and there's no reason why I shouldn't have been able to back that up, but I didn't. We should have been in the Firestone Fast Six. The Dreyer and Reinbold team did a great job, and I'm happy with everything, but I'm just disappointed we didn't put the Roll Coater Honda in the Firestone Fast Six.”
Vitor Meira and Will Power were the other two drivers to make it out of the initial elimination groups, but will start eleventh and twelfth respectively, ahead of some surprising names who failed to progress beyond round one of qualifying.
Dixon's Ganassi team-mate Dan Wheldon finished fourth in his group, missing out on progressing by one spot and being left to contemplate a 13th place start, one ahead of Graham Rahal and two in front of Watkins Glen race winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, who lost his two best times in his group session for causing full-course cautions.
Mario Dominguez presented Pacific Coast Motorsports with 16th place on its latest return to the fray, while Ernesto Viso took 17th on his return from the mumps.
