Watkins Glen Saturday Notebook

What might have been for Bruno Junqueira and his Dale Coyne team. Junqueira posted the fastest speed (133.876 mph) taking P1 in the first qualifying session Saturday afternoon at Watkins Glen. After this stellar performance, Junqueira moved into the second qualifying stage as one of the favorites. A decision to wait for better track conditions turned out to cost the team the ability to move into the Firestone Fast Six group of qualifying and a run for the overall pole. He was on his way to another great lap time when Will Power spun and brought out a full course yellow just as Junqueira's tires were peaking. "It was a very good day for the #18 Z-Line Designs car," said a very excited Junqueira. "We were the fastest car in the first group of 13 cars to qualify. We should be starting in the top six, but we waited to go out in the second session, which hurt us because we were not able to get many laps in before Will Power crashed and brought out the caution. We had time to run only one lap after the crash, which was not enough."……………….Dan Clarke was hanging out in the paddock still in search for sponsorship for an IndyCar seat. When asked about Indy Lights he told us he was not ready to take that step down just yet……………..The grandstands were largely empty both Friday and Saturday. It remains to be seen how many people buy tickets on Sunday……….The Friday and Saturday race schedule had racing going on almost non-stop. However, Sunday has nothing going on except for Indy Car warm-up and then a huge 5 hour gap until the race. What do they expect the fans to do during that 5 hours, sit around and get drunk so they can drive home plastered? This lunacy prompted one wag to ask why both Indy Lights races were run on Saturday instead of one Saturday and one Sunday? Sometimes you have to wonder about these things……..$5 for a shower. That's what campers have to pay if they want to shower in the bath house……….Izod is a new sponsor for the IRL and they are also a personal sponsor for Ryan Hunter-Reay. Izod is already activating their sponsorship in a big way. On Friday they threw a big party in the paddock with great food, a live band and games. There was even a heated swimming pool with some good looking women wearing bikinis in it. This week a huge Izod ad will appear in Times Square NY for millions of people to see. The ad will feature their driver – Hunter-Reay. Speaking of Hunter-Reay, he qualified third for Sunday's race, an excellent result for him and his Rahal Letterman team. After his career was nearly destroyed in Champ Car by a team who gave him such bad equipment no one could drive it fast without crashing, Hunter-Reay appears to have found a home at Rahal Letterman Racing and his talent is beginning to show……Mark C. reporting from Watkins Glen