Rain washes out Indy Car qualifying
1. (27) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda
2. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda
3. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda
4. (10) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda
5. (6) Sam Hornish Jr., Dallara-Honda
6. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda
7. (8) Scott Sharp, Dallara-Honda
8. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda
9. (4) Vitor Meira, Dallara-Honda
10. (2) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda
11. (17) Jeff Simmons, Dallara-Honda
12. (15) Buddy Rice, Dallara-Honda
13. (14) Darren Manning, Dallara-Honda
14. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda
15. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda
16. (5) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda
17. (22) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda
18. (55) Kosuke Matsuura, Dallara-Honda
19. (23) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda
Quotes
DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 27 Canadian Club Dallara/Honda/Firestone, AAMCO Transmissions Pole Award winner): "I'm pretty happy that it rained because we didn't even get a (qualifying) simulation in today. We were focused on the car and some imbalance issues, so we're trying to get those figured out. I'm pretty happy that we didn't have to make a qualifying attempt. It's good to be starting up front. As far as the day went, we worked with changing conditions and just trying to find that balance that we need for tomorrow's race. It seems that maybe we're finding that the cars are changing more with the conditions and with the laps then previous years. I showed up on Wednesday morning complaining about the heat and humidity. It's nice that is going to be a little bit cooler for us and for the fans."
TONY KANAAN (No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts second): "We've been working pretty hard on the setup together and I think our team has a good history on short tracks. It's pretty good. I think Dario and I were not as happy as Marco (Andretti) and Danica (Patrick) as far as race cars – we have a little bit more work to do. Our starting positions will really help us and that's a big thing here, although you can go backwards pretty fast. I'm looking forward to finishing this race because I haven't the last few years. After a tough weekend in Iowa, I'm looking forward to having solid results so we can carry the momentum into the next few races."
SAM HORNISH JR. (No. 6 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts fifth): "It's too bad that the rain cancelled qualifying. We made some good progress throughout the practice sessions, and I thought we definitely had a shot at the pole. The Team Penske car feels pretty good on long runs, and I think we have a solid race car for tomorrow. Hopefully things will play out in our favor and we'll be able to notch a second consecutive win here in Richmond."
HELIO CASTRONEVES (No. 3 Team Penske Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts sixth): "We were struggling a bit with the setup of the Team Penske car today. For some reason, we weren't able to find the same speed and comfort in the car as we have in the past here. However, I'm confident that my crew will be able to take a look at the telemetry data from today's practice sessions and will be able to give me a good car for the race. Hopefully, everyone will exercise good judgment tomorrow and we'll have a clean race. After a difficult stretch for the No. 3 crew, I would like nothing more than a strong finish here at Richmond.''
SCOTT SHARP (No. 8 Patron Sharp Rahal Letterman Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts seventh): "The Patrón Rahal Letterman Racing car rolled off the truck very well. With the fear of rain, like most in the field, we worked on race setup for much of the day, which was the wise thing to do. We seem to have a strong pace when we put new tires on the car and tried to go fast. I think we could have done well in qualifying, but we'll just have to show it tomorrow night."
DANICA PATRICK (No. 7 Motorola Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts eighth): "We knew there was a good chance it would rain at some point today, so I'm just glad we got all of our practice sessions in before it came. We worked really hard on the Motorola car and made pretty big improvements to it despite fighting through a couple different problems during the day. We'll talk about it some more before tomorrow night and see how much better we can make it."
VITOR MEIRA (No. 4 Delphi Panther Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts ninth): "We're looking into the failure to see what happened (when we crashed). It's frustrating because we are very confident about this weekend. I think this is a setback for us, but Panther Racing is all about overcoming problems like this. I'm actually not worried about it. I would have liked to qualify just to get some laps in the backup car. It's odd not knowing what you're going to have going into Turn 1, but I've got enough confidence in (race engineer) Bill Pappas and (team owner) John Barnes to know the Delphi car is going to be great tomorrow."
TOMAS SCHECKTER (No. 2 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts 10th): "Of course, I always wish we could qualify, but since my practice times were not as quick as I would have liked them today, at least we'll be starting in the top 10. So we will just look at what my teammates and I did today and put our best effort on the track tomorrow night. In the meantime, I've got my new iPhone to setup and play with so that will be the perfect way to spend a rainy evening."
ED CARPENTER (No. 20 Hitachi Power Tools/Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts 15th, but was 10th in practice): "It's unfortunate that qualifying got rained out, but I am confident in my car because we ran well today, so that's good. It's disappointing that we have to start further back because of points, which is a place we shouldn't be in the first place, but we are. And, this is a track you don't want to start in the back at, but like I said, the Hitachi Power Tools car was pretty good today so we'll see what we can do tomorrow night. I just wish we didn't have to work so hard driving from further back than we should.
A.J. FOYT IV (No. 22 Vision Racing Dallara/Honda/Firestone, starts 17th, but was ninth in practice): "I was really looking forward to qualifying. I thought we were going to have another good run this week. It's just too bad for Ed (Carpenter) and I because we had pretty good cars today and now since qualifying has rained out, we've got to start by points which isn't going to help us much. The guys worked hard again this week to give me another great car and they did, so I'm looking forward to driving in tomorrow night's race. I just wish we could get started from a little better position."