IndyCar Qualifying Pseudo-Live Blog

Okay, I come in at the end of the two "group" sessions, where they take the top six of each group and those twelve move on to another free-for-all qualifying session. The top twelve as of right now are:

1. Will Power
2. Graham Rahal
3. Alex Tagliani
4. Scott Dixon
5. Justin Wilson
6. Mike Conway (more on him in a moment)
7. Dario Franchitti
8. Ryan Briscoe
9. Tony Kanaan
10. Darren Manning
11. Raphael Matos
12. Dan Wheldon

The interesting story of group 1 was the way Justin Wilson picked up his spot. Wilson didn't use any of his "red" tires, which are softer and therefore faster tires. That means for the fast twelve and fast six, he will have three sets of the soft tires to use.

In group 2, Mike Conway tagged the wall in Turn 9 in the closing moments of the session. Conway, as you see, got the sixth fastest time for this session. If a crash brings out the full-course yellow, you lose your two fastest laps. However, he only brought out a local yellow in Turn 9, so he remained in 6th position. Big loser: 13th-place qualifier Ryan Hunter-Reay.

The cars have now taken off for the fast twelve. Stick around.

11:55
About 10 minutes through the session, the top six is:

Wilson
Franchitti
Rahal
Power
Kanaan
Tagliani

Everyone has pulled in to strap the red tires onto the cars and make themselves fast for the final run.

12:03
The fast twelve session is over, and there are some strange things to be told. Here's the order for the fast six:

1. Dario Franchitti
2. Tony Kanaan
3. Graham Rahal
4. Justin Wilson
5. Will Power
6. Ryan Briscoe

Conspicuous in his absence from this list is '08 series champ Scott Dixon. His teammate Dario is definitely showing his speed so far. In the spirit of this weekend's Final Four, the cinderella of this group has to be Justin Wilson. We know he's a good driver, having done well in Champ Car and done as well as he could with a bad car in F1. However, I didn't think Dale Coyne would be able to put in a car as competitive as Wilson has been.

The safety crew is cleaning up some liquid in Turn 2, and we'll fire off the Fast Six when that is done.

12:12
The Fast Six shootout is under way!


Dario is trying really, really hard in the fast six. He tagged the wall just a bit in Turn 14. He hasn't been affected much, though, because he is still trading the pole with Tony Kanaan.

12:20
Graham Rahal found the pole position, then tagged the wall out of Turn 14 like Dario. Notably, Graham was on the black tires when he made the run. Less than a minute in the session...

12:23
Qualifying is OVAH! The starting grid will be:

Row 1:
Graham Rahal | Justin Wilson
Row 2:
Tony Kanaan | Ryan Briscoe
Row 3:
Dario Franchitti | Will Power
Row 4:
Alex Tagliani | Scott Dixon
Row 5:
Raphael Matos | Darren Manning
Row 6:
Dan Wheldon | Mike Conway
Row 7:
Robert Doornbos | Ryan Hunter-Reay
Row 8:
Danica Patrick | E.J. Viso
Row 9:
Vitor Meira | Marco Andretti
Row 10:
Hideki Mutoh | Mario Moraes
Row 11:
Stanton Barrett | Ed Carpenter

As I said before, the fact that this season starts with street courses will cause all sorts of drama in the points standings going into Kansas. Case-in-point: There's a Newman/Haas/Lanigan car and a Dale Coyne car leading the field. Scott Dixon is mired back in row four with Alex Tagliani, who didn't know he had a ride until Wednesday. Darren Manning, who also didn't get a ride until Wednesday, is in the top ten. Craziness, eh?

Can't wait to watch VERSUS' take on all of this this afternoon at 5.