CHAMPCAR/CART: Herdez Bettenhausen Houston Saturday notes

Qualifying for Sunday's Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston took place this afternoon under cloudy skies and unusually cool, windy conditions. An eight-minute penalty was assessed to the #16 for causing a red flag during the first segment of qualifying. On Jourdain's sixth timed qualifying lap, he locked up the rear tires while braking and spun the car around on track. Unfortunately, he also tagged one of the concrete retaining walls with the rear wing, leaving the wing on the racing line and forcing CART to stop the session to retrieve it. After the replacing the wing and serving the penalty, Jourdain returned to the track with six and a half minutes remaining.

Michel Jourdain Jr.
"The weather has really affected us here in Houston even though it hasn't taken away any of our track time. There have been things that we wanted to try on the car but couldn't because of the changing conditions yesterday. But it's the same for everybody we just had to adjust and work on those things today. I think we have a pretty decent car for tomorrow's race. We lost some pretty valuable track time today because of the spin and penalty. The car is definitely better than the time we posted."

Fast Facts
* The Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston marks Jourdain's 98th start in the CART FedEx Championship Series and his 95th consecutive start (beginning at Vancouver in 1996). This is his 37th start with Herdez Bettenhausen and his fourth at Houston.
* Jourdain has qualified in the top-ten four times so far this season; Long Beach (7th), Nazareth (3rd), Twin Ring Motegi (7th), and Michigan (6th).
* At the Harrah's 500 presented by Toyota at the Michigan International Speedway, Jourdain scored the first podium of his Champ Car career with a 3rd place finish.
* Jourdain currently stands 21st in the Drivers Championship with 24 points.

What's on Tap
Race day coverage begins with CART 2Day at 11:00am ET Sunday on ESPN2. The 100-lap Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix of Houston begins at 1:00 pm local time. Live television coverage on ESPN will begin at 2:00 pm ET and will also be carried on the CART Radio Network. Live timing and scoring will be available online at www.cart.com.