CHAMPCAR/CART: Kanaan Gateway qualifying notes

Tony Kanaan and his #55 Hollywood/Mo Nunn Racing Mercedes-Benz Reynard will start from the outside of the third row in Sunday's Motorola 300 after clocking a fast qualifying lap of 25.561 seconds (an average of 178.866 mph) ths afternoon around the 1.27-mile Gateway International Raceway egg-shaped oval. Juan Montoya will start from the pole by virtue of a 25.353-second qualifying lap (180.334 mph), just six thousandths of a second faster than teammate Jimmy Vasser's 25.359 (180.227 mph), which was good enough for the other front-row starting spot. Teammates Paul Tracy (25.500, 179.294 mph) and Dario Franchitti (25.514, 179.196 mph) will occupy the second row, and Patrick Carpentier (25.516, 179.192 mph) will start inside Kanaan on the third row.

Race time is 1:30 p.m. CDT Sunday with a live broadcast set for ESPN.

TONY KANAAN
"We weren't incredibly happy with our time when we set it, but it beat all but one of the (seven) people who came after us, so it turned out to be alright. When you have a guy like Morris engineering your car on an oval, it makes your life as a driver pretty easy. Actually, we had probably a better car than the time shows. But I got a little too greedy ... I tried just a little too hard ... on the second lap and that cost us. We picked up just enough understeer that we didn't improve on our first lap. That's okay. We're in a very good position, and I think we have a good race car. We won't have to spend our time and energy working our way up from the back. We'll be in position to race for the lead from the green flag. As a driver, you can't ask for any more than that. I've always liked this track. I feel like I did at Chicago (where Kanaan qualified third but saw his day end early with gearbox trouble), in that I really like our chances. The key will be to be there at the end."