Friday washed out at Motegi qualifying

Race teams were greeted by steady rain after making the one-hour bus trip from Utsunomiya and Mito this morning. After a 7:00 a.m. breakfast at the central catering tent, teams went straight to putting the race day setup on their cars. Race officials made the announcement at 10:00 a.m., canceling on track activities for the day. Most teams made immediate arrangements to return to their hotels with buses expected to leave the track within the hour.

Rain started Thursday night and is forecasted to continue through early Saturday.

The next on track activity at Twin Ring Motegi is the Bridgestone Indy Japan 300 scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The starting grid will be set using entrant points with Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon starting on the front row.

"I'm sitting in the right spot in the championship to be in this situation and I'll take it," Castroneves said. "We feel we have a consistent car. In the last few years we were very fast here, and I feel we can continue (that). Once you have a good car and (qualifications) are rained out, you prevent a lot of competitors to improve. Hopefully, we can do what we did in 2006."