IRL: Chicagoland: Scott Sharp qualifying report

Sharp to Start Fifth in IndyCar Series Season Finale

Scott Sharp has qualified fifth for Sunday's PEAK Antifreeze Indy 300, the final round of competition on the 2006 IndyCar Series schedule. Sharp, who was fifth and sixth quickest in the two 45-minute practice sessions prior to qualifying, will be making his sixth career start on the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway circuit. Five of Sharp's nine series' career wins have come on 1.5-mile ovals.

Sharp has claimed seven top-10 results this year, with season-best drives of fifth at Texas and Richmond. Only 12 points outside the top 10 in the championship standings, Sharp will be looking to gain some ground in the final rankings during tomorrow's 200-lap race.

Scott Sharp - #8 Delphi Dallara /Honda/Firestone: "The Delphi Fernandez Racing team has done a great job in preparing for and coming here the first day. We had two great practice sessions. It has been five hours since we have been on the track and certainly the wind picked up and conditions were a little bit different in qualifying. We were about a tenth slower than what we ran on our own in practice. We really didn't expect that. You hope that in cooler conditions and trimming everything ever so slightly for qualifying, you would be a little bit quicker. It could have been the headwind that you run into in Turns One and Two."

-credit: www.delphifernandezracing.net