IRL: Chicagoland: Scott Sharp qualifying report

Sharp to Start on Row Five at Chicagoland

Scott Sharp has secured a ninth-place* spot on the grid for tomorrow's Peak® Antifreeze Indy 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. Sharp, who will be making his fifth IndyCar Series career start on the 1.5-mile oval, held the second-quickest time overall at the end of two practice sessions as the team focused its attention on race day setup. His qualifying lap of 25.4392 215.101 mph was only 0.1023 seconds off of pole position.

Sharp claimed his first victory of the season four weeks ago in Kentucky, the last 1.5-mile oval event. He is currently fifth in the championship standings on the heels of five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes to date this year.

*Sharp qualified 12th but was moved up to ninth following the disqualification of three cars due to post-qualifying technical infractions.

Scott Sharp, #8 Delphi Panoz/Honda/Firestone:
"It was a good day for the Delphi Fernandez team. We came here knowing that it is so hard to simulate what the race is going to be like that we tried to work in traffic as much as we could the first two sessions. We really spent a lot of that time in a race sort of mode -- drafting as much as we could and working in turbulent air. At the end of the last session, we put the car in qualifying trim. We knew that we gave up maybe a little bit in qualifying but at the same time, knowing we weren't a front row car, we focused on making the car as good as it could be for tomorrow. You are going to be in traffic all day long and you have to have a car that can work well in the turbulent air. I think we have one."

SCOTT SHARP FAST FACTS: Will be making his fifth IndyCar Series career start at Chicagoland Speedway-- recorded best finish of seventh in 2002, and best starting position of third in 2001-- currently sits fifth in the championship standings-- claimed his first win of the season in Kentucky-- season to date record includes five top-five and 10 top-10 finishes-- will be making his 113th IndyCar Series start and record 105th consecutive start-- is in his 10th season of IndyCar Series competition, and is the only driver to have contested every season of IndyCar Series competition since the inception of the IRL 10 years ago-- career record includes nine wins, five pole positions and 32 top-five finishes-- was the 1996 IndyCar Series co-champion and the 2001 Indianapolis 500 MBNA Pole winner-- is a former two-time SCCA Trans-Am Champion and three-time SCCA National Champion-- 37 years old from Norwalk, Connecticut-- currently resides in Jupiter, Florida.

-www.delphifernandezracing.net