IRL: Texas: Dan Wheldon's Thursday comments

Dan Wheldon to start 13th in Texas

England's Dan Wheldon will make his second start in the Klein Tools / Jim Beam Dallara / Honda / Firestone tomorrow (Saturday) night at Texas Motor Speedway from the inside of the seventh row.

24-year old Wheldon averaged 214.975 mph around the 1.5-mile high-banked oval, which was good enough for the 13th starting spot in tomorrow's Bombardier 500 -- the fifth round of this year's Indy Racing League Indy Car Series.

Rain showers delayed the start of practice yesterday (Thursday), giving the Klein Tools / Jim Beam crew less than one hour to prepare for last night's qualifying session. With showers forecast again for today (Friday), Wheldon concentrated on the car's race set-up during the practice, running in traffic and trying to find a solid balance.

Tomas Scheckter won the MBNA Pole Award with an average speed of 219.300 mph. His team-mate, Scott Dixon, will start second with an average speed of 218.654 mph. Wheldon's Andretti Green Racing team-mate Tony Kanaan will start on the outside of the second row. Kanaan averaged 217.149 mph. His other team-mate, Bryan Herta (deputising for the injured Dario Franchitti) will start ninth after posting a qualifying speed of 215.578 mph.

Practice continues today (Friday) for the Bombardier 500 with the start scheduled for 8pm EDT on Saturday. The race will be broadcast live on ESPN. In the UK, the race can be seen live on Sky Sports at 1am on Sunday and highlights will be shown on Five at 1.40am on Wednesday 11 June.

After last night's qualifying session, Dan Wheldon commented: 'The Klein Tools / Jim Beam crew has done a good job so far, but we just couldn't hit the qualifying set-up for some reason. My two team-mates, Tony (Kanaan) and Bryan (Herta), were both able to get more out of the car than I was. Our set-up was exactly the same as Tony's, but we just couldn't get the speed out of it. Our line also seems to be the same, so we'll investigate and see what we can find.'

When asked what it would mean to win at Texas, Dan Wheldon replied: 'To win anywhere is fantastic. If you can perform well and win, it certainly bodes well. If you can string another good result together, you'll be strong until the end of the season. And that's important to me.'

-www.danwheldon.com