IPS: Pikes Peak: Saturday qualifying notes

GREGG CAPTURES MENARDS INFINITI PRO SERIES POLE

FOUNTAIN, Colo. (Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005) -- Travis Gregg captured his second consecutive pole position in qualifying for the IRL Menards Infiniti Pro Series Pikes Peak 100. Gregg won from the pole Aug. 13 at Kentucky Speedway. Jeff Simmons, who won the pole the previous two years at Pikes Peak, will start second.

MENARDS INFINITI PRO SERIES QUOTES:

TRAVIS GREGG (No. 7 Lucas Oil Products/Sam Schmidt Mspt Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone, qualified first): "I feel a lot more comfortable in this cooler weather. We put a little less downforce on the car and had some more horsepower. In the morning, we had a good session. But in the afternoon, I couldn't get comfortable in the car because the track got hotter and greasier. I went out there for the warm-up lap, and the wind wasn't that bad at that point. I just stood on it for the first qualifying lap."

JEFF SIMMONS (No. 24 Team ISI Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone, qualified second): "I'm pretty happy. I was flat all the way around. We've been by far the quickest. They pulled out a lot of speed on qualifying laps. (The weather) has brought everything a little closer together. We were a little worried about that. We knew what we had earlier, and we weren't sure what we were going to have coming out now. That brought us a little closer together, and obviously (Travis Gregg's team) were able to pick up a ton of speed from earlier and take the pole."

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