Anderson "Little 500" Thursday report

Little 500 Quals Halted By Rain

Rain shortened the qualification period for Saturday's 56th PayLess/Delco Remy "Little 500" Thursday, leaving 31 cars qualified and 28 others waiting for qualifying to resume on Friday at the Anderson (Ind.) Speedway.

Dave Steele of Tampa, Fla. nearly broke the existing track records during the aborted qualification period and holds the "provisional" pole position for Saturday night's 500-lap Sprint car race.

If Steele's time survives the challenges, he would tie Frank Riddle's record of five "Little 500" pole positions.

Steele's best lap of 11.135 seconds just missed Bentley Warren's 1995 record of 11.018 and his four-lap time of 44.831 seconds fell short of Gary Fedewa's 1998 time of 44.262.

Steele's previous poles came in 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2003 and he won the race in 1996. Temporary front-row drivers Levi Jones and Cory Kruseman are also hopeful that their times will stand among the three best.

Defending race winner Eric Gordon, who is seeking a record sixth victory and record-tying fourth in a row, qualified fifth among the 31 who qualified prior to the rain.

Below is the list of qualifiers so far.

A complete starting lineup will follow tomorrow's final qualifying.

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