Honda Indy Edmonton

[TURN3]

PT looks pretty strong from the timesheet...leading the highly talented yet worthless crew of professionals KV employs full-time too. Not bad for part time. If only....

[DanicaFan]

PT looks pretty strong from the timesheet...leading the highly talented yet worthless crew of professionals KV employs full-time too. Not bad for part time. If only....

It's the same car from last week so Im not sure why he was so slow at Toronto.

[TURN3]

It's the same car from last week so Im not sure why he was so slow at Toronto.

They found the rear suspension geometries were off after Sat qualifying...which explains why he was so fast in the race by comparison. It is in his Racer blog.

Don't quote me on this but his fast lap from the race would've put him somewhere around 10th on the starting grid...in race trim. Too bad they didn't figure it out sooner.

[DanicaFan]

Here are the qualifying groups for tomorrow..

Group 1

#2 Raphael Matos
#3 Helio Castroneves
#5 Takuma Sato
#6 Ryan Briscoe
#7 Danica Patrick
#10 Dario Franchitti
#12 Will Power
#14 Vitor Meira
#15 Paul Tracy
#18 Milka Duno
#22 Justin Wilson
#34 Mario Romancini
#77 Alex Tagliani

Group 2

#4 Dan Wheldon
#8 EJ Viso
#9 Scott Dixon
#11 Tony Kanaan
#19 Alex Lloyd
#24 Tomas Scheckter
#26 Marco Andretti
#32 Mario Moraes
#36 Bertrand Baguette
#37 Ryan Hunter-Reay
#78 Simona De Silvestro
#06 Hideki Mutoh

[MDS]

PT looks pretty strong from the timesheet...leading the highly talented yet worthless crew of professionals KV employs full-time too. Not bad for part time. If only....

Actually all four KV cars were in the top 12 in practice, not bad. I've said it before and I'll say it again, KV is a good squad, but their luck has just been horrible, and they've had a lot of growing pains. They went from a solid, if somewhat underfunded, one-car team to a three car team in which all their deals came together late, and they're starting to show some speed. We all know the Dallara has had some quality issues and they've gone through five new cars this year and this chassis is something that you need to spend a lot of time with in order to find the sweet spot. They got through Toronto without losing a tub, and that's got to be like the second or third time that's happened.

If they can start stringing together races where all of their guys finish I think you'll see them get Mario and EJ up into top 10 and get Sato Rookie honors.

From what I hear they're close to getting deals together for Sato for next year with Lotus and they're already talking with E.J. for next year, and if that happens they can start to build to the future. Remember, since KV started its only had the same driver in the same car twice full time, Jimmy Vasser in 2003-2004, and Mario's rather late deal in 2009-2010. Yes that's largely been because they've chosen to use a lot of ride buyers, but the Lotus deal may give them enough funding to get some consistency. If they can keep keep this group together, or just Takuma and bring in a free agent like Justin Wilson (Jimmy and Justin have been seen talking to each other a couple of times and rumors are that Lotus might brand two cars next year and would like an English driver.) for next year I think you'll start to see them living up to their potential.

[TURN3]

Here are the qualifying groups for tomorrow..

Group 1

#2 Raphael Matos
#3 Helio Castroneves
#5 Takuma Sato
#6 Ryan Briscoe
#7 Danica Patrick
#10 Dario Franchitti
#12 Will Power
#14 Vitor Meira
#15 Paul Tracy
#18 Milka Duno
#22 Justin Wilson
#34 Mario Romancini
#77 Alex Tagliani

Group 2

#4 Dan Wheldon
#8 EJ Viso
#9 Scott Dixon
#11 Tony Kanaan
#19 Alex Lloyd
#24 Tomas Scheckter
#26 Marco Andretti
#32 Mario Moraes
#36 Bertrand Baguette
#37 Ryan Hunter-Reay
#78 Simona De Silvestro
#06 Hideki Mutoh

So there is 1 spot available for PT, Tag, or Matos to advance...sweet. A group with Franchitti, Power, and Wilson...plus those other 2 Penske's is as stacked as any 1 group has been as long as I can remember.

[DanicaFan]

Excluding Duno, Group 1 is pretty strong. Im thinking she may not be allowed to qualify like last week judging by practice so far.

[TURN3]

Actually all four KV cars were in the top 12 in practice, not bad. I've said it before and I'll say it again, KV is a good squad, but their luck has just been horrible, and they've had a lot of growing pains. They went from a solid, if somewhat underfunded, one-car team to a three car team in which all their deals came together late, and they're starting to show some speed. We all know the Dallara has had some quality issues and they've gone through five new cars this year and this chassis is something that you need to spend a lot of time with in order to find the sweet spot. They got through Toronto without losing a tub, and that's got to be like the second or third time that's happened.

If they can start stringing together races where all of their guys finish I think you'll see them get Mario and EJ up into top 10 and get Sato Rookie honors.

From what I hear they're close to getting deals together for Sato for next year with Lotus and they're already talking with E.J. for next year, and if that happens they can start to build to the future. Remember, since KV started its only had the same driver in the same car twice full time, Jimmy Vasser in 2003-2004, and Mario's rather late deal in 2009-2010. Yes that's largely been because they've chosen to use a lot of ride buyers, but the Lotus deal may give them enough funding to get some consistency. If they can keep keep this group together for next year I think you'll start to see them living up to their potential.

I agree with you as far as KV having a good team put together....except for 1 fundamental issue...THE DRIVERS! You can have the best engineers and mechanics in the world but those 3 full-timers are less than to be desired no matter how you look at it. Yes, they've had a ton of bad luck...named Moraes, Sato, and sometimes Viso. Put PT in full-time with a 2nd driver of choice and they'll be contenders.

[DanicaFan]

Wow! Will Power is unreal. Here are the results of practice session 2..

[harvick#1]

well, DF.

Power did dominate this race last year, leading just about everylap of the event in brute force.