Alex Tagliani Will Start From Row 10 At Watkins Glen

Tagliani Saturday Qualifying Results

Tagliani Position On The Grid: 19th     
Tagliani Best Time & Speed:    1m31.5218s - Average speed of 213.333 km/h


Camping World Grand Prix Front Row Line-Up

1st Will Power,        Team Penske; 1 m 29.3164 s (218.600 km/h)
2nd Helio Castroneves, Team Penske; 1 m 29.4609 s (218.246 km/h)

Watkins Glen, New York - Qualifying did not go as expected for Alex Tagliani and the FAZZT Race Team on Saturday as the Canadian driver only managed to qualify 19th overall for Sunday's sixth running of the Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen. Even though Tagliani improved his lap time from Friday by close to three seconds, the competition also bettered their times. Tagliani posted his fastest lap around the 5.472-kilometer Watkins Glen International road course in 1 minute 31.5218 seconds for an average speed of 213.333 km/h. He missed the cut to move into the second round of qualifying by only seven tenths of a second. Tagliani, who is making is debut on the New York State track, will start Sunday's race from the inside of row 10, next to Dan Wheldon. The last time the FAZZT driver started that far back in the field was in Round 3 in Alabama where he moved up the field to finish 10th.

Qualifying did not go as expected for Alex Tagliani and the FAZZT Race Team on Saturday as the Canadian driver only managed to qualify 19th overall for Sunday's sixth running of the Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen. Credit: Ron McQueeney/IndyCar Series

"This type of result isn't what we had hoped for today, Tagliani said. "It's not good, but the positive is that we made improvements from yesterday, this morning, and the team found some things that made more sense around this track. We feel the pain of not having tested here due to the rain because what we found late this morning we would have had coming in to the race weekend if we had gotten our test day completed. Now we just have to regroup and make the same type of change on the car for tomorrow now that we know where we need to be and what the car likes on this track. So, if we have a good car for the race the rest won't matter. We'll have to go out and have good strategy, fight to move up front and have a good result."

Team Penske drivers dominated qualifying on Saturday at Watkins Glen International taking the first three spots on the grid with Will Power collecting his fifth pole of the season, the eighth consecutive for Team Penske this year. Power set a fast lap of 1 minute 29.3164 seconds (218.600 km/h) to edge his teammate Helio Castroneves (1 m 29.4609 s) by only 0.1445 of a second. Third quickest was Ryan Briscoe (1m 29.9346 s) the winner of the two previous poles at the Glen. He will start alongside Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti. Former Formula 1 driver Takuma Sato will start on the inside of row three for Round 9 of the IZOD IndyCar Series next to defending race winner Justin Wilson. Even though Team Penske has won all six poles at the Glen, they have yet to score a win on this track.

"Obviously it was a disappointing day but we made big gains from where we started yesterday and where we were this morning. Yet again, Qualifying shows the competitiveness of the IZOD IndyCar Series. Now we'll have to see if we can make something happen in the race tomorrow."

Round 9 of the 2010 schedule, a 60-lap, 328.32-kilometer event, will be broadcasted live Sunday on TSN and ABC at 3:30 p.m. Live Timing and Scoring as well as Video coverage of the race is available at www.indycar.com.

Scott Dixon won the first three IndyCar races at the Glen from 2005 to 2007. Ryan Hunter-Reay was victorious in 2008 and Justin Wilson is the 2009 Watkins Glen defending race winner.

July 4, 2010 Schedule

Sunday Warm-Up: 10:15 - 10:45 a.m. ET
Sunday Race:    60 laps for 328.32-km with the green flag at 3:30 p.m. ET

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