The day started a little late due to the overnight rain and cool morning temeratures, which prolonged the track drying process. Once the green flag was dropped for morning practice, the usuall suspects climbed to the top of the speed charts: the fastest being AGR's Marco Andretti, who put in a lap at just over 228 mph, the fastest of the month.

When qualifying began at noon, nearly everyone took one of their three alotted attempts strait away (only one car is allowed on the track at a time) just to see where they stood in repect to each other. Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe set the early pole mark, only to lose it to Scott Dixon. He lost it to Danica Patrick, who lost it in turn to Dixon's teammate, Dan Wheldon. Only one of the expected Pole contenders opted not to join in: Briscoe's Penske stablemate Helio Castroneves decided to keep all three of his qualifying attempts in-pocket for later in the day.

Meanwhile Danica's AGR teammates struggled. Marco And Tony Kanaan could not get past the upper 224 pmh range, and rookie driver Hideki Mutoh had his 1st qualifying attempt annulled due to a technical violation.

By 1:30 the first flurry of qualifying runs were over and, as per usual, things quited down for the "heat" of the mid-day. The track was re-opened for practice, pending any further qualiying attempts.

As the weather was relatively cool, the Penske duo were feeling confident enough to try their luck at 3pm. Helio went out and put in four laps at an average of 225.7 mph, which was short of the mark - he will start 4th, on the inside of row 2. Briscoe then had his prior qual run annulled and took another short at the Pole. He made it, with a four lap avaerge of 226.080.

However, it was short-lived. Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon went out immediately after him and laid down four laps at 226.366. Later in the afternoon Wheldon would also eclipse Briscoe's speed, putting him down to the third starting spot.

Here is the grid as of the end of the day today:

http://www.indy500.com/grid

By virtue of the fact that they posted these times today, they cannot be knocked out of these spots, even if someone goes faster tomorrow or next weekend.

The weather forecast for Sunday, 5/11 calls for a good chance of rain, so 2nd day qualifying may be washed out. if that proves to be so, qualifying on next Saturday will be for the remaining 22 grid spots. 

Here is a link to the pictures that I took today:

http://indyandy.wordpress.com/08-pics-2/

Enjoy! 

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