AREND ENDS THE DAY CLINGING TO 16th SPOT

Jeff Arend and his blue Checker, Schuck's, Kragen teammates did not have what any of them would consider a good day on Saturday, but it could have been much worse, and almost was. Still riding with the 4.915 they posted on Friday afternoon, the blue CSK squad lived through mechanical problems during Saturday's first run, and then smoked the tires at half-track during the final session. When all the chips were on the table, the 4.915 was good enough for 16th place, while Mike Ashley and Jim Head missed the field with 4.916s, and Tim Wilkerson missed the show with a 4.930. Arend will face top qualifier Robert Hight in round one.

"You could say it's a big turn-around, going from top qualifier in Indy to number 16 here, but we made it and that's all that matters, really," Arend said. "Going from top qualifier to non-qualifier would have been the ultimate letdown, but we made a great lap on Friday afternoon and it actually held up. I wouldn't have bet you a Loony (the slang term for a Canadian dollar) that the run from Q1 would get anybody in the show, but it did and it's a great thing we ran so well right out of the box. Without that run, which was third-best during the session, we would not be racing on Sunday.

"Now, we just have to regroup so that we can give Hight and his gang a run for their money. I know all about being the number one qualifier and losing in the first round, because I just did it at the last race.

Now we want to be on the other side of the deal, and make the number one guy wonder where it all went wrong. We probably won't do that if we smoke the tires, so the guys are going over everything right now to find out what went wrong on that pass. We'll come out here tomorrow and give it everything we've got."