Andretti

Well, I'm certainly not in the position I expected to be in going into the second week of qualifications for the Indianapolis 500.

We were scheduled to qualify 24th on Saturday (May 11) but with the backup cars and people not ready we ended up going out 10th. The weather had been threatening rain all morning so the pressure was definitely on. We had been running 228 mph laps on our own late Friday so I felt pretty confident that we could run a comfortable 227 mph lap taking into consideration the weather.

When I went out, I was flat all the way around the track and really felt I got all I could out of the car. After my four-lap qualifying effort my speed was 226.780 mph (average). It wasn't the speed I expected but with the weather conditions we decided to take the effort and see where it would stand among the other attempts and we were still thinking that rain was on its way.

I guess if we had a crystal ball and we would have known it was going to be dry most of the day we probably would have waived off the attempt and run practice laps and then gone out later, but we all felt that rain was imminent and it was best to get a time posted. Unfortunately, the weather held and the track improved all day so we ended up 23rd out of 24 qualifiers. Not the ideal situation since there are still 15 cars that have an attempt to make for qualifying and there are only nine spots remaining on the grid.

On Sunday, the second day of qualifying, things didn't improve much. It poured down rain the entire day. We had planned to get our backup car on the track and get it up to speed so we would be ready to go if we got bumped and had to make a second qualifying attempt. But our plans were waylaid by the all-day rain. So we left Sunday evening to go to Mid-Ohio and test our Honda-Lola-Bridgestone Champ Car and guess what? It poured down rain there too!

So now we're back in Indy and today looks like it's going to be a good day to get out on track and get our backup car up to speed. Since the second day of qualifying was rained out, Sunday (May 19) will be second day qualifying and Bump Day all rolled into one. It's hard to predict what will happen on Sunday because it really depends on the weather.

My technical partners, Paul Tracy and Dario Franchitti, haven't made the show yet so for their sake I hope it's dry on Sunday. For me, if it rains Sunday then the field is locked and the 15 remaining qualifiers "bump" each other for the final nine starting positions. So I don't know, I can certainly say that the rest of this week is going to be a very interesting time for the Motorola/Archipelago team and for Team Green. All I know is that Indy is still Indy -- and it's still a roller coaster!

Michael Andretti, the driver of the No. 39 Motorola for Team Green, is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the CART season.