Kanaan posted the fastest lap for KVRT on each of the seven practice sessions leading up to qualifying, was the first car to take to the track this morning and initially posted a four-lap average of 225.100, which would have placed him sixth.  However, during post-qualifying technical inspection the car failed due to a technical infraction of the camera ballast rule.  This forced Kanaan to make a second attempt and he nailed it with the 224.751 mph average, which coincidentally, again put him sixth on the speed charts and got him back into the Fast Nine while also knocking his childhood friend Barrichello out of the top-nine.  The 37-year-old Brazilian will be contesting his 11th Indy 500.   He has qualified in the top-six in eight of his 11 attempts at the Speedway with one pole, in 2005.  In 10 previous races he has finished in the top-10 five times with a best showing of second in 2004 (placed third in 2003, fourth in 2011 and fifth in 2008).  Kanaan, who has led a total of 214 laps at the speedway and is the only driver in history to lead laps in his first seven Indy 500 starts.

“It was tough qualifying the first time and even tougher the second,” Kanaan said.  “The crew was very emotional because they felt they let me down.  But, how many times have I let them down.  We win as a team and lose as at team.  I’m just glad we were able to get back into the Fast Nine.  We will finish working on our race setup tomorrow and then see what we can do about getting my first win at Indy next Sunday.”