IndyCar - Andretti Autosport Qualifying Report

MOTEGI, Sept. 17, 2011: Marco Andretti led Andretti Autosport in Saturday's qualifications when he drove the No. 26 Team Venom Energy Drink car into the top-ten for Sunday's Indy Japan The Final IZOD IndyCar Series race at Twin Ring Motegi, north of Tokyo.

The third-generation racing star will start the 63-lap race next to current series point leader Dario Franchitti in the 10th position in the 26-driver field. Andretti, the Iowa Speedway winner, advanced through the first round of qualifying Saturday and just missed the Firestone Fast Six round by a few tenths of a second on the smooth 2.98-mile, 14-turn road circuit. Marco's time was one minute, 38.9058 seconds for an average speed of 108.576 mph. Scott Dixon won the pole position at 109.143 mph.

Other Andretti Autosport qualifiers includes New Hampshire winner Ryan Hunter-Reay, who drove the No. 28 Team DHL/Circle K/Sun Drop Citrus Soda entry to 17th on the starting grid with a speed of 108.391 mph in a very tight qualifying field. Mike Conway, the Long Beach champion, will start 20th Sunday in the No. 27 Team @FollowAndretti machine with Danica Patrick, the 2008 Motegi winner, taking the 23rd position in the No. 7 Team GoDaddy.com car.

The Japan finale will be televised live this evening at 11:30 p.m. EDT on Versus TV.

MARCO ANDRETTI, #26 TEAM VENOM ENERGY DRINK CAR

Will start 10th

"It's good to get the Venom car into the top ten on the starting grid, but we're still limited on grip. We're tipping the car over from oversteer to understeer too easily. We'll work on that tonight and hopefully be ready to go tomorrow."

MIKE CONWAY, #27 TEAM @FOLLOWANDRETTI CAR

Starts in P20

"I'm obviously disappointed that the @FollowAndretti car didn't make it through farther in qualifying. Our first lap was ok, but then I went off and after that we just didn't put a lap together. It's too bad because we ran well all day."

RYAN HUNTER-REAY, #28 TEAM DHL/ CIRCLE K/SUN DROP CITRUS SODA CAR

Will start 17th

"It's unfortunate - we didn't have a good day. We've been struggling with the car all weekend and haven't found the answer yet. Hopefully we'll turn it around and make tomorrow count for the DHL/Circle K/Sun Drop team."

DANICA PATRICK, #7 TEAM GoDaddy.com CAR

Starts the race in 23rd

"We had some problems with the gearbox today; the GoDaddy.com car wasn't downshifting or upshifting properly. The last lap was the same as the two laps before and I know I lost time shifting the car. Had everything shifted smoothly it still wouldn't have put us in the Firestone Fast Six, but it would have been nice to be a little higher on the grid. I feel like it's been a rough year with qualifying but the good news is my strength is race day. I guess if I had to choose between qualifying and race day I'd choose race day."