CART Junqueira takes provisional pole

He gained the front row for the Mario Andretti Grand Prix at Road America.
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (AP) -- Bruno Junqueira earned a spot in the front row Friday for the Mario Andretti Grand Prix at Road America, the Brazilian's favorite course on the CART circuit.
"That's the best race track in North America for me and for at least 80 percent of the drivers," he said. "Everything here is perfect."
Junqueira, a member of the Newman/Haas Racing team, earned the provisional pole in the first round of qualifying with a lap time of 1:43.917. His Newman/Haas teammate Sebastien Bourdais was second at 1:44.722.
Series points leader Paul Tracy finished was next at 1:44.725. He is 19 points ahead of Junqueira in the Champ Car standings after the qualifying round.
Eyes first win of year
Junqueira is looking for his first win this season Sunday. He has been in the top five in all but one race.
Tracy has been the driver to beat. He earned his fifth victory in eleven races last weekend at the Vancouver Molson Indy.
Tracy said the track was slick Friday after a rain storm Thursday night. He was forced to slow down more than he wanted on the turns, he said.
"We have a little bit of imbalance on the car. We're still searching for the right setup," Tracy said. "If you find just a small gain in performance it can be quite a lot of lap time."
Bourdais, the rookie points leader, put together his best time on his final full lap of qualifying.
"It took me quite a while and a second set of tires to get a quick lap," he said.
Didn't practice
Junqueira, who also had the fastest lap time in practice, looked the most comfortable on the track. He even decided not to go out on the 10-minute practice immediately before qualifying.
He said the track's long straightaways and 14 corners suit his style. He learned to race on similar road courses.
"This track is very technical with a lot of high-speed corners," he said.
Junqueira won his first CART series race at Road America in 2001. He took the pole last season, before finishing third.
So he was very frustrated when the race at Road America was taken off the CART schedule last winter. It was renamed for Andretti in April, after he helped CART and Road America resolve their differences and reinstate the event.
He and Junqueira have a similar connection to the track. Andretti won the first race for Newman/Haas at Road America in 1983.
Most successful team
The team, founded by actor Paul Newman and entrepreneur Carl A. Haas, is the most successful CART team at Road America with eight wins. The team's Cristiano da Matta won last year.
But Junqueira said his owner's history at the track hasn't put more pressure on him, because his own expectations are so high.
"The pressure that I put on myself to do well on this track is unbelievable," he said. "This is some place that I want to start from the pole and win."