Panther Racing had it’s best qualifying effort in some time this weekend.  In addition to Carpenter’s pole position, regular driver Dan Wheldon will start 3rd.  Splitting the teammates will be Series points leader Will Power.  In an odd situation, Power’s teammates both qualified outside of the top-five, with Helio Castroneves in 8th and Ryan Briscoe 9th.

Scott Dixon gives Ganassi a front-row presence by starting 4th, but Dario Franchitti finds himself starting 11th, his worst starting position on an oval this season, and his worst starting position overall since the fourth race of the season, Long Beach, where he started 12th.

The biggest surprise of qualifying has to be Bertrand Baguette.  Driving for the small Conquest Racing, Baguette will start 6th, alongside Hideki Mutoh.  This is by far Baguette’s best starting position of the year, his previous best 13th at Sonoma.  Baguette’s teammate, Tomas Scheckter, will start 10th, and hopefully have a better race than he did at Chicago, where he crashed with Raphael Matos 4 laps in.

Andretti Autosport had a disappointing round of qualifying, with Marco Andretti again giving them their highest starting position.  Unlike Chicago, where that position was 5th, this week it is 15th.  Danica Patrick starts 17th, Tony Kanaan 26th, and Ryan Hunter-Reay 27th.

Tomas Scheckter returns for Conquest Racing in #36, and will start 10th.
Paul Tracy will drive the #24 Dreyer & Reinbold entry at Kentucky and at Twin Ring Motegi in the place of Mike Conway.  He starts 23rd at Kentucky.
Graham Rahal will rejoin Sarah Fisher Racing for the race at Kentucky and will start 25th.
Racing legend Rick Mears will give the command for drivers to start their engines.  Mears is a four-time Indianapolis 500 champion (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991) and a three-time CART Champion (1979, 1981, 1982).
Chip Ganassi was honored by his hometown of Pittsburgh, PA this week with Chip Ganassi Day.  Ganassi’s team won the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, and Brickyard 400 this year.
Cincinnati Bengals WR Terrell Owens will be part of the pre-race, as he will go around ahead of the field in the IndyCar Two-seater driven by Arie Luyendyk.

Former winners at Kentucky include Tony Kanaan (2007), Scott Dixon (2008), and Ryan Briscoe (2009).  In Indy Lights competition, Hideki Mutoh won in 2007.

Here’s a good interview with Ed Carpenter by IndyCar blogger pressdog.
***
Row 1
Inside:  #20 Ed Carpenter - Panther Racing - 217.933 mph
Outside:  #12 Will Power - Team Penske - 217.829 mph

Row 2
Inside:  #4 Dan Wheldon - Panther Racing - 217.700 mph
Outside:  #9 Scott Dixon - Target Chip Ganassi Racing - 217.533 mph

Row 3
Inside:  #06 Hideki Mutoh - Newman/Haas Racing - 217.374 mph
Outside:  #34 Bertrand Baguette - Conquest Racing - 216.988 mph

Row 4
Inside:  #32 Mario Moraes - KV Racing Technology - 216.879 mph
Outside:  #3 Helio Castroneves - Team Penske - 216.857 mph

Row 5
Inside:  #6 Ryan Briscoe - Team Penske - 216.600 mph
Outside:  #36 Tomas Scheckter - Conquest Racing - 216.589 mph

Row 6
Inside:  #10 Dario Franchitti - Target Chip Ganassi Racing - 216.533 mph
Outside:  #14 Vitor Meira - A.J. Foyt Enterprises - 216.434 mph

Row 7
Inside:  #77 Alex Tagliani - FAZZT Race Team - 216.391 mph
Outside:  #5 Takuma Sato - KV Racing Technology - 216.265 mph

Row 8
Inside:  #26 Marco Andretti - Andretti Autosport - 216.173 mph
Outside:  #22 Justin Wilson - Dreyer & Reinbold Racing - 215.944 mph

Row 9
Inside:  #7 Danica Patrick - Andretti Autosport - 215.820 mph
Outside:  #19 Alex Lloyd - Dale Coyne Racing - 215.272 mph

Row 10
Inside:  #78 Simona de Silvestro - HVM Racing - 215.003 mph
Outside:  #2 Raphael Matos - de Ferran Dragon Racing - 214.948 mph

Row 11
Inside:  #67 Sarah Fisher - Sarah Fisher Racing - 214.813 mph
Outside:  #8 E.J. Viso - KV Racing Technology - 214.595 mph

Row 12
Inside:  #24 Paul Tracy - Dreyer & Reinbold Racing - 214.270 mph
Outside:  #18 Milka Duno - Dale Coyne Racing - 213.343 mph

Row 13
Inside:  #66 Graham Rahal - Sarah Fisher Racing - 212.364 mph
Outside:  #11 Tony Kanaan - Andretti Autosport - 210.831 mph

Row 14
Inside:  #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay - Andretti Autosport - ---
***
Race coverage begins tomorrow, Saturday September 4, at 8:00 pm Eastern on Versus.

The San Jose Sharks are set to sign former Chicago Blackhawks cast-off goaltender Antti Niemi to a one-year, $2 million contract, according to multiple reports in both cities.

The cash-strapped Blackhawks let Niemi walk rather than pay an arbitrator’s decision to award the Finn a reported $2.75 million contract for the 2010-11 season.

In an unusual aftermath, the 27-year-old Niemi became an unrestricted free agent less than three months after leading the ‘Hawks to their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

He split time during the regular season with Cristobal Huet and was 26-7-4 with a 2.25 goals-against average, seven shutouts and a .912 save percentage—then went 16-6 with a 2.63 GAA and two shutouts in the playoffs.

The Sharks, meanwhile, needed insurance against the loss of veteran Evgeni Nabokov, who signed to play in Russia. San Jose signed fellow Finn Antero Niittymaki to a two-year contract in July and holdover Thomas Greiss is also in the mix.

Now I’m sitting here all fucking stressed out. I have full coverage, but now I DON’T HAVE A FUCKING CAR!!! I just paid the thing off last year.

More goddamn car payments… I catch the asshole, he’s gonna wish the cops got to him first.

How fuckin’ cool am I? no worries I’m okay....  that van was a piece of shit anyway..... oh it was in Chicago down that street over there