• Welcome back to California Speedway for this afternoon's CART FedEx Championship Series qualifying session (11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.) in preparation for tomorrow's The 500 Presented by Toyota. The temperature in Fontana at 11:25 a.m. is 64° F with 65 percent humidity under partly sunny skies.

• The Champ Cars will qualify individually, in reverse order of the top combined practice speeds. Each qualifier will be allowed up to five warm-up laps before the two timed GREEN FLAG laps that will determine qualifying positions.

• In this morning's practice, #10 KANAAN of Mo Nunn Racing paced the session with the weekend's fastest unofficial time at 31.006 (235.580 mph) and will look grab the valuable championship point in this afternoon's qualifying session.

• On the Record…In the 2000 CART FedEx Championship Series event in California, the 2.029-mile oval served as the site for a record world closed-course record lap for auto racing. Gil de Ferran turned in a qualifying lap at a blistering 241.428 mph in just 30.255 seconds.

• At 11:33 a.m., CART FedEx Championship Series Starter Jim Swintal waves the GREEN FLAG to commence qualifying for the Champ Cars. #20 SERVIA is first out and begins the first of five possible warm-up laps before his two timed GREEN FLAG qualifying laps.

• At 11:37 a.m., #20 SERVIA turns a fast time of 32.277 seconds (226.304 mph) on his first lap. #5 TAKAGI is next.

• At 11:41 a.m., #5 TAKAGI turns a fast time of 32.050 seconds (227.906 mph) on his first lap to put him on pole. #11 FITTIPALDI is next.

• At 11:43 a.m., #11 FITTIPALDI turns a fast time of 31.877 seconds (229.143 mph) on his second lap to put him on pole. #12 BRACK is next.

• At 11:47 a.m., #12 BRACK turns a fast time of 31.981 seconds (228.398 mph) on his first lap to put him second on the speed chart. #44 DIXON is next.

• At 11:50 a.m., #44 DIXON turns a fast time of 31.923 seconds (228.813 mph) on his first lap to put him second on the speed chart. #52 NAKANO is next.

• At 11:54 a.m., #52 NAKANO turns a fast time of 31.836 seconds (229.438 mph) on his first lap to put him on pole. #51 PAPIS is next.

• At 11:58 a.m., #51 PAPIS turns a fast time of 31.798 seconds (229.713 mph) on his second lap to put him on pole. #55 DOMINGUEZ is next.

• At 12:02 p.m., #55 DOMINGUEZ turns a fast time of 32.158 seconds (227.141 mph) on his first lap to put him seventh on the speed chart. #1 DA MATTA is next.

• At 12:06 p.m., #1 DA MATTA turns a fast time of 31.679 seconds (230.575 mph) on his first lap to put him on pole. #8 VASSER is next.

• At 12:09 p.m., #8 VASSER turns a fast time of 31.736 seconds (230.161 mph) on his first lap to put him second on the speed chart. #26 TRACY is next.

• At 12:13 p.m., #26 TRACY turns a fast time of 31.734 seconds (230.176 mph) on his second lap to put him second on the speed chart. #4 JUNQUEIRA is next.

• At 12:18 p.m., #4 JUNQUEIRA turns a fast time of 31.601 seconds (231.145 mph) on his first lap to put him on pole. #39 ANDRETTI is next.

• At 12:21 p.m., #39 ANDRETTI turns a fast time of 31.685 seconds (230.532 mph) on his first lap to put him third on the speed chart. #9 JOURDAIN is next.

• At 12:24 p.m., #9 JOURDAIN turns a fast time of 31.804 seconds (229.669 mph) on his second lap to put him seventh on the speed chart. #32 CARPENTIER is next.

• At 12:28 p.m., #32 CARPENTIER turns a fast time of 31.740 seconds (230.132 mph) on his first lap to put him sixth on the speed chart. #33 TAGLIANI is next.

• At 12:31 p.m., #33 TAGLIANI turns a fast time of 31.737 seconds (230.154 mph) on his second lap to put him sixth on the speed chart. #27 FRANCHITTI is next.

• At 12:35 p.m., #27 FRANCHITTI turns a fast time of 31.759 seconds (229.995 mph) on his first lap to put him eighth on the speed chart. #10 KANAAN is next.

• At 12:38 p.m., #10 KANAAN turns a fast time of 31.483 seconds (232.011 mph) on his first lap to put him on pole. #55 DOMINGUEZ has pulled his first qualifying time and will attempt to re-qualify, as the session goes until 1:30 p.m.

• At 12:44 p.m., After pulling the 17th fastest time in qualifying, #55 DOMINGUEZ turns a fast time of 32.087 seconds (227.644 mph) on his one re-qualifying lap to put him right back in 17th on the speed chart.

• With a time of 31.483 seconds (232.011 mph) on his first qualifying lap, #10 KANAAN of Mo Nunn Racing wins the pole position for tomorrow's CART FedEx Championship Series The 500 Presented by Toyota. #4 JUNQUEIRA of Target Chip Ganassi Racing will flank #10 KANAAN on the outside of row one in the second position after posting a time of 31.601 seconds (231.145 mph) on his first lap. Newly-crowned CART FedEx Championship Series champion #1 DA MATTA of Newman/Haas Racing completed the top-three with an orbit of 31.679 seconds (230.575 mph) on his first lap.

CHAMP CAR TOP-THREE QUALIFIER QUOTES

• TONY KANAAN (#10 Pioneer/WorldCom Honda/Lola/Bridgestone): “Well to begin with, this was a payback to Bruno [Junqueira] for Japan earlier this year. But what can I say? I'm almost a mile an hour quicker so I can't complain. I knew I could do a high 231 [mph]. I did a 232 so that's fine, too. It feels good to be on pole, but by turn one I'll be in third or fourth, but then first again by turn four. It's open for everybody. Anyone can win.” (On the race) “I think there is going to be lot of passing for sure. I don't want to predict anything, but I think you'll see a lot of lead changes.”

• BRUNO JUNQUEIRA (#4 Target Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): “We improved a little bit from yesterday. It's good to qualify second of course. We didn't expect to be up here and qualify this high. Tony [Kanaan] was real strong. We tried to get the pole, but Tony was just faster.”

• CRISTIANO DA MATTA (#1 Chevron Toyota/Lola/Bridgestone): “It's good to be in here with these two guys [Kanaan and Junqueira]. It's like the same [top three] thing we had when we were in Australia last week. Of course it's a 500-mile race so it's important to have a consistent car. But third is not too bad at all. We should be very strong fort the race tomorrow. Nobody has to worry about the fuel economy issue anymore, which is great. You want to be in the front of the pack late, but not leading.”

• This concludes the CART FedEx Championship Series pit notes for Saturday, November 2, 2002 from Fontana, California. We'll see you tomorrow morning for more “Real Racing. Real Sport,” on race day as the Champ Cars gear up in tomorrow's 30-minute warm-up session at 9 a.m. followed by the 3:30 p.m. PT start of the CART FedEx Championship Series The 500 Presented by Toyota. Good night!