Every qualifying session, when teams wait and wait to go out, I generally lists reasons on the air as to why they should be out there. Sometimes I feel I am over-stepping my boundaries by giving my opinion on how to qualify, especially when the track is quiet and the teams actually hear what I say. I usually follow my comments with something like “but that’s why I’m up in the booth and not running a race team”. But today, after what happened in qualifying, I felt more like saying “I told you so!”

When every teams waits until the last possible minute to go out there, then this is exactly what happens. Sure, going out early would have probably meant going somewhat slower than if waiting for more rubber and a dryer track. But, isn’t it better than what happened today? I don’t know if teams expected to beat AJ’s time from yesterday, and that’s why they waited at the very last minute to go. But some team should have gone out early, had the entire track to themselves and at least put down some times that may have been good enough for provisional pole. It would have today! AJ was the fastest driver out there today and he accomplished that ‘quick lap’ on his 4th before a red came out. Then traffic a plenty. Then another red. Nobody teams were able to get a good flow out there and as a result, only two drivers, I think, actually completed 7 of their 15 allotted laps. Not even half!

Hey, when there’s no action on the track during green flag qualifying, I need something to talk about. So I bring up the positives of going out early. Am I just filling dead-air? For the most part. But dang it, most of the time I firmly believe that teams should go out and run a stint early. It may not pay-off every time, but today it would have. I told you so!

That Chuck Swolzman continues to impress with every race as he captured the pole position for the tomorrow’s Napa Auto Part Atlantic race. That’s bad news for the rest of the field, cause like I mentioned last week prior to Toronto, he’s got an ability to take off from the pack and just staying with him is difficult, let alone passing him. Its going to be very tough for these Atlantic cars to pass in Edmonton and most of the passing will need to be done right off the opening green or following yellow flags. There’s lots of wide open space for passing, but its so fast (the track is) that Swolzman is definitely sitting in a great position to capture his 4th win of the season. However, last week he seemed on his way when he suffered a mechanical breakdown. Certainly not likely to happen two races in a row, but I bet there are a few teams in the Atlantic Paddock that hope it does!

66 thousand plus on a rained plagued Saturday. Yeah, not bad.