NAZARETH, Pa. (May 5, 2001) - Bruno Junqueira of Target Chip Ganassi Racingbecame the first rookie in over a year to earn a FedEx Championship Seriespole position Saturday when he grabbed the pole for Sunday's Lehigh ValleyGrand Prix Presented by Toyota at Nazareth Speedway (1 p.m. ET, live,ABC-TV).

Junqueira (Target Toyota Lola), who paced Friday's practice sessions with alap of 166.246 miles per hour (20.485 seconds), averaged 172.873 mph (19.700seconds) on his fastest lap of the 0.946-mile oval. He will lead 24 fellowcompetitors to the green flag when Round 3 of the championship begins 1 p.m.ET Sunday.

Junqueira's pole position was the first for a FedEx Championship Seriesrookie since Alex Tagliani of Player's Forsythe Racing claimed the pole atRio de Janeiro on April 29, 2000. It was also the third in a row for TargetChip Ganassi Racing at Nazareth, following back-to-back pole-winning effortsby Juan Montoya in 1999 and last year.

A Brazilian native and the 2000 European Formula 3000 champion, Junqueirawill be seeking his second consecutive points-paying finish Sundayafternoon. He finished ninth in his most recent start at Long Beach, Calif.on April 8.

Team Rahal's Kenny Brack claimed the outside pole at an average speed of172.540mph (19.738 seconds). Brack (Shell Ford Lola) has qualified among thetop two drivers at every stop on the 2001 FedEx Championship Series tour,including poles at Monterrey, Mexico and Texas.

Michel Jourdain Jr. (Herdez Ford Lola) of Herdez Bettenhausen qualifiedthird at 170.707 mph (19.950 seconds). The effort marked a career-best forthe six-year veteran, exceeding fifth at California Speedway in 1997.

Rounding out the top five drivers were Oriol Servia (Sigma Autosport FordLola) of Sigma Autosport, who was fourth at 170.314 mph (19.996 seconds) andHelio Castroneves (Marlboro Honda Reynard) of Marlboro Team Penske, who wasfifth at 170.220 mph (20.007 seconds).

FedEx Championship Series leader Cristiano da Matta (Texaco/Havoline/KmartToyota Lola) of Newman/Haas Racing qualified ninth at 168.912 mph (20.162seconds), while defending event and FedEx Championship Series champion Gilde Ferran (Marlboro Honda Reynard) of Marlboro Team Penske was 15th at167.607 mph (20.319 seconds).

Twenty-three of 24 qualifiers were separated by less than one second.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA, Target Toyota Lola: "I'm very happy that I could do a goodqualifying. It's important to do a good start, but I don't know what it'sgoing to be like. It's great to be on the pole for the first oval race in mylife. I knew I could do really well here, because Team Target has a good caron ovals. I like driving ovals, my style fits to it. I thought I would dowell on the road courses, but I made some mistakes this year, but thebiggest change is I'm lucky. I'm feeling very comfortable on the ovalsrunning by myself. Because I have no experience in a race, I'm going to letthe Team Target engineers do it. The car can be good in qualifying, but notgood in the race, but they know what to do."

KENNY BRACK, Shell Ford Lola: "We've had a good weekend with Team Rahal andthe Lola/Ford package. It was a little difficult to qualify here when thetemperature changes. We were a little bit conservative, but we're still onthe front row. It's important to qualify well here. I was a little worriedabout everything when we switched to the Lola. We had a lot of experiencewith the Reynard, and this is all new. We didn't run good at all in wintertesting on the road courses. We ran only two days on ovals in testing, andran the rest on the road courses. We kind of expected the Lola to be a goodoval car because it was last year. From the driver's perspective, it's kindof difficult to start from a clean sheet of paper and develop all newsetups. We're working together and the driver has to steer the team in theright direction. It's been interesting and hard, but we've come a long wayin a short time."

MICHEL JOURDAIN JR., Herdez Ford Lola: "I think it was a good weekend sofar. The whole year Herdez Bettenhausen has shown it is very good. I knewthis season we were going to be competitive when we changed to the Fordengine. I knew we had a good car, and we made changes for qualifying. Itdoesn't take a lot to go faster or slower. Oriol [Servia] went out before meand he was fast, and I knew that if he was fast, I would be fast. We've gotto change things for the race. We always have a good race car on the shortovals, so hopefully I'll have a good car for the race. I feel very, verycomfortable. I just have to be smart. I think all the years I've been here[in the FedEx Championship Series], every year I've had some good races. Butwhen we got the Ford-Cosworth engine, and I saw the changes we made in theteam, I knew we were going to be good. After so many years with so manyproblems, I started to have some doubts. Everybody's enjoying it a lot. Theguys can see that their work is making a difference."

ORIOL SERVIA, Sigma Autosport Ford Lola: "I'mhappy because I think I did a pretty good lap and the car ran very well. Onthe first lap I did an 'okay' lap with no mistakes, but on the second lap Ijust pushed a little more and found a little understeer and that's where Ithink I lost a little bit of time. I think the car has been great, the teamis doing a good job and we'll see. Wejust have to have a nice, consistent race to the end. We've been showingthat we have the speed and we've been showing lots of potential, but we needa result. It's only the third race of the season, although it feels like theseason's half over and I don't want to get too excited, but I think it'snormal. It's the first year of the team and the third race ever for thisteam, so we have to go step by step and hope for a finish in the points."

GIL DE FERRAN, Marlboro Honda Reynard:
"We've been battling understeer all weekend which didn't help us in qualifying but I'm fairly confident we've got a good race car. The Marlboro car has good traction, particularly off of turn three which should help us tomorrow. I've got a big mountain to climb tomorrow -- race strategy will be crucial and it will be important to be patient and time everything very carefully. We're just going to keep our heads down, try to run a consistent race and finish strong in the points."

HELIO CASTRONEVES, Marlboro Honda Reynard:"We made the right changes to the Marlboro car last night for this morning's practice but we made sixth gear a little too tall for our qualifying run this afternoon. However, we are starting in the top-five and the car is handling well so we should be in good shape for the race. We need to stay focused, take care of the equipment, and bring it home in the points tomorrow."

MAX PAPIS, Miller Lite Ford Lola: “Our plan was to warm up the tires slowly but we got caughtout of the line a little. The rear end came around when Ihit the throttle coming out of turn four. It wasn’t hard tosave the spin. That’s my job to save it. It’s tough doingjust one lap at the end of qualifying. I did what I could. Iput myself in a difficult position with the one lap inqualifying. It’s a shame because we’ve been fast allweekend and we have a good race car. I was just tryingto get up to speed quickly on cold tires for qualifying andit got sideways.”

NICOLAS MINASSIAN, Target Toyota Lola:“The car got a little bit loose and the back of the car just came around. I hit the wall prettyhard but I am feeling fine. I am looking forward to getting back in the car tomorrow. It will be my first race on anoval and I will have to start from the back of the field. It will be tough but I am ready for the challenge.”

WHAT'S NOTEWORTHY

• Michael Andretti (Motorola Honda Reynard) qualified 13th for theLehigh Valley Grand Prix Presented by Toyota at 168.552 miles per hour(20.205 seconds). When he takes the green flag Sunday, he will tie Al UnserJr.'s record of 273 CART career starts. Andretti is a two-time winner atNazareth (1987, '96) and has scored championship points in 11 of 13 startsat the venue, with 10 top-six finishes.
• Bruno Junqueira's (Target Toyota Lola) pole was the fourthconsecutive FedEx Championship Series pole for a Toyota-powered driver on aone-mile oval, dating to the start of the 2000 season. It is also the fourthconsecutive one-mile oval pole for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Juan Montoyaswept pole positions at Nazareth, Milwaukee and Chicago last season.
• Kenny Brack's (Shell Ford Lola) fourth consecutive front-rowqualifying effort encompasses pole positions at Mexico and Dallas andoutside poles at Long Beach and Nazareth. It marks a Team Rahal record forconsecutive front-row starts, topping the mark of three straight shared byBobby Rahal (1992) and Bryan Herta (1999). Entering the season, Brack'sprevious career-best qualifying effort was second at Japan last year.
• Michel Jourdain Jr.'s (Herdez Ford Lola) career-best qualifyingeffort came in his 84th start. His first start, at Long Beach in 1996, madehim the youngest driver ever to start FedEx Championship Series event, atage 19 years, 6 months and 12 days.

WHAT'S ON TAP

Qualifying for the Lehigh Valley Grand Prix Presented by Toyota will air12:30 a.m. ET Sunday on ESPN2. CART 2Day airs 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2,while ABC-TV's live race broadcast begins 1 p.m. ET. Sunday's race will alsoair on the CART Radio Network and on CART's official website, atwww.cart.com .