Dan Wheldon and Marco Andretti have been put to the back of the grid for today's Kansas IndyCar race after they were judged to have illegally crossed the white line at the bottom of the track during their qualifying runs.
Wheldon's third place had been his best qualifying result since rejoining Panther last year, but he remains optimistic that he can still have a strong race from the tail of the field.
"This weekend we've obviously got a very good car and I like this track, and while there's still a long way to go in this race weekend, we're quietly confident that we have a very good package and we're hoping to have a very good race," he said.
Andretti had qualified 11th before the officials' ruling.
The demotions mean Dario Franchitti and Hideki Mutoh move up to third and fourth places, with FAZZT's Alex Tagliani and Foyt's Vitor Meira impressively sharing row three.