Elkhart Lake, Wis. ? After Bruno Junqueira hit the wall on his final qualifying lap Saturday, a smile seemed to leave his face for the first time since his arrival at Road America.

But it didn’t take long for the smile to return.

“I just love this place,” the defending race champion said after nipping CART series leader Cristiano da Matta for the pole for today’s Motorola 220, despite the crash.

Just like Friday, it came down to the final few moments of the 60-minute qualifying session, with Junqueira and fellow Brazilian da Matta battling for the top spot.

Da Matta, trying to end a three-race mini-slump, started Saturday’s session on the provisional pole after a lap of 1 minute, 42.640 seconds at 141.980 mph.

While da Matta was unable to improve on that lap, Junqueira went gunning for his childhood friend and finally knocked him off the top spot just one minute from the end with a lap of 1:42.151 at 142.659.

As the checkered flag waved to end qualifying for today’s 60-lap race on the four-mile road course, both drivers were near the back of the long, hilly layout working on one last, fast lap.

“The team told me it was the last lap and I was pushing very, very hard,” Junqueira said. “I was three-tenths (of a second) better than my fast lap.”

As he neared Canada Corner, the 12th of 14 turns and one of the fastest on the course, Junqueira saw Shinji Nakano’s car rolling slowly at the edge of the track.

“I saw Shinji about 10 car-lengths ahead of me,” Junqueira said. “He got two tires into the gravel and I thought he would continue with speed.”

Instead, Nakano slowed and pulled onto the track directly in front of the speeding Team Target car. As Junqueira darted to the right to avoid the slower car, he spun, slapped the tire barrier and came to rest on the track.

At that point, da Matta was the only driver left with a chance to beat Junqueira.

“I was on my last lap and was going pretty good when my team told me Bruno was stopped on the track and there wasn’t much room on either side,” da Matta said. “I had to slow down and that was it. It’s disappointing. I’m not sure if we could have challenged for the pole, but I think we have a good car for the race tomorrow.”

Da Matta, who won five of the first nine events before his problems began three races ago, remained confident.

“The speed and the performance has been there all the time,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting everything together, which is sometimes a little bit out of our control.”

Junqueira, who started 10th here last year, came away with his second pole of the season and third of his career. He said his Toyota-powered Lola sustained only minor damage and would be ready for the race.

Alex Tagliani wound up third at 141.919, followed by Scott Dixon at 141.584. Dario Franchitti, third Friday at 141.497, was unable to improve Saturday after a bolt snapped on his front suspension early in the session.

Patrick Carpentier, winner of two of the last three races and second in the series standings, had another frustrating day.

After experiencing turbocharger problems on Friday, when he was 15th among the 18 qualifiers, Carpentier had electrical problems on Saturday and improved only to 12th.