BUMP DAY EXCITEMENT AT INDY

BUMP DAY EXCITEMENT AT INDY

By Joe Shivak

 

Indianapolis, IN ( May 22 ) ……….The field is now full for the 100^th Anniversary  running of the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day.  Rain continued to play havoc on the drivers and teams as twice the track had to be dried after rain showers on Sunday.  When the gun sounded at 6:00 pm signaling the end of qualifying , the last car on the track was Marco Andretti.  He was on his warm up lap when qualifications officially ended and was allowed under the rules to complete his run.

   Andretti turned an average speed of 224.628 mph which earned him the 28^th spot but bumped his team mate Ryan Hunter-Reay.  Only two out of the four team cars will make the race.  Reay was the last official car bumped from the field. Their team had entered four cars, the most of any team, but suffered on Pole Day with lack of speed, missing the 24 available spots.

     There was a scramble between Andretti Autosport drivers Marco Andretti and Mike Conway for the final starting spot with less than a hour to go on the final day.  Conway withdrew his car while Andretti’s #26 remained on the bubble with a speed of 223.688 mph. With less than 10 minutes left to qualify, Raphael Matos, who was bumped earlier, turned in attempt with laps in the 222.000 mph range, but too slow to bump Andretti.

      Alex Lloyd in the Dale Coyne Racing #19 who was also bumped from the field, went out to remake the field with about 7 minutes left.  His 223.957 mph average put him in the 30^th starting spot.  This bumped Andretti from the field and put his team mate Hunter-Reay on the bubble.

           A rain shower late in the afternoon cut short the track time and put team mate Danica Patrick in jeopardy of missing the race. Once track drying was complete, Patrick qualified in the ninth row joining fellow female drivers Samona De Silvestro, Pippa Mann, and Anna Beatriz.  Mann, a rookie from England, joins fellow rookies JR Hildebrand, Jay Howard,  Charlie Kimball and James Hinchcliffe in making the starting field. All five of these drivers are graduates of the Indy Lights Series. James Jakes, Speed and Tung are the rookies who will have to wait another year to race in their first Indy 500.

          Paul Tracy, Ryan Briscoe, Graham Rahal, and Kimball all turned qualifying laps between the rain shower delays  and were never at risk in being bumped from the field.  Briscoe had recovered from a practice crash on Pole Day. He is the final and worst  of  the three Team Penske drivers who are in the race.

         After 24 spots were locked in on Pole Day Saturday, qualifications continued today. Scott Speed was replaced by Patrick Carpentier in the Dragon Racing car #20. He suffered a practice crash when he backed the car into the first turn wall after completing a few laps. He remained in the car for a few minutes but was later able to exit it under his own power. Dragon Racing’s other entry, the # 8 car, was involved in a wreck during qualifying on Pole Day. Driver Ho-Pin Tung, also a rookie, suffered a concussion and was not cleared to drive for seven days.  Tung was the first ever driver entered from China. Neither driver had a back up car available.

     Alex Tagliani won the pole on Saturday with a four lap average of 227.472 mph, while Beatriz is the slowest car to make the race with a speed of 223.879 mph.  The qualified cars will return to the track on Friday for Carburetion Day, which is the final tune up before the world’s greatest race on Sunday.