The Indy 500 (practice and Qual thread)

[baclightning]

Originally Posted by Geva-Nelson

Tmes from the second day of rookie orientation. Superfast times!

Alex Lloyd - Rahal Letterman Racing - 223.853
Hideki Mutoh - Andretti Green Racing - 222.600
Will Power - KV Racing - 222.267
Oriol Servia - KV Racing - 222.089
Graham Rahal - Newman-Haas-Lanigan - 221.155
Justin Wilson - Newman-Haas-Lanigan - 221.029
Ryan Hunter-Reay - Rahal Letterman Racing - 220.839
Enrique Bernoldi - Conquest Racing - 220.314
Bruno Junqueira - Dale Coyne Racing - 220.289
Davey Hamilton - Vision Racing - 219.901
EJ Viso - HVM Racing - 219.568
Max Papis - Sam Schmidt Motorsport -219.101
Jaime Camara - Conquest Racing - 219.175
Mario Moraes - Dale Coyne Racing -215.656
Jay Howard - Roth Racing - 214.587
Mario Dominguez - PCM - 214.358

Since Bruno has driven Indy four times (and I believe had the pole one of those times), why does he have to go through rookie orientation this year?

[Down F0rce]

The rookie orientation also serves as a refresher course for those who have not driven on an oval in a while or not at all.

[courageous]

Just found this - Danica hit one of Coyne's crew in Marco's pit during Friday practice (concussion & bloody face, but he'll be ok).

http://ballhype.com/video/crewman_st...s_car_in_indy/

And this one just in - John Andretti is being shown on LT&S as in the no. 24 instead of Jay Howerd (no mention of it as a news item anywhere, so could be a typo)

[Stefvh]

Andretti is driving the 24 (car of Howard), now, in the last practice befor qualifying (starts in 1.45)

[Down F0rce]

Indy Star confirms the move, but offers no explanation.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...04/1004/SPORTS

[courageous]

Pole day qualifying is on (Video, Audio & LT&S all on indycar.com), Dixon setting the early pace with a 225.1

[Alwaysfirst]

I have to say that I'm really dissapointed with Roth for replacing Howard with Andretti. I wanted Andretti to get a ride but not at the expense of a promising youngster. With any luck if both of the Roth entries qualify then Howard may get a run in one of the backup cars...but I'm not holding my breath. Not happy!!!!

[Down F0rce]

Howard will be back in the saddle for the next race, apparantly. I hope he tries to get a ride with another team and make the 500! Roth should have been the one benched.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67319

[Stefvh]

yep, that's what i would have done, as a team manager, if i was not the driver.

[ensign14]

Well, as any fule kno, the way to get a ride in US racing is to be the relative of another driver. E.g. Robby Unser, Jeff Andretti, Michael Waltrip...

This qualifying format is stupid, btw.

[Steevp]

Originally Posted by ensign14

This qualifying format is stupid, btw.

Stupid?, maybe.. but it's kept me amused for the last 5 hours..

"This last half hour is going to be kray-zeee" they just promised..

[ensign14]

They've turned qualifying into a restrictor plate race. Hang around for ages then nail it at the last second.

[Down F0rce]

I think Wheldon has a good chance at getting the pole. He turned 4 laps in the 226 mark that would have been the pole time had it been a qualifying run.

[Stefvh]

They call it "entertainment".

[Down F0rce]

Hard hit for Hunter Reay, but he's climbed out and showing no signs he's in pain.

[Down F0rce]

Dan has a run but only goes to second (from third).

[Down F0rce]

Dixon wins the pole.

[Stefvh]

That's it,

Dixon 226,366
Wheldon 226,110
Briscoe 226,080
Castroneves 225,733
Patrick 225,197
Kanaan 224,794
M. Andretti 224,417
Meira 224,346
Mutoh 223,887
Carpenter 223,835
Scheckter 223,496

[NAC]

On ya Scotty

Now just go out and win the thing

[tanalised]

nice one Scott.
awesome!

[Fish_Flake]

Scott Dixon has had some success at Indianapolis (three top-10 finishes, including runner-up last year), but the 2003 IRL champion is still looking for his first 500-mile win; 2008 will be the first time he has started on the front row at the Brickyard.

Dan Wheldon has started the Indy 500 on the front row twice. Both times, he finished the race one position behind where he started: in 2004, he started second and finished third, while he finished fourth from third in 2006. His 2005 Indy win came from the sixteenth starting position.

Ryan Briscoe has only qualified for the Indy 500 twice, but he finished the race ahead of his starting position on both occasions. In 2005, he finished tenth from twenty-fourth for Chip Ganassi, while he moved from seventh to fifth last year for Luczo-Dragon Racing.

Helio Castroneves has six top-10 finishes at Indy, but his third-place outing last year was his first podium at the 500 since his runner-up finish in 2003. He has only started from the second row once in his career: in 2005, he started fifth and finished ninth.

Danica Patrick has never placed outside the top ten in the race or in qualifying at Indianapolis. Her fifth-place starting position is her best qualifying effort for the 500 since starting fourth during her 2005 rookie season.

Tony Kanaan's sixth-place qualifying effort is the worst starting position of his Indy career.

Marco Andretti started ninth at both of his previous runnings at Indy.

Vitor Meira has never finished worse than twelfth in five tries at the 500.

Hideki Mutoh's ninth-place starting position ties him with Kosuke Matsuura in 2004 for the second-best qualifying effort by an Indy rookie from Japan; Tora Takagi started seventh for his first Indy 500 in 2002.

Ed Carpenter's tenth-place starting position is his best in five tries at Indy; his previous best was twelfth, in 2006.

Tomas Scheckter finds himself in a familiar position: all seven of his Indy starts have come from the fourth row.

[ozrevhead]

Well done Ryan great qualifying effor there

Needs a craker of a start to have a chance

[Alwaysfirst]

I haven't got a link but I've heard a rumour that Jeff Simmons may make his way into the #41 Foyt car. If so then good for him...and better for Foyt than to have Larry running around the track crashing into anything that moves.

There are also still rumours that Paul Tracy may make it to Indy through Penske lending Walker their #77 car.

Roger Yasukawa, Alex Barron and Franck Perera are all still being linked with the Beck car and it is possible that he'll run two cars if he can scrape together enough sponsorship from somewhere.

PDM have yet to announce anything much and we'll be lucky to see them get on track. The same is true for the second Panther entry. If either get on track then with any luck they'll hire somebody with a chance of getting them in the field such as Jacques Lazier or Stephan Gregoire, both of whom are still actively looking for a ride.

American Dream have said that Jacques is definatly not driving for them...but somebody else apart from Giebler may well do. There are still tons of rumours about a second ADR car. Whether any of these have any factual content remains to be seen though.

With any luck Roth will be able to field a third car for poor Jay Howard. Andretti MAY be bringing Camping World money again & if so, and both cars manage to qualify fairly safely, Roth may do the decent thing and give Howard a go in a backup.

I wouldn't give up on seeing a few extra cars appearing from around the place as qualifying draws to a close, especially from Foyt who can never be ruled out from trying to get another of his cars in the mix, no matter how badly his other cars are doing, or possibly even from HVM, who originally announced that they would try to be a 2 car team from Indy. They may try to get the spare into the mix if Viso qualifys well. We will see!!!

And well done to Scott Dixon for getting the pole!

[Down F0rce]

Simmons confirmed for the 41 Foyt machine.

http://www.indycar.com/news/story.php?story_id=11314

[climb]

Good