Indy 500

[IndyAndy]

A slightly slower day today as Simon Pagenaud tops the charts with a lap at 228.793. Josef Newgarden had the day's lone wall-banger.

 

[Retroram52]

Newgarden is really lucky he had his left front tag the wall first before the back hit because he was headed for a driver-first collision with the wall as well.

 

[IndyAndy]

Fast Friday lived up to it's name as six drivers cracked the 230+ mph mark. Simon Pagenaud lead the way with a lap at 230.698. There were no wall-bangers as far as I can find.

 

[IndyAndy]

Here is a 'primer' on the qualifications procedures, which look like they've been changed up since the last time that I was there for Pole Day.

www.indycar.com

Looks hopelessly complicated to me. I don't understand why they have to keep 'tinkering' with this.

 

[Retroram52]

I don't either Indy. Instead of working on the problem areas of this series, they continue to futz with items that are working. It's a recipe for eventual disaster. How about Marco Andretti placing fourth in practice. Perhaps this is the year, the youngest Andretti wins this thing and breaks the Andretti jinx cloud hanging over them.

 

[IndyAndy]

Oh, wow! - Castroneves puts in a lap at 233.474 in pre-qualy practice this morning. That's the fastest lap that anyone has done at Indy in nearly 20 years!

 

[IndyAndy]

Qualifying has been scrubbed for today due to rain. Only Ryan Hunter-Reay & Carlos Huertas got attempts in before the weather hit. A condensed qualy schedule will take place tomorrow starting at 10am - weather permitting.

 

[IndyAndy]

Qualifying is on hold for the time being. Ed Carpenter had an incident this morning, getting airborne like Castroneves & Newgarden did in days past. INDYCAR is holding an 'emergency' session to determine what - if anything - can be done to keep these type of accidents from happening again.

 

[IndyAndy]

Here is the latest:

Qualifying has been pushed back until 3:15 pm. All cars must qualify in race trim, & nobody can use extra 'boost' for quals. Each car will get only one qualy attempt. There will be no fast 9 shoot-out, but there will still be an extra session to set the back row of the grid.

Now if only the weather will cooperate.

 

[Retroram52]

Ed Carpenter is the third driver of a Chevy to wreck and flip. Chevrolet contends there is no correlation between the Chevy aero package and the wrecking AND flipping. These guys best be careful and not try to CYA or somebody is going to get hurt or worse if there is a correlation and they are covering this thing up.

 

[Retroram52]

Dixon takes the pole and Mills takes power out of the cars and requires greater down-force in light of the three flipped car accidents this week.

 

[IndyAndy]

Dixon takes the pole and Mills takes power out of the cars and requires greater down-force in light of the three flipped car accidents this week.

Here are the official results:

www.indycar.com

As noted, the car qualified by Tristian Vautier will move back to the 33rd starting spot for the race, as it will see a change in driver (James Davidson will drive). All cars from Alex Tagiani on back will advance one grid spot.

1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier was the odd man out after quals, & will be watching the race from the sidelines.

 

[Retroram52]

Justin Wilson and Marco Andretti lead the Andretti Autosport contingency and the Honda camp by qualifying 6th and 8th respectively. Wilson may just sneak up on some people.

 

[Retroram52]

Now Hinchcliffe has a front right suspension part break at 220+mph in a Honda and he heads right for the wall. He's lucky to be alive. He was taken to the hospital to remove a piece of the car from his hip. Apparently during the accident, a piece of the car broke off and embedded in his hip. Lots of blood the reports are saying.

 

[forty_three]

Prayers for the Mayor.

No way any of that should have happened.

 

[IndyAndy]

Hinchcliffe will be out of the car for a long time. No word yet on who will fill in for him.

www.indycar.com

 

[Retroram52]

He yet another driver lucky to still be amongst the living.

 

[IndyAndy]

Ryan Briscoe will replace Hinch in the #5 car.

www.indystar.com

 

[IndyAndy]

I went to Carb Day today: Here are some pics.

1st up was final practice for the IndyCars:





Then there was the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race, which featured a pretty good battle up front all race long:





Then there was the Pit Stop Competition:



Finally there was the concert, featuring O.A.R., 38 Special and Jane's Addiction. Unfortunately, we couldn't get very close to the stage, and had to rely on watching it via the Jumbotrons:

 

[Texas Jefe]

here we go