Okay, that photo only represents half of the day. After some early AM rain, a squall developed and blew through the area around 12:30. The rain wasn't so bad, and the track dried pretty quickly, but the real problem was the wind that pushed the squall through the area.
The qualification runs were all sorts of hairy, with drivers pushing up the track or getting wobbly on the exits of turns. Notable incidents: John Andretti pushed wide in Turn 2 and backed way off, M***a D**o ran high into Turn 1 and came within about an inch of hitting the wall, Nelson Philippe was all over the place on his qualifying run. While D**o's incident might've been her fault for not getting low enough in the turn, Andretti and Philippe were toyed with by the winds.
The interesting thing is that the weather is supposed to be spectacular tomorrow, which means that speeds are probably going to be decidedly higher than what we saw today. Not only will there be bumping, but there could be a reshuffling of the entire back third of the field. It should be interesting to watch.
Other notes from today:
-Bruno Junquiera will be putting together a one-day qualifying setup tomorrow with Conquest Racing. The car was painted up in the All Sport energy drink colors yesterday and today, and everything will be taken care of for tomorrow.
-Several bricks at the start/finish line came loose yesterday and viciously attacked the undertray of Mario Moraes' car. From what I saw, the mortar cracked, then got sucked up by the ground effects of the cars, which left the bricks themselves to jump around. They were replaced last night and everything was set for today.
-Sarah Fisher announced to the world via Twitter that she will be appearing on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday. You bet your left nut I'll be watching that.
-The fine folks at Indy500.com decided to put their streaming video to excellent use by placing a camera in the radio sky-lair during qualifying. I thought it was kinda fun to watch Mike King, Johnnie Parsons, Jr, Donald Davidson, and Dave Wilson do their thing. Plus, the reaction when M***a nearly hit the wall was hilarious to watch: three guys staring at a monitor, then jumping back in surprise.
-Most important of all: There are 33 cars qualified for the 500!
93rd Indianapolis 500-Mile Race Starting Grid (as of 5/16):
1. Helio Castroneves 224.864
2. Ryan Briscoe 224.083
3. Dario Franchitti 224.010
4. Graham Rahal 223.954
5. Scott Dixon 223.867
6. Tony Kannan 223.612
7. Mario Moraes 223.331
8. Marco Andretti 223.114
9. Will Power 223.028
10. Danica Patrick 222.882
11. Alex Lloyd 222.622
12. Rafael Matos 223.429
13. Paul Tracy 223.111
14. Vitor Meira 223.054
15. Justin Wilson 222.903
16. Hideki Mutoh 222.805
17. Ed Carpenter 222.780
18. Dan Wheldon 222.777
19. A.J. Foyt IV 222.586
20. Scott Sharp 222.162
21. Sarah Fisher 222.082
22. Davey Hamilton 221.956
23. Robert Doornbos 221.692
24. Townsend Bell 221.195
25. Oriol Servia 220.984
26. Alex Tagliani 220.553
27. Tomas Scheckter 220.212
28. Mike Conway 220.124
29. E.J. Viso 219.971
30. Ryan Hunter-Reay 219.502
31. John Andretti 219.442
32. M***a D**o 218.040
33. Nelson Philippe 218.032
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