Review: "500" Pole Day

Wow...what a day! There was all sorts of fun drama both on and off the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today, and the best part is that I was there for nearly all of it! I have to say that I really did enjoy the new qualifying format, though it was made far less interesting by the fact that the major gauntlet (which I'll get to in a second) was thrown by the very first driver out. Still, a ton of people showed up on a beautiful day to watch ugly, underpowered cars take individual qualifying runs, and that's a good thing. Also, I learned that Eddie Money has more songs that just "Two Tickets to Paradise"...who knew?! Anyhow, on to the qualifying...

First and foremost, just when everyone and their mothers were convinced that the pole speed would be within the 226-m.p.h. range, Helio Castroneves says, "TO HELL WITH THAT!" and plops a 228 at the top of the scoring pylon. His four laps averaged out to just under 228, but there was still quite a bit of incredulity in the grandstands when he completed his run. The fact that no one could get within half a mile-per-hour of that speed is a testament to just how perfect Helio's laps were.

Joining Helio in the shootout for the top nine were a few surprises -- namely Graham Rahal, Hideki Mutoh, and Ed Carpenter. It was really good to see those guys able to take an extra run as the day wound down. What would have been a surprise had he not been serving notice all week was Alex Tagliani's presence in the top five; He might have been even higher had he been able to catch the magic that he had earlier in the day.

Notable in their absence from anything relevant was Andretti Autosport -- when I say "relevant", I mean "pertaining to the leaderboard". In a day where people like Bertrand Baguette and Townsend Bell ended the day qualified in the field, two of Andretti's cars missed the top 24 and the three that made it weren't exactly impressive. Marco was never that thrilled with his car, but he remained relatively calm about it. Ryan Hunter-Reay certainly could have felt better, but 17th and locked in is fantastic compared to where he was last year around this time (chewing his fingernails on bump day).

Then Danica Patrick made her run. Then Danica opened her mouth before her brain had time to catch up. She got on the PA system, which everyone, including her crew, will hear as it is being broadcast, and said her lack of speed wasn't her fault, and that the car was bad. In fact, she went so far as to say that she knows the car is good, but the setup of the car is bad. Someday, this woman will understand Teamwork 101 and the idea of "constructive criticism".

In case the mood wasn't bad enough at AA, Tony Kanaan's qualifying run ended just as soon as it began. Coming out of the first turn, the car snapped around 180-degrees. Tony let the car roll backwards a bit, then appeared to try and whip the car back around or slam on the brakes. Unfortunately, he was too late to properly slow the car and it did another 180 right into the Turn 2 wall. Apparently, the engine block was split by the impact and Tony's day was over long before it should have been.

Also having major trouble on the day was KV Racing. Their day got off to a rocky start when Takuma Sato found the wall during practice. Then their first driver out, Paul Tracy, was grabbing a gear on his warm-up lap and the gearbox jumped to neutral. Then Mario Moraes slid through Turn 2 on his way to the backstretch wall. Then E.J. Viso was in the middle of his first run when he suddenly cut the engine heading into Turn 1. Moraes and Viso recovered to make the field, but Tracy and Sato need to find their way into the final three rows or miss the show.

This will all make for a rather interesting Bump Day, with names like Tracy, Kanaan, J. Andretti, Fisher, Meira, Foyt IV, and Sato trying to put themselves into the field. I won't be there in person, but I will try my best to provide a report when the time comes. Until then, cheers!

PROVISIONAL GRID: 94TH INDIANAPOLIS 500-MILE RACE
1. #3 Helio Castroneves, 2:37.9154 (227.970)
2. #12 Will Power, 2:38.1876 (227.578)
3. #10T Dario Franchitti, 2:38.5970 (226.990)

4. #6 Ryan Briscoe, 2:38.9027 (226.554)
5. #77 Alex Tagliani, 2:39.0178 (226.390)
6. #9 Scott Dixon, 2:39.1277 (226.233)

7. #30 Graham Rahal, 2:39.6319 (225.519)
8. #20 Ed Carpenter, 2:40.3514 (224.507)
9. #06 Hideki Mutoh, 2:41.0831 (223.487)
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10. #99 Townsend Bell, 2:39.9313 (225.097)
11. #22 Justin Wilson, 2:39.9647 (225.050)
12. #2 Raphael Matos, 2:39.9798 (225.028)

13. #32 Mario Moraes, 2:40.0794 (224.888)
14. #21 Davey Hamilton, 2:40.1053 (224.852)
15. #24 Mike Conway, 2:40.2969 (224.583)

16. #26 Marco Andretti, 2:40.3030 (224.575)
17. #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2:40.3227 (224.547)
18. #4 Dan Wheldon, 2:40.3821 (224.464)

19. #8T E.J. Viso, 2:40.4424 (224.380)
20. #23 Tomas Scheckter, 2:40.5270 (224.261)
21. #25 Ana Beatriz, 2:40.5402 (224.243)

22. #78 Simona de Silvestro, 2:40.5511 (224.228)
23. #7 Danica Patrick, 2:40.5584 (224.217)
24. #36 Bertrand Baguette, 2:40.5785 (224.189)