and your 33rd qualifier ended the day looking like this:
then you know something very strange was in the air at Indianapolis this afternoon. (Both photos by the AP by way of indystar.com)
The day started with a remarkable display of consistency from Tony Kanaan, who looped his car in exactly the same fashion at exactly the same spot as he did yesterday -- the comparison of the two with the reaction of Danica and the rest of the AA crew was a favorite roll-in for VERSUS as the day rolled on. After his crew rampaged through the team's vast parts bin, Kanaan provided one of the day's great stories by wrestling a hastily-put-together franken-car to a speed that was just fast enough to put him into the field. I wasn't watching on TV, but the sound of the crowd's ovation over the radio brought a tear to my eye.
One of the better stories of the day involved Bruno Junquiera, the 2002 pole-sitter, who took at a look at his total number of laps for the week (22...only 8 of which were in the car in which he was entered), shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, and put up a speed that would have had him easily in the Pole Shootout yesterday and would have put him seventh. Last year, Bruno qualified Conquest Racing's second car, but was pulled in favor of Alex Tagliani (who'd been bumped) for a sponsor's contractual reasons. This year, Tags owns his own team, and he put up the car for Bruno as repayment for what happened last year. Don't look now, but FAZZT Race Team is right there speed-wise with Ganassi and Penske with a couple of wily veterans at the wheel.
Finally, we get to the story of Columbia's Sebastian Saavedra. Normally, the TV cameras will show you the driver and team that is on the bubble to get every bit of emotion they can into the broadcast. Saavedra was nowhere near the cameras, though, because he was at Methodist Hospital making sure his back wasn't broken by an accident at about 4:55. With Tony Kanaan in the qualifying line and Sebastian not around to defend his position, it was almost a given that Saavedra would not be in the field. Indeed, Saavedra was bumped out of the field and held the 35th-fastest speed for a while.
George Phillips, writer of Oilpressure used the old football saying, "Never take points off the board," to accurately describe the last ten minutes of Bump Day -- a ridiculous festival of over-thinking. First, KV Racing rolled the dice in a defensive maneuver, withdrawing Paul Tracy's time (which was in the field of 33) under the assumption that they would improve it. Instead, Paul fought an awful car all the way around the track for four laps and ended up with a speed slower than Saavedra's. In an incredible case of deja vu, Sarah Fisher Racing did exactly the same thing with Jay Howard, whose speed, like Tracy's, fell below that of Saavedra.
So, the last hour of the day went as follows for Saavedra: Crashes his car shaking it down for potential qualifying runs; bumped to 34th by Kanaan; bumped to 35th by Sato; Tracy withdraws and goes slower, putting Saavedra 34th; Howard withdraws and goes slower, putting Saavedra 33rd as the gun sounds to end the day. Are we clear on all of this? Good!
Now that we're done setting the field, all that's left to do is run the cars for a hectic final hour of practice on Friday, then line 'em up in front of 300,000 of the world's greatest fans, and run 500 miles! Full preview coming Saturday!
STARTING 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, 02:39.9313 (225.097)
11. #22 Justin Wilson, 02:39.9647 (225.050)
12. #2 Raphael Matos, 02:39.9798 (225.028)
13. #32 Mario Moraes, 02:40.0794 (224.888)
14. #21 Davey Hamilton, 02:40.1053 (224.852)
15. #24 Mike Conway, 02:40.2969 (224.583)
16. #26 Marco Andretti, 02:40.3030 (224.575)
17. #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay, 02:40.3227 (224.547)
18. #4 Dan Wheldon, 02:40.3821 (224.464)
19. #8T E.J. Viso, 02:40.4424 (224.380)
20. #23 Tomas Scheckter, 02:40.5270 (224.261)
21. #25 Ana Beatriz, 02:40.5402 (224.243)
22. #78 Simona de Silvestro, 02:40.5511 (224.228)
23. #7 Danica Patrick, 02:40.5584 (224.217)
24. #36 Bertrand Baguette, 02:40.5785 (224.189)
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25. #33 Bruno Junqueira, 02:39.5305 (225.662)
26. #19 Alex Lloyd, 02:40.1543 (224.783)
27. #34 Mario Romancini, 02:40.2557 (224.641)
28. #43 John Andretti, 02:40.3438 (224.518)
29. #67 Sarah Fisher, 02:40.4033 (224.434)
30. #14 Vitor Meira, 02:40.4367 (224.388)
31. #5 Takuma Sato, 02:40.5865 (224.178)
32. #11T Tony Kanaan, 02:40.6628 (224.072)
33. #29 Sebastian Saavedra, 02:40.9776 (223.634)
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