The field for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 on the yard of bricks. [Russ Lake Photo]
By Joe Jennings
INDIANAPOLIS – Before a large crowd basking in the sunshine, Tony Kanaan and Carlos Munoz led the way as the 33-car starting field for the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 completed 1,368 laps in the final tune-up before the legendary race.
Given the excitement of the weekend and heavy promotion, an estimated crowd of 100,000 fans turned out for the day-long activities.
Kanaan’s speed was 226.280 miles per hour and Munoz hit 224.772 mph.
Said Kanaan, “Today is the closest we get to the race, which accounts for our speeds. The engineers come up with different plans each day – the more time you give them the more they come up with stuff. Then we want to know how the cars handle in traffic, so today we had a race out there.
“I am happy with my car, but I have to pass 17 people before I become really happy. After our struggles in qualifying, me and (Scott) Dixon have focused on the race. No one should count us out.”
Regarding the crowd size today, Kanaan added, “In my 15 years here, I have never seen anything like this, and I can’t wait until Sunday.”
Kanaan’s teammate Scott Dixon timed third fastest followed by Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi, J. R. Hildebrand, Oriol Servia, Townsend Bell and Helio Castroneves.
Pole winner James Hinchcliffe clocked the 12th fastest speed.
In the only incident, Pippa Mann crashed exiting Turn 4. She was uninjured but the car’s rear quarter was damaged.
Simon Pagenaud and Bryan Clauson ran the most laps with 52 and Buddy Lazier ran the fewest at 19.
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