by Steve Zautke
5/13/2007 Excitement is what Brian Barnhart (Indy Racing League President and Chief Operating Officer) wanted on Pole day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Helio Castroneves and Tony Kanaan delivered. Dario Franchitti was a marked man as he sat on the pole for most of the day after qualifying at a four-lap average of 225.191 mph. Enter habitual pole contender Team Penske and Sam Hornish, Jr. Hornish made two attempts at Franchitti. On lap two of his first attempt, Hornish exited turn two so high, the camera on the wall could not see light between the tire and the wall. Hornishs lap was in the mid-223 down from 225.2 that Hornish needed causing Hornishs overall average to fall below Franchitti. Hornish went quicker on laps three and four but ended up at 225.145 mph. Team Penske immediately withdrew Hornishs time to take another shot at Franchitti. Hornish went for broke as laps one, two and three were all faster than Franchitti. However, exiting turn three of his last lap Hornish ever so slightly slides the car sideways. With that bobble, Hornish lost his chance at the pole. Hornish was slower than his first attempt. Franchitti at that point was still on the pole. However, Team Penske had one more bullet in its gun. Castroneves with penultimate qualifying attempt took the pole position from Dario Franchitti and Andretti-Green Racing late on Pole Day at Indianapolis. However, Castroneves had to survive Tony Kanaan trying to take the pole position back for AGR. Nevertheless, Castroneves and Team Penske prevailed, taking home $100,000 in winning the AAMCO Transmission Pole Award for the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500. Dario Franchitti who was the 11th driver to take a time early on Pole Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway qualified with a four-lap average of 225.191 mph good enough for pole until 5:52pm when Helio Castroneves out sped the speedy Scotsman. Castroneves qualified with a four-lap average of 225.817 mph. However, it wasnt over just yet. The next qualifier was Tony Kanaan who was making his second attempt. Kanaan was faster than Castroneves on laps one, two and three. However, exiting turn three on his last lap, I got loose coming out of three Kanaan noted, adding, I got up to speed too fast. That slip in turn three is all Castroneves needed to keep the pole. Castroneves crew waited on pit lane expecting the worse. When word came over the PA that Kanaan just missed, they cheered loudly as they pumped their fists in the air as they congratulated each other along with Castoneves as the disappointment in the AGR pits 30 feet away was evident. “Today was a great team effort and a great way to start. But we’re going to have to keep working. Like Rick Mears always says, you have two races here — the pole run and the race,” Castroneves noted, winning his second pole for the 500. Franchitti commented, Obviously, a long wait here. I hated it. Im glad the fans enjoyed it. They were getting into it. When one guy would get close, they would all cheer. When Helio would be out there, they would cheer. They had a great time, I think. It kept everybody on edge of their seats all day. The guys going for the pole, also the bumping process. I really think it was a success. But what a horrible stressful day, though. The front row for the Indianapolis 500 will consist of Helio Castroneves winning Team Penskes record fourteenth pole for the Indy 500, incidentally it goes with their fourteen 500 wins. Andretti-Green drivers Tony Kanaan will line up second in the #11 7-Eleven AGR Dallara-Honda and Dario Franchitti third in the #26 Canadian Club AGR Dallara-Honda. Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon of Target-Chip Ganassi Racing were considered by many to be the two of the favorites for the pole ended up in the second row sandwiching Team Penske driver Sam Hornish, Jr. Wheldon conceded the pole after making a second attempt, Id love to get pole here one day. Im going to have to come back to do that. But the important thing is the race, and looking forward to that. Ryan Briscoe, Danica Patrick, Marco Andretti, Tomas Scheckter and Michael Andretti all were successful in being first day qualifiers. Others who came close were Jeff Simmons, Ed Carpenter and Darren Manning in the ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt Racing #14. On second day qualifying it was A.J. Foyt IV driving the Vision Racing #22 that started the bumping process when he bumped Marty Roth from the field. Under the new qualifying rules, Positions 1-11 in the field were available to the fastest qualifiers yesterday. Once the 11 spots were filled, bumping occurred for the remainder of the day to determine the pole winner and fastest 11 qualifiers. Today, Positions 12-22 are available. Once those spots are full, bumping will occur only for those spots only the remainder of the day. Roth became the 12th fastest-first bumped when Foyt qualified faster. About an hour after Foyt, Sarah Fisher driving the Dreyer-Reinbold AAMCO Transmission Dallara-Honda bumped her way into the top-22 when her 221.960mph average bumped Jon Herb and the Racing Professionals car from the field. Immediately after Fishers run, 2004 Indy 500 winner and teammate to Fisher, Buddy Rice went out to qualify. Buddy one of two Buddys to ever race in the 500 bumped out the other one-1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier. Rices run of 222.826 put Al Unser, Jr. another 500 winner on the bubble. Unser wasnt confident that his time would hold up. Were awfully close to the bottom there and come 5, 6, we could be back out here. Like Ed Carpenter said yesterday, Im not taking off my uniform. Well see what happens. A.J. seems to be pretty confident that will hold, but its so close. Ive been in this spot before. Were going to pay very close attention to what these guys behind me do because I think its too close. We put four good laps together. Now we just need to get some downforce on it and see how it reacts to that. There was definitely no white-knuckling in the qualifying run, and I aint gonna have it there, either. We tried a little bit less wing this morning, and it makes the back end a little bit too light for my comfort, and so we put it back in there and we were searching for more speed and I just wasnt confident enough in everything to put that much on the line for 1 or 2 mile an hour when the best we can do is 12th to day. Like my dad said, two, three, four cars in front of you, where you start aint gonna make any difference. I got a ton of people in front of me already. Well get it in the show, get comfortable with it. Unser is enjoying his time with the ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt Racing Team, A.J. has been super with me. Its been great. He is the big guy no matter what anybody says, he is the king. At Indianapolis, there are certain people that youd be honored to drive for, and A.J. Foyt is one of those people. And Im just tickled to death to be able to drive his 50 car for his 50th anniversary, and Im the 50th driver hes ever had. All the 50s are lining up. In another five years, Ill be 50, and hopefully Ill still be driving. Everything they say about A.J., his temper and everything, it aint true. Hes been super with me. If someone gets a little sideways in the garage, he just sets them straight, thats all. So far, Ive been watching my Ps and Qs to where Im not getting sideways. Scott Sharp driving the Patrn Rahal-Letterman car was the fastest of the second day qualifiers. Sharp qualified with a four-lap average of 223.875mph. Were pretty good, we almost got in last night. This was just a great run by the Patrn team. The tracks really good, but the cars just perfect. Sharp said after his run. Rahal-Letterman teammate Jeff Simmons was next fastest with a four-lap average of 223.693. ABC Supply A.J. Foyt Racing driver, Darren Manning is next fastest with an average speed of 223.471. Ed Carpenter, Kosuke Matsuura, Foyt IV and Vitor Meira also made qualifying runs and were in the top-11. Manning felt he got as much as he could out of his ABC Supply / A.J. Foyt Racing Dallara-Honda, Weve just been making so many baby steps with the setup. I just wish we had this car yesterday, and then we would have been in the show. I think were happy with the qualifying attempt. (Hows your month been overall?): Its been good. We didnt get out until late, because this is a totally brand-new car. Its a fast car. We spent a lot of time back at the workshop for two or three months really rubbing on the bodywork, the fit of the suspension and everything, which is the attention to detail that you really have to do nowadays. Im happy. If youve got a comfortable car out there at Indianapolis in qualifying for 10 miles, youre not going fast enough. So you kind of hold your breath for as long as you can and hang on to the thing. You dont like doing that too often. Lazier, Herb and Roth were bumped from the field. However it was Herb that came back to bump Unser, Jr. from the field. A bit later, Buddy Lazier came back and bumped Herb-again. Herb became one of the few drivers (the first other than Bump Day) to be bumped twice on the same day. Its disappointing to be out, again. They tell me we had a fuel pickup problem that last lap that might of hurt us a little bit, as well as the push we had. Youre hoping youre OK, but those guys (Sam Schmidt Motorsports) have a great team and Buddy (Lazier) is a champion, so its no surprise. (What do you think about this qualifying format?): You know, its more exciting. Otherwise, I wouldnt be in this position. Id be qualified wherever I was and then would have to worry about it the last day. It makes it a little more interesting. I think its a good thing for the fans. The feel good story of the day is Davey Hamilton. Hamilton has been out of a racing car since June, 2001 when his feet were extensively injured in a grisly crash at the Texas Motor Speedway. Hamiltons car spun in oil when the car in front of him blew its motor. The car spun into the wall with the nose of the car penetrating the catch fencing causing the front two bulkheads to separate from the tub exposing Hamiltons lower extremities. Hamilton commented on his qualifying run, “It’s the best. I can’t really believe it’s happening, to be honest with you. I honestly didn’t really think I had the opportunity to come back and do this. I kept fighting and fighting, and got Hewlett-Packard to believe in me and believe in my story.” (About the emotions of qualifying): “I was a bit nervous, to be honest with you. It’s been six years since I’d been in that line. We had a great race car, but you never know until you get out there. Vision Racing has done such a great job giving me a good car all week. I think every time I’ve been out there I’ve been flat out, so the car has been great.” (About how the car handled): “(With) the car, we’ve been working on race setup all week from the suspension to everything. It’s just race stuff. The other guys have some things for qualifying. I didn’t really need that. I didn’t want it. I just wanted to get used to the race car and fine-tune that thing. I tell you what, I was a little surprised we ran 222 (mph). I thought we could sneak into it, but I still looking for a high 221 (mph).” (About what Tony George said to him): “There’s a lot of emotions going on here. It was about the third day of about two years of hospital stays, he (Tony George) was in there, and he knows the story and knows what I’ve went through. The whole team realizes it, and I think they’ve seen it in person and seen it first-hand. It’s so emotional for all of us just to know it was a tough road. It was a tough road for all of us. They’ve been supportive all the way.” (About whether he thought he’d make it back): “Not at that time. At that time, I was still worried about having legs and hoping I would walk again. As time (passes) and you wish on something and you get it, then you want more. That’s kind of where I was. First it was to save my legs, then to walk and get stronger. It was a four-year process doing that. The last two years I’ve been ready, but it’s been hard getting the funding and the proper situation. It was an emotional roller coaster, that’s for sure.” Indy 500 qualifying will continue next week. For third day qualifying the remainder of the field is available. Once those spots are full, bumping will occur for those spots only the remainder of the day. On Sunday-Bump Day, any qualifying attempt on the fourth day that is faster than a qualified entrant in the starting field will bump the slowest qualifier, regardless of the day of qualification. The bumped entrant is removed from the field, but has the opportunity to bump its way back into the starting field as time allows. 91st Indianapolis 500 Starting Line-up Row 1 Pos. 1Helio Castroneves (W) Car # 3 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 225.817/2:39.4214 Pos. 2Tony Kanaan Car # 11 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 225.757/2:39.4634 Pos. 3Dario Franchitti Car # 27 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 225.191/2:39.8642 Row 2 Pos. 4Scott Dixon Car # 9 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 225.122/2:39.9136 Pos. 5Sam Hornish Jr (W) Car # 6 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 225.109/2:39.9227 Pos. 6Dan Wheldon (W) Car # 10 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 224.641/2:40.2557 Row 3 Pos. 7Ryan Briscoe Car # 12 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 224.410/2:40.4208 Pos. 8Danica Patrick Car # 7 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 224.076/2:40.6596 Pos. 9Marco Andretti Car # 26 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 223.299/2:41.2186 Row 4 Pos. 10Tomas Scheckter Car # 2 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.877/2:41.5238 Pos. 11Michael Andretti Car # 39 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.789/2:41.5880 Pos. 12Scott Sharp Car # 8 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 223.875/2:40.8041 Row 5 Pos. 13Jeff Simmons Car # 17 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 223.693/2:40.9352 Pos. 14Ed Carpenter Car # 20 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 223.495/2:41.0777 Pos. 15Darren Manning Car # 14 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 223.471/2:41.0950 Row 6 Pos. 16Buddy Rice (W) Car # 15 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.826/2:41.5612 Pos. 17Kosuke Matsuura Car # 55 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.595/2:41.7290 Pos. 18AJ Foyt IV Car # 22 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.413/2:41.8607 Row 7 Pos. 19Vitor Meira Car # 4 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.333/2:41.9196 Pos. 20Davey Hamilton Car # 02 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 222.327/2:41.9238 Pos. 21Sarah Fisher Car # 5 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 221.960/2:42.1914 Row 8
Pos. 22Buddy Lazier (W) Car # 99 :: D/H/FSpeed/Time: 221.380/2:42.6165 Key: C/E/T: Chassis/Engine/Tire, D: Dallara, P: Panoz, H: Honda, F: FirestoneR: 500 Rookie, W: 500 Winner