Pole Day and Bump Day have been staples of the Indianapolis 500 for over 50 years. The two days, which are now on the Saturday and Sunday before the race, are always filled with drama. This year was no different.
On Pole Day, everybody expected the two heavyweights of the IndyCar series to duke it out for the poles position like last year. Neither Penske Racing nor Ganassi Racing though, was able to claim the top spot. Instead, the field will be led by Alex Tagliani, driver for Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Tagliani had a four lap average of 227.472, which was good enough to start position one. Also starting on the first row will be Oriol Servia, part of Newman/ Hass Racing, and Ganassi driver Scott Dixon.
-By the way, for the Indy 500, the cars start 3-wide.
There is only one Penske driver starting in the Top 9, that being Will Power. His teammates Helio Castroneves will start on the inside of Row 6, and Ryan Briscoe will start on the outside of Row 9. Will Power is the IndyCar series points leader, but has never won a race on an oval.
As said earlier, Ganassi’s Scott Dixon will start on the front row. Dario Franchitti, last year’s winner, starts on the outside of row three.
If it seemed like a rough day for Team Penske, it was nothing compared to what Andretti Autosports endured over the weekend. Only one out of the five cars a part of the team was guaranteed a spot in the race, that being John Andretti (nephew of “500” legend, Mario Andretti). Thus on Sunday, the intrigue of Bump Day began.
Bump Day involved 17 cars all vying for just nine spots (positions 25-33 in the starting grid, the top 24 were locked in on Pole Day). The weather added even more drama to the day, as it rained twice, and took about a combined four hours to dry the track. That allowed only two hours of actual qualifying.
After the first rainfall, Paul Tracy took off to complete his four laps. While on the track rain started to fall, but it held off long enough to all Tracy to finish and get into the race. Waiting to head onto the track though, was IndyCar’s most popular female driver, Danica Patrick.
Patrick had yet to make a qualifying run, so if it rained hard enough and cancelled qualifying, she would not be in the field of 33. Well it did rain hard enough. Every IndyCar and IMS official had to be on their knees praying for sunshine. If Danica Patrick was not in the 500, it would be like Indianapolis without construction, incomprehensible!
Fortunately, Mother Nature let up, and when the track was finally dried, Danica peeled out of pit road and completed her qualifying laps. She will start 26th, her worst starting spot in the 500 ever.
Oh, but the drama did not end there. When Danica made it in, she bumped out Alex Lloyd, which then put Marco Andretti (teammate of Danica) onto the bubble. With only nine minutes left to qualify, Alex Lloyd went onto the track and after finishing his four-lap run, made the field and bumped out Marco Andretti.
Now, the climax of the day’s compelling storyline would occur. Marco Andretti would be the last driver to qualify before time ran out. If he made it into the field, he would bump out teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay. If he doesn’t make it in, then the 500 will be without one if most famous names.
Andretti averaged a four lap average of 224.628 mph, and did bump out Hunter-Reay. It was a bittersweet moment for Michael Andretti, owner of Andretti Autosports (the team Hunter-Reay drives for). His son will be in the race, but two of his drivers will not be.
Also failing to qualify was Mike Conway and Scott Speed.
UPDATED STORY (5/23/2011 at 9:43pm)
Ryan Hunter-Reay will take Bruno Junqueira’s ride for the Indy 500. Bruno was in the #41 car, owned by A.J. Foyt. The car will now be driven by Hunter-Reay, will still be #41, but will start 33rd.
Starting Lineup for the 100th Anniversary race of the Indianapolis 500
Row 1
Alex Tagliani-77
Scott Dixon- 9
Oriol Servia- 2
Row 2
Townsend Bell-99
Will Power- 12
Dan Wheldon- 98
Row 3
Buddy Rice- 44
Ed Carpenter- 67
Dario Franchitti- 10
Row 4
Takuma Sato- 5
Vitor Meira- 14
JR Hildebrand- 4
Row 5
James Hinchcliffe- 06
Bertrand Baguette- 30
Davey Hamilton- 11
Row 6
Helio Castroneves- 3***
John Andretti-43
E.J. Viso- 59
Row 7
Bruno Junqueria- 41#
Justin Wilson- 22
Jay Howard- 88
Row 8
Tomas Sheckter- 07
Tony Kanaan- 82
Simona de Silvestro- 78
Row 9
Paul Tracy- 23
Danica Patrick- 7
Ryan Briscoe- 6
Row 10
Marco Andretti-26
Charlie Kimball- 83
Graham Rahall- 38
Row 11
Alex Lloyd- 19
Pippa Mann- 36
Ana Beatriz- 24
*Denotes amounts of 500 wins.
# Driver will be replaced by Ryan Hunter-Reay and will start 33rd.
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