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Tony
Kanaan may have won the Indy 500 pole position on Sunday, and
Danica Patrick, with her amazing save and captivating recovery
after a first lap bobble in turn one may have been "the
show," but it will be Indy 500 fans everywhere that will be
the long-term winners. The new 4-day qualification format,
revised due to the Saturday rain-out, turned out to be as
exciting as forecasted. Winning the Indy 500 pole position is
such plum, that time after time, team owners and drivers were
more then willing to take what amounts to “points of the
scoreboard” in withdrawing already qualified cars from the
lineup and making another pole run. Unfortunately, the one
re-run everyone wanted to see, never happened, another attempt
at the pole by Danica Patrick. Danica had made an early
qualification attempt that showed she posses both the car
control usually exhibited by a seasoned dirt track veteran, and
the courage to back that ability up. For whatever reason, either
a rookie mistake, or most likely, a gust of wind from an
unexpected direction, Danica turned into turn one too early and
found herself below the white line that signifies the low-limits
of the track. That painted line affords little grip; and Danica
got a big wiggle from the car that she immediately caught and
corrected. Once out of that danger, she wasn’t in the clear
yet, the recovery left her pointed at the short chute wall and
the resulting correction gave the Panoz Honda another wiggle,
something I needed a TiVo slow motion replay to see. Danica had
less than 30 seconds to regain her composure and finish the lap
before she would be faced with the same turn one again.
Amazingly, not only did she manage that, but she still posted a
224 mph-plus lap, and the next three were above 227 mph in spite
of the scare she must have gotten. Not done, in getting out of
the car, visibly upset and clearly blaming herself for not
posting an expected pole speed, you could see the desire and
determination in this young lady to make another, faster run.
That’s something that comes with the package, it can’t be
taught or acquired elsewhere, Danica has what it takes to become
an IndyCar winner, and sooner than I expected. I
think I have earned veteran Indy 500 observer status, and while
I have seen similar “saves,” I have seen even more “death
wiggles” that resulted in crashes. Until Sunday though, I
can’t ever recall one “crash that didn’t happen” that
ended with a better result.
You also have to commend the resolve of Team Penske, Andretti
Green Racing, Sam Hornish Jr., Dario Franchitti and even Tony
Kanaan, who was ready and willing to withdraw a 2nd
place qualified car to make another run for the pole in needed.
That is what the Indy 500 is all about, and that is why it is so
special. The option of a do-over that isn’t available
elsewhere, but with the exception of perhaps the Daytona 500,
where only the front row drivers are locked into the field, I
doubt the idea of withdrawing a qualified car from the field on
only the possibility of improving one’s position, would be
very appealing. In fact, while Dario Franchitti, who made three
runs and improved his starting position each time, and Sam
Hornish, who posted the biggest gain, were the biggest winners.
Danica Patrick gained one starting position and could be deemed
a “winner” as well, because in starting 4th, she
will already be in an inside position going into turn one at the
start of the 500, and not have to fight her way down, or back
off to fall in line. Patrick’s position gain came at the
expense of Helio Castroneves, the one driver who withdrew a
qualified car and lost a starting position.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the field, there was real bumping
again for the first time in three years, as Alex Barron bumped
his way back into the field after losing his starting spot to
Jaques Lazier. Alex’s return came at the expense of RBTC
teammate Patrick Carpentier. In turn, Lazier was the last to be
bumped out of the field by the run of rookie driver Jeff
Bucknum, who probably was a last minute, surprise qualifier. I
don’t think Bucknum’s D&R team intended to run him
Sunday, but after practice runs yielded respectable numbers,
they made the “Q” run that will see him safely in the 500
field. I doubt there will be enough weekend runs at speeds fast
enough to but him on the bubble. If there is, because of this
great new qualifying format, he will have three chances Saturday
and Sunday to bump his way back in.
When the final gun sounded Sunday afternoon, there were still
several cars in line, either also willing to withdraw qualified
cars, or to attempt to bump back into the field, what a concept!
So what happened that made Sunday qualifying so difficult, and
where did all the speed go? There were three issues; first,
beginning at mid-practice on Fast Friday, there were two heavy
rain storms, followed by an almost all night rain that washed
the track clean of any rubber buildup. Secondly, it was cold and
windy Sunday, so cold that even an extra warm up lap might not
have been enough to get the tires up to optimum temperatures
Usually on any practice day, Firestone doesn’t like to even
run until the track temperatures are above 70 degrees, early on,
they barely met that criteria, and the track temperature was
never mentioned as being above 78 degrees all day. As for the
winds, even if at 15 mph they are manageable if they are steady
and consistently come from a predictable direction, Sunday,
neither was the case. The third and final issue is that these
teams never practiced under these conditions all week, when it
was almost hot every day, so they didn’t have confirmed cold
track setups, and no car got more than one hour of morning
practice on a very cold track to figure things out. Some teams,
like the AGR cars of Wheldon and Herta, “lost their way,” a
frequent IMS occurrence, and never found the way back.
I made several statements about ignoring “towgate” last
week, and one person from one site, who mentioned “tows” in
almost every post, is claiming victory and saying “I’ll
never admit how wrong I was,” I tackle that subject tomorrow;
he should be more careful about what he wishes for…
Here
are two links of interest,
My
Pole Day running recap... And a great view of the current
starting lineup from the Indy
500 site...
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