(4:30 IMS time) I've been doing a walk about most of the day, taking pictures and soaking up the atmosphere. I'll say this though, I'd still be out there but we are about to get drenched by a thunderstorm that had to happen. So I'll sit here the rest of the day, post some speeds and pictures and try to figure out what it all means. First a speed chart and a picture of a car or two we haven't seen before. This T&S chart will be the final one of the day, as they had a yellow flag first for debris, and the sky opened up. Before I pick apart the results I'll say this, these teams sure aren't afraid to pile up the miles on engines they have to qualify with Saturday. Last week Mitch Davis of TCGR told me that these engines get faster with miles on them, and if that's the case, either Marco Andretti or Tony Kanaan should win the pole. Marco had almost 500 miles on his engine this morning, and now he close to 700. he won't run out of miles, but there has to be a point where the power begins to drop.
Again Team Penske "won" the top to positions on the chart. Of those with Panoz issues, mainly the RLR people, Simmons found a little speed in the afternoon, but for Rice and Patrick, whatever speed they had early in the afternoon was all they had or wanted to use/show. They took both cars back to the garage to "string" and weigh them and check the alignment, but if it helped, it wasn't noticeable. here's Danica's car on the pad.

Scott Sharp was impressive in 3rd today, and he subbed for Helio Castroneves in the Fast Two PC this afternoon. Scott came in late as Hornish was talking about backup cars and testing them out. When it was Sharp's turn to answer that question he said, "well my backup car is a Panoz, so I really don't have a backup." AJ Foyt must have come to the same conclusion, because today Larry Foyt was in the #41 Dallara rather than the #41T Panoz. That's some of Foyt on the right, and Larry Foyt in the car.

 
Again you have to give a call to Vision Racing, they aren't using backup cars yet, and probably don't have many. One may have gone to "Pupo," the Super Sub, but with 34 entries "Pupo" may have lost his ride.

Remember this picture from last week, the spare pit podium in the extra Vision garage, well it's gone now, and it isn't on pit road either. I suspect Pupo's chances for a ride are gone as well.
As for the rest of the chart, lets look at 2nd week runners, as 32 cars took to the track today. They are listed in bold type. As you might expect, the fastest in that group was Jaques Lazier, running a 218.6, and proving my contention that any good car can run 218's (so where does that leave Roth and Luyendyk) . I like Jeff Bucknum's run as well, the car was well hidden and not ready to go this AM when I took these pictures from inside the garage. Yet Bucknum ran 218 with the car and if he was required to do a refresher, he probably got it done.

Yes Virginia, there is a #92 car from Ron Hemelgarn, and it's early-fast. Jeff Bucknum only ran 22 laps in the car and ran 218.438 mph. When you consider that Jimmy Kite only qualified the Hemelgarn car at 218.565 after a week of practice with Toyota power (?), you can see how much more fun it is for everyone to have a long-life Honda this time around.

This is the Arie Luyendyk Jr. car, if you recall the "sister" PJ Jones car, you can see where we might have an identification issue. Calling the shots and on the pit stand above is Arie Sr. in the center, and Tim Wardrop on the right.

Stephan Gregoire in the Beck Motorsports car, 39 laps with a best of 215 this afternoon. That's Greg Beck next to the car.

A Tale of two Tony's, or which one does and which one doesn't? Two #11 Dallara's, neither a "T," one should have an engine, the other a "spacer." Dennis thinks both have engines, I hope not and don't agree.
Ain't she sweet? The Thiago Medeiros/PDM Panoz Honda, later in the afternoon they put "Royal Spa" on the sidepods. Medeiros ran 216.7 this afternoon, following the car of countryman Helio Castroneves for about ten laps.

Thiago and I...

Jaques Lazier in the "Playa Del Poker" car, a car sponsored by VideoPoker.com. Usually we have either shown a rendering of the car from Eads Graphics, or shown it being pushed around tech inspection by the crew. the car runs, after I took the picture Jaques gave me the thumbs up. In only 21 laps the car ran 218.655.

Here's the other Playa Del Racing car of IPS driver Jon Herb, who ran in the Indy 500 once before. Herb's been away for awhile and is working on a refresher test. Both of these cars are well prepared and came in under the radar, not seen until time to tech and practice.

As I said, the steering wheel "lights up" when you power up the car...

No Bull... Cheever Racing crewman have a strip-off, taking the Red Bull "wrap" of two fuel tanks.

Pos

Driver

 

Best Time

Best Speed

 

 

 

Last Lap

 

 

1

Sam Hornish Jr (6)

 

40.1104

224.381

 

 

 

57

 

 

2

Helio Castroneves (3T)

 

40.2879

223.392

 

 

 

79

 

 

3

Scott Sharp (8)

 

40.3058

223.293

 

 

 

53

 

 

4

Buddy Rice (15T)

 

40.3777

222.895

 

 

 

43

 

 

5

Dan Wheldon (10T)

 

40.4286

222.615

 

 

 

41

 

 

6

Townsend Bell (90)

 

40.4475

222.511

 

 

 

56

 

 

7

Tony Kanaan (11)

 

40.4516

222.488

 

 

 

90

 

 

8

Scott Dixon (9T)

 

40.4991

222.227

 

 

 

61

 

 

9

Dario Franchitti (27)

 

40.5252

222.084

 

 

 

49

 

 

10

Tomas Scheckter (2)

 

40.5744

221.815

 

 

 

64

 

 

11

Jeff Simmons (17)

 

40.5768

221.802

 

 

 

65

 

 

12

Vitor Meira (4T)

 

40.6255

221.536

 

 

 

64

 

 

13

Ed Carpenter (20)

 

40.6311

221.505

 

 

 

61

 

 

14

Eddie Cheever Jr (51)

 

40.6464

221.422

 

 

 

59

 

 

15

Kosuke Matsuura (55T)

 

40.6823

221.226

 

 

 

46

 

 

16

Bryan Herta (7)

 

40.7544

220.835

 

 

 

67

 

 

17

Michael Andretti (1)

 

40.7568

220.822

 

 

 

36

 

 

18

Marco Andretti (26)

 

40.8218

220.470

 

 

 

85

 

 

19

Felipe Giaffone (14)

 

40.8446

220.347

 

 

 

16

 

 

20

Danica Patrick (16T)

 

40.9975

219.526

 

 

 

50

 

 

21

Jaques Lazier (21)

 

41.1608

218.655

 

 

 

21

 

 

22

Jeff Bucknum (92)

 

41.2017

218.438

 

 

 

22

 

 

23

Larry Foyt (41)

 

41.3620

217.591

 

 

 

40

 

 

24

Thiago Medeiros (18)

 

41.5274

216.724

 

 

 

36

 

 

25

Marty Roth (25)

 

41.7009

215.823

 

 

 

53

 

 

26

Buddy Lazier (5)

 

41.7072