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I can't believe I've lost about 6 hours of hard work due to computer issues, hang with me as I rebuild the entire page.

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I don't know what to make of this 3rd car in the Panther Racing garages. Vitor's two cars are there as well, but this Dallara appears to have too many new parts and pieces to ignore. The mirrors aren't the ones we have come to expect from Panther, and I don't recall chrome suspension pieces from them either.

Two cars await tech inspection at IMS today, one of them appears to be the RLR/Ethanol car of Jeff Simmons.

The backup Buddy Rice/RLR Panoz Honda in tech inspection...

The IndyCar steering wheel of Danica Patrick, when they power up the car the wheel lights up like a Christmas tree.

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Here's some weather radar links, Indianapolis and it looks to be improving at 5:00 PM Indy time, This one shows links to the National Doppler weather sites... You can actually check the window over Terre Haute. OBTW, you know you are an Indy 500 fan if you can spell Terre Haute and Albuquerque every year without looking it up or using a spell checker. Here's another, B-e-t-t-e-n-h-a-u-s-e-n.

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I'm sure that the lack of practice time is one of the reasons there are so few cars still running above 220 mph. With equal engines and electronics there shouldn't be an 8-mph gap between the fastest cars and those still running 218's. The fact that PJ Chesson is close to 220 with a very weak team shows the speed is there. D&R might not be the team it used to be, but I don't think all they can run is 218's with drivers like Unser Jr. and Lazier. I'm sure that the team didn't want to free up the cars and risk crashing so early in the week while running on what amounted to be a green track every day. Then when they had limited track time before Thursday washed out, and they lost all of Friday, they may have wished they ran harder when they could.
We'll find out if they ever get to qualify, but I'm not all that sure the three Rahal cars are in the trouble most feel they are either. Very little has changed with the team other than perhaps not getting "select" engines for Danica this year, and because they were on the Ilmor side of the dole, I even doubt that was happening. Just as an aside, if Honda/Ilmor was giving Danica the best of the engines last year, they were wasting the effort, she wasn't ready to win then. The Panoz cars they are running this year are the same as last years, Dallara and Panoz weren't allowed to produce update kits this winter, so there is no way a car that was so fast year lost 4-mph to the Dallara's. I think RLR realized that they wasted their effort chasing speed last year and showin' off with Danica. This time around I don't think they are even trying to go as fast as possible.

Thinking back over this week from Tuesday on, there was little more than 10 hours of green flag practice, that's enough for the super teams that are always ready, but not for the rest. With everything as equal as it is, there should be 28-30 teams within lass than 5-mph of each other, with the 5 to 7 entries fighting to make the race. I can understand the need to keep ROP from being a stand alone, special destination event, and driving up it's costs, but this ain't workin'. The way it is now, the two day ROP minimizes the big bang effect of Opening Day full-effort speeds. Once most of the rookies run their two days, they park the cars and wait for the cheaper 2nd week engine deal. I would much rather see them run the rookies from 11:00 AM till noon Sunday though Thursday during the first week, and release them to run as soon as they pass.

OK, now that I'm off the soapbox, let's look at what speeds to expect if they don't have to start the 500 by owner points in August. Under perfect conditions last year the pole speed would have been in the high 228 mph range, with a lap or two above 229. These long-life engines don't have the power nor the electronics system with a button to push for a speed burst, and Honda claims they are getting about the same horsepower as they had at the start of last season. For that reason I can't see them running 2005 "Q" speeds. I'm darn sure there has been some sandbagging going on, but not so much with MTP and TCGR. I watched several of the fast runs, and most had some traffic pull, I was already at the airport when Sam Hornish set the fast speed of the week though, so I don't know how clean it was. I've mentioned my suspicions about RLR, but I feel the same way about AGR. It seemed that every time someone pointed a microphone at an AGR driver on the Saturday telecasts, whey were whining about not having the speeds of Penske and Ganassi, we'll see. I know this, Marco Andretti mentioned that even though he was a bit faster than his father, Michael wasn't hustling his car and Marco was. Michael was so happy with the feel of his car that he put both Marco and Tony Kanaan in the car for a few laps. Michael said he put Marco in the car to show him how it should feel, perhaps that was the same reason Kanaan got in the car. Bryan Herta has only 190 miles on his engine and the 9th fastest speed. I talked with several people I respect about the pole speed, I even asked Hornish what he thought it would take for the pole, he said 227 and Helio thought even faster than that. Most felt 227. Whenever they run they will have cold conditions, little wind and a "green" track. I don't see big speed! I like Hornish for the pole, Michael Andretti for the middle of the front row and Castroneves outside. In the 2nd row, Wheldon, Dixon and Danica. As for the speed, high 227's, with one lap in the 228's

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Indy 500 Pole Day Qualifying Order... On the chart below, car #'s in bold type have been above 220 mph. Three drivers, Hornish Jr., Castroneves and Meira have been above 220 in both cars, so only 18 drivers have exceeded 220. Commentary in red indicates cars that have either not run or are expected to be 2nd week program's. 36 of 62 entries listed on the chart are in red ink. There is one exception, the Rice 15T, count on him to be above 220 in that car in a hurry.

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Car	Chassis/Driver
92	D/H/F Jeff Bucknum, car has not run
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90	D/H/F Townsend Bell, 222.545
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4T	D/H/F Vitor Meira, 222.934
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4	D/H/F Vitor Meira, 222.246
*******	********************************
25	D/H/F Marty Roth, 213.223, 2nd week
*******	********************************
31	D/H/F Al Unser Jr., 218.820
*******	********************************
7T	D/H/F Bryan Herta, car has not run
*******	********************************
1T	D/H/F Michael Andretti, car has not run
*******	********************************
5T	D/H/F Buddy Lazier, car has not run
*******	********************************
7	D/H/F Bryan Herta, 224.292
*******	********************************
3	D/H/F Helio Castroneves, 224.258
*******	********************************
41	P/H/F Larry Foyt, 215.761, 2nd week
*******	********************************
61	P/H/F A. Luyendyk Jr. (R) 214.562, 2nd week
*******	********************************
91T	D/H/F PJ Chesson, car has not run
*******	********************************
88	P/H/F Airton Dare, car has not run
*******	********************************
9T	D/H/F Scott Dixon, car has not run
55	D/H/F Kosuke Matsuura, 225.140
*******	********************************
2	D/H/F Tomas Scheckter, 223.183
*******	********************************
90T	D/H/F Townsend Bell, car has not run
*******	********************************
51	D/H/F Eddie Cheever Jr.221.631
*******	********************************
55T	D/H/F Kosuke Matsuura, car has not run
*******	********************************
52	D/H/F Cheever Racing, car has not run
*******	********************************
15	P/H/F Damaged Buddy Rice car, but fixable
*******	********************************
1	D/H/F Michael Andretti, 223.187
*******	********************************
9	D/H/F Scott Dixon, 225.309
*******	********************************
31T	D/H/F Al Unser Jr., car has not run
*******	********************************
10T	D/H/F Dan Wheldon, car has not run
*******	********************************
51T	D/H/F Eddie Cheever Jr., car has not run
*******	********************************
26T	D/H/F Marco Andretti, car has not run
*******	********************************
6T	D/H/F Sam Hornish Jr., 224.811
*******	********************************
21	P/H/F Jaques Lazier, car has not run
*******	********************************
48	D/H/F A Foyt entry, a tub out for repair
*******	********************************
27	D/H/F Dario Franchitti, 224.742
*******	********************************
93	A Hemelgarn entry, seeing would be believing
*******	********************************
11	D/H/F Tony Kanaan, 224.500
*******	********************************
20	D/H/F Ed Carpenter, 222.365
*******	********************************
18	P/H/F T. Madeiros (R) 214.690 2nd week
*******	********************************
8	D/H/F Scott Sharp, 223.997
*******	********************************
15T	P/H/F Buddy Rice, car has not run
*******	********************************
16	P/H/F Danica Patrick, 223.084
*******	********************************
26	D/H/F Marco Andretti, 223.606
*******	********************************
91	D/H/F PJ Chesson, (R), 219.745 (impressive)
*******	********************************
2T	D/H/F Tomas Scheckter, car has not run
*******	********************************
11T	D/H/F Tony Kanaan, car has not run
*******	********************************
14T	D/H/F Felipe Giaffone, car has not run
*******	********************************
27T	D/H/F Dario Franchitti, car has not run
*******	********************************
22	D/H/F A Vision car for Roberto Moreno? Car has not run. Moreno goes to a "T" car.
*******	********************************
6	D/H/F Sam Hornish Jr., 226.789
*******	********************************
12	P/H/F Jon Herb, car has not run
*******	********************************
10	D/H/F Dan Wheldon, 226.088
*******	********************************
20T	D/H/F Ed Carpenter, car has not run
*******	********************************
17	P/H/F Jeff Simmons, 222.292
*******	********************************
21T	P/H/F Jaques Lazier, car has not run
*******	********************************
8T	D/H/F Scott Sharp, car has not run
*******	********************************
16T	P/H/F Danica Patrick, car has not run
*******	********************************
5	D/H/F Buddy Lazier, 218.664
*******	********************************
41T	D/H/F Larry Foyt, car has not run
*******	********************************
17T	P/H/F Jeff Simmons, car has not run
*******	********************************
14	D/H/F Felipe Giaffone, 218.812
*******	********************************
97	P/H/F Stephan Gregoire, car has not run
*******	********************************
3T	D/H/F Helio Castroneves, 225.547

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