First some "Q" run
thoughts as they were qualifying...
First to qualify will be Sarah Fisher, who has gained in speed
in almost every session, but is still nearly 6-mph off Helio's
pace. Qualifying is a tightrope walk on the road and street
courses, to win the pole you must be fast enough to make the
Fast Six, but if you try too hard and slip somewhere on-course,
you have just about thrown away any chance of a good race result
on tracks where it is very difficult to pass.. Two years ago at
Sears Point Dario Franchitti blew a "Q" run and was
lucky to get a top-10 race result.
Fisher spun on her
"Q" run and will post no speed... AL Foyt IV posted
a 103.745 lap, more than a full-mph slower than he practiced
earlier in the day. Next out was Scott Sharp in a repaired
car that ran 106-mph this morning. Sharp spun and continued his
run, posting a speed of 93.183 mph, fast enough to start ahead
of Sarah Fisher. Darren Manning will be 4th to qualify, and
he too had trouble and almost spun. Manning lost enough speed in
making several mistakes that he'll start behind Foyt IV with a
speed of 103.166-mph. Ed Carpenter is on the track now and
he appears to at least be smooth, if not fast, but he was fast
enough to turn a lap of 104.368 mph, fastest speed so far... Kosuke
Matsuura, a very smooth and fast road racer is up next, so far
nobody has posted a lap faster than they practiced this morning,
and Kosuke ran 106-mph then. Matsuura runs 105.149, temporarily
in P1. On the track now is Vitor Meira, who ran a 107-mph
lap this a.m., Vitor looks fast on the stream, but is slower
than his Panther Racing teammate Matsuura, but 2nd fast for now,
running a 104.506-mph lap. The radio crew is talking about heat
and sunshine as the reason speeds are lower than in morning
practice... Tomas Scheckter is on his "Q" run now
and he is "P1" for the moment, running 105.210-mph... Ryan
Hunter-Reay is now out in the Ethanol car, and he is on what
appears to be a good run. Hunter-Reay didn't put a wheel wrong
and ran 106.309-mph, fastest so far, but .8-mph slower than his
early speed... Buddy Rice runs well on the road courses, and
he is on-track now, running 106-mph this morning, but ran a lap
of 105.403-mph now, 2nd fastest of the session.... Danica
Patrick was 4th in the morning practice, everyone is losing
nearly a full-mph and Danica ran a 108-mph earlier, but even
with her losing 1.5-mph, she is fastest in the session so far
with a 106.598-mph lap... Dan Wheldon up next, he spun this
morning, but got back up to 107-mph before the session ended.
Wheldon only able to qualify "P-4" on a lap that
looked much faster than the 105.260 lap he ran... Sam
Hornish is running now with Danica on the IMS Radio feed,
waiting for one other driver to run slower than her, so she'll
make the Fast Six. Hornish disappoints Patrick with a
"P1" run, just edging Patrick with a 106.621-mph run,
.0179 seconds quicker than her... Scott Dixon out now and he
too posts a "P1" number, running 107.063-mph, 1st
"107" of the session... Marco Andretti will make
Danica Patrick's day as he pushed wide in one of the last turns
and then jumped a curb and came up in "P5," running
105.614... Tony Kanaan missed a corner in his warm up lap and
got into the dirt and will have to deal with some tire issues on
his "Q" lap, but it turned out not to be an issue as
TK is now "P1" with a 107.263-mph speed... Here's
Dario on the green flag lap, so far very smooth, fast and
on-line, heat or not, Dario looks plenty fast enough to take
over the "Q" lead with only Helio left to run. Dario
ran 107.951-mph. One other thing to consider is these drivers
are being very careful to be mistake-free and just fast enough
to make the Fast Six, we could see faster speeds still in that
session... Helio Castroneves will be the last to run, and at
the end of a wild looking ride, Helio ended up 3rd on the speed
chart with a 107.167-mph lap.
The Firestone Fast Six run has
begun, and so far with all six cars on the track, Franchitti's
speed from qualifying is holding up. Tony Kanaan spun but didn't
cause a caution that would have mandated a "P6" start.
So far the only movement on the chart was Danica from 6th to
2nd. This is an almost spot-for-spot duplication of what Danica
did at Mid-Ohio, we'll have to see if the speed holds. With
Danica already parked along with Franchitti, Hornish spun,
dirtied the track and it will be up to Dixon and Kanaan to
provide any charge if there is to be one. At the checkered flag
it was Franchitti, Patrick, Kanaan, Castroneves, Dixon and
Hornish.
Here's the adjusted
post-Firestone Fast Six T&S chart.
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