Day-By-Day At Indy – Qualifying Weekend To Raceday

This is a brief synopsis of the day-to-day activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway preceding the 96th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 27, 2012.

Friday, May 25 – Today was Carb Day, which is the second-busiest day of May at the Speedway.

A full slate of activities took place today as the fans and the track started gearing up for the grandaddy of them all, Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

Prior to the on-track action, several press conferences were held.

The most important announcement pertained to the Firestone Indy Lights Series.

Tony George Jr., the director of the Firestone Indy Lights Series, announced that the series has distributed a request for a proposal for an entirely new car for 2014 to six interested parties, with applications due by June 30.

“As we look to the future for Firestone Indy Lights, we believe it’s important that we do everything we can to attract new drivers, teams, partners and manufacturers to our series to continue to improve our formal system of driver development. The debut of the new car in 2014 will be a key step in this process,” George said.

Vince Kremer, technical director of the series commented on the development of the new car as well.

Kremer stated, “With our premium on safety, our goal is to develop a car that is technology relevant to the new IZOD IndyCar Series car. It is our intent to remain a spec series as it created the right platform to identify driver talent and contain costs. We want to make sure it is done in the right economic structure for our teams.

The project will be under the supervision of IndyCar vice president of technology, Will Phillips, and Kremer.

The first on-track action of the day was the final one-hour practice session prior to the “500” for the IZOD IndyCar Series cars and drivers.

All 33 cars qualified for Sunday’s race were on pit road and all but Ana Beatriz took practice laps.

The 32 cars that did take to the track turned in 1,230 incident-free laps.

The top two speeds in the session belonged to Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammates, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon, who turned in laps at 222.360 mph and 222.274 mph, respectively.

Prior to the start of the Freedom 100, it was announced that Estaban Guerrieri, who was scheduled to start 11th, and Oliver Webb, who was slated to start 14th, would start at the back of the field due to engine changes after qualifying.

The 40-lap, 100-mile, Freedom 100 Firestone Indy Lights race was coming to the green flag promptly at 12:30 p.m., as scheduled, when Andrers Krohn’s car came to a stop at the end of the pit lane, causing a false start of the race, with the first lap being run under yellow.

The green flag came out on the second lap. By the time the field reached the yard of bricks after the green flag waved, the cars were four wide at the front of the field. Carlos Munoz, who started third, took the lead going into Turn 1 but was passed by Victor Carbone for the lead going into Turn 3 and led at the end of Lap 2.

Munoz and Carbone ran virtually side-by-side and traded the lead until the yellow came out on Lap 5 while Munoz was leading.

The yellow was due to a multi-car crash in Turn 2 involving Brandon Wagner, David Ostella, Oliver Webb, Peter Dempsey and Emerson Newton-John. Wagner and Weber touched in Turn 2 and collected Ostella. All three hit the SAFER Barrier in Turn 2. When Newton-John spun across the track to avoid them, he collected Dempsey. Wagner and Dempsey were able to drive their badly damaged cars to the pits, but all five cars were out of the race. The drivers involved in the incident were checked out by the medical staff and were cleared to drive.

The track went red on Lap 7 in order to repair the damage to the SAFER Barrier that occurred in the crash.

After 11 minutes, 21 seconds, the race resumed under yellow, with the green coming out one lap later.

Under green, the racing was highly competitive at the front of the field with, depending on the lap, anywhere from the top four to eight cars running less than one second apart.

Despite a lot of swapping of positions during the lap, at the line, where the leader is officially recorded, Carbone officially led 25 laps in the race, the most of any one driver.

However, the lead margin was very slim at times as, for example, Carbone led second-place Gustavo Yacaman by .0723 of a second on Lap 15, and the top five cars were separated by just .8456 of a second.

By Lap 20, the halfway point of the race, Carbone was first, followed by Yacaman, Munoz, Sebastian Saavedra and Guerreri, who started 18th after the engine change.

Carbone still held a razor-thin lead on Lap 22, when he clinched the two bonus points for leading the most laps in the race.

On Lap 23, Carbone led second-place Guerrieri by .0871 of a second. On lap 24, Munoz passed Guerrieri for second. On Lap 25 Carbone and Guerrieri traded the lead during the lap, but Carbone held it by .0004 of a second at the line.

On Lap 27, Tristan Vautier, who had moved up through the tightly bunched pack took the lead from Carbone and led at the line by .0119 of a second.

Vautier continued to hold a slim lead at the line as the laps ticked off.

Lap 38 turned out to be the pivotal lap of the race as, in Turn 1, Munoz and Guerrieri split Vautier high and low to take the top two spots. At the end of the lap, Guerrieri led Munoz by .0352 of a second.

It also turned out to be the last competitive lap of the race as, in Turn 2 on Lap 39, Jorge Goncalvez went low, did a half-spin, hit the SAFER Barrier with the left side and left front of the car, did a half-spin forward and slid down the track, bringing out the yellow. He was uninjured in the incident.

The 40-lap race ended under the yellow as Guerrieri took the yellow and checkered flags simultaneously.

The top five at the finish were Guerrieri, Munoz, Vautier, Tacaman and Saavedra.

Following the race, Guerrieri expressed his pleasure with the win.

“I’m really, really happy. It was one of those weekends that I trusted I was going to finish well even though I qualified bad (11th). (Note: He started 18th in the 19-car field after an engine change.) I’m overjoyed. From last to first, I’m really happy,” he exclaimed.

It was Guerrieri’s fifth win in the Firestone Indy Lights Series and his second of the season.

Following the Freedom 100, the IZOD Pit Stop Challenge finals were held on pit lane.

In the final round, the Target Chip Ganassi Racing team of Scott Dixon defeated the Dreyer & Reinbold team of Oriol Servia.

It was the first win in the Pit Stop Challenge for Target Chip Ganassi Racing.

Dixon talked about his team that won the competition.

“It’s nice to have days like this and moments for the guys because, you know, they are forgotten sometimes but prepare harder than all of us. They’ve worked hard, extremely hard over the winter. There’s been a few change-ups and things like that, but today was flawless. They didn’t make a mistake,” he said.

Following all the on-track activity was an infield concert featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Tomorrow, there is no on-track activity, but a lot will be going on at the track. The highlights of the day include an autograph session with the 2012 Indy 500 starting field, the public drivers meeting, an autograph session with Indy 500 veterans, vintage cars on the track and a memorabilia show.

Official Finish
Firestone Indy Lights
Freedom 100
Fin St Car# Driver Running/ Reason Out
1 18 11 Estaban Guerrieri Running
2 3 26 Carlos Munoz Running
3 9 77 Tristan Vautier Running
4 1 2 Gustavo Yacaman Running
5 10 27 Sebastian Saavedra Running
6 2 3 Victor Carbone Running
7 14 86 JV Horto Running
8 7 9 Alan Day Running
9 15 19 Mike Larrison Running
10 16 87 Chase Austin Running
11 17 76 Juan Pablo Garcia Running
12 4 4 Jose Goncalvez Contact
13 11 24 Armaan Ebrahim Running
14 12 15 Peter Dempsey Contact
15 19 7 Oliver Webb Contact
16 6 17 Brandon Wagner Contact
17 8 42 Emerson Newton-John Contact
18 5 22 David Ostella Contact
19 13 28 Anders Krohn Mechanical

Thursday, May 24 – On-track action resumed today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Firestone Indy Lights practice and qualifying for tomorrow’s Freedom 100.

During the three-hour Indy Lights practice session, 19 cars were on the track and turned 933 incident-free laps.

Fastest in the session was Sebastian Saavedra, who will be doing double duty this weekend by competing in both the Freedom 100 and the Indianapolis 500, with a speed of 189.447 mph.

Series veterans Gustavo Yacaman and David Ostella were second and third fastest in practice with speeds of 189.384 mph and 189.335 mph, respectively.

When qualifying, the Indy Lights took only two laps, which were averaged to set a qualifying speed, while the IZOD Indy Car Series cars took a four-lap qualifying run to get the average speed.

The qualifying session also was run without incident. After all 19 cars had qualified, Gustavo Yacaman sat on the pole with an average speed of 187.517 mph.

It is Yacaman’s first Indy Lights pole in his 44 starts in the series.

It proved to be a competitive field as the speed differential between Yacaman and Juan Pablo Garcia, who was the slowest qualifier, was just 3.023 mph.

After qualifying, Yacaman talked about his run.

“I’m really pleased. I think the first lap was really good. The second lap wasn’t too bad, but I think we lost a little bit there. We have a really good race car. We think things are looking good,” he said.

Following Firestone Indy Lights qualifying, two group of vintage Indy Cars took to the track. The first group featured the rear-engine cars that dominate the Speedway from the 1960’s forward, while the second group consisted of older front-engine cars including roadsters, dirt cars and several other historic vehicles.

In the rear-engine group was a 1984 March/Cosworth No. 14 A.J. Foyt car, which is owned, and was driven on the track today, by legendary NASCAR team owner and crew chief, Ray Evernham.

Evernham talked about the car in glowing terms. “We were fortunate enough to get it out of a collection, obviously with Foyt’s name attached to it. I’ve got some history with A.J. through the IROC years, and then through the Dodge years in NASCAR, so it’s just an honor for me to have the car,” he said.

“Somebody asked me what it was going to be like driving the car, and I was all choked up. It’s something that I always wanted to do. To go around here, there is a lot of emotion. This place is special,” he added.

Tomorrow is the traditional Carb Day at the track. The day will begin with a one-hour practice session for the IndyCars. This will be followed the 40-lap, 100-mile Freedom 100, featuring the Firestone Indy Lights.

Following the race will be the Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge, a competition to determine the fastest pit crew, and the day will wind up with a concert featuring Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Sunday, May 20 – Qualifications for next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 concluded today with the filling of the final nine spots in the field.

The Speedway also recognized Armed Forces Day, with a display of military equipment and the public swearing-in of 75 military recruits.

Despite not being able to get onto the track until Thursday, due to a switch from Lotus to Chevrolet engines, and then having to pass a refresher test, Sebastien Bourdais set the quickest time of the day at 223.760 mph after being bumped yesterday, and will start on the inside of Row 9 next Sunday.

“The run was good,” he said. “I just wish it had been yesterday, and we’d be quite a bit higher up on the grid. The speed varied a lot from Saturday and we can’t quite figure out why. I’m just happy that the TrueCar-McAfee entry is in the show,” he added.

The 33rd starter is rookie driver Jean Alesi, who qualified at a four-lap average speed of 210.094 mph.

After he qualified, Alesi said, “It’s a big relief for me to finally get into this race. We’ve had all week to work on it, and obviously we now have the car in the race. I’m glad, but I was expecting more speed from the car. We will just have to work for the best result from the race.”

On race day, Alesi will be the oldest rookie to ever start the race at the age of 47 years, 348 days old. The previous oldest rookie was Jack Hewitt, who started the 1998 race at the age of 46 years, 320 days old.

All three drivers who crashed yesterday qualified for the race today. Their teams were able to repair the damaged cars of Bryan Clauson and Oriol Servia, while Ed Carpenter was forced to move to his backup car.

Eight of the nine cars that qualified today took their runs as soon as the track opened for qualifications.

Following those runs, the track open for practice for a short time. During this period, Carpenter shook his car down and then qualified, filling the 33 starting places in the field by shortly after 2:00 p.m.

Because only 33 cars were at the track this year the field was full, so there would be no bumping, and the track opened for practice.

It turned out to be a very busy practice day as teams worked on their race set-ups, and ran many laps in packs, as they will run during the race.

An incident occurred at 2:24 this afternoon when Charlie Kimball, who qualified for the 14th starting position in the race yesterday, lost control of his car and hit the wall in Turn 1. Kimball climbed from the heavily damaged car uninjured. He was examined by the medical staff, and was cleared to drive.

When practice ended at 6:00 p.m., 2007 total laps were turned in practice sessions today.

Oriol Servia turned the fastest practice lap of the day with a speed of 223.752 mph.

The Target Chip Ganassi Racing team was the busiest team on the track during practice as Scott Dixon ran 115 laps today while his teammate, Dario Franchitti, made 114 circuits of the 2.5-mile oval.

Will Power, driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske entry, was also busy during practice as he logged 100 laps on the track today.

On race day there will be eight rookies in the 33-car field: Jean Alesi, Rubens Barrichello, Bryan Clauson, Wade Cunningham, John Jakes, Katherine Legge, Josef Newgarden, and Simon Pagenaud.

Of the eight, Newgarden is the fastest and will start seventh, while, as previously mentioned, Alesi is the slowest and will start 33rd.

There are only three former winners in the field, but together they account for six wins. Helio Castroneves has three wins, Dario Franchitti has two and Scott Dixon has one.

Rookie drivers Barrichello and Alesi are long-time Formula One drivers, while Bourdais, who has one previous “500” start, was also an F-1 competitor.

There will be no activity at the track on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is Community Day at the Speedway. While there is no on-track activity that day, there are autograph sessions with the Indianapolis 500 drivers and the Firestone Indy Lights drivers, as well as several other activities.

On-track action will resume on Thursday when the Firestone Indy Lights Series takes to the track for practice and qualifications for Friday’s Firestone Indy Lights Freedom 100.

2012 Indianapolis 500 Line-up

Row 1

1 – # 2 Ryan Briscoe 226.484 mph C

2 – #27 James Hinchcliffe 226.481 mph C

3 – #28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 226.240 mph C

Row 2

4 – #26 Marco Andretti 225 456 mph C

5 – #12 Will Power 225.422 mph C

6 – # 3 Helio Castroneves 225.172 mph C

Row 3

7 – #67 Josef Newgarden 224.037 mph H

8 – #11 Tony Kanaan 224.751 mph C

9 – # 5 E.J. Viso 224.422 mph C

Row 4

10 – # 8 Rubens Barrichello 224.264 mph C

11 – #98 Alex Tagliani 224.000 mph H

12 – #38 Graham Rahal 223.959 mph H

Row 5

13 – #25 Ana Beatriz 223.920 mph C

14 – #83 Charlie Kimball 223.868 mph H

15 – # 9 Scott Dixon 223.684 mph H

Row 6

16 – #50 Dario Franchitti 223.582 mph H

17 – #19 John Jakes 223.482 mph H

18 – # 4 JR Hildebrand 223.422 mph H

Row 7

19 – #15 Takuma Sato 223.392 mph H

20 – #99 Townsend Bell 223.134 mph H

21 – #18 Justin Wilson 222.929 mph H

Row 8

22 – #30 Michel Jourdain Jr. 222.893 mph H

23 – #77 Simon Pagenaud 222.891 mph H

24 – #17 Sebastian Saavedra 222.811 mph H

Row 9

25 – # 7 Sebastien Bourdais 223.760 mph C

26 – #41 Wade Cunningham 223.258 mph H

27 – #22 Oriol Servia 222.393 mph C

Row 10

28 – #20 Ed Carpenter 222.324 mph C

29 – #14 Mike Conway 222.319 mph H

30 – # 6 Katherine Legge 221.624 mph C

Row 11

31 – #39 Bryan Clauson 214.455 mph H

32 – #78 Simona de Silvestro 214.393 mph L

33 – #64 Jean Alesi 210.094 mph L

All cars have Dallara Chassis and Firestone Tires

C=Chevrolet Engine H= Honda Engine L=Lotus Engine

Saturday, May 19 – Pole day qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 featured a smorgasbord of happenings including many qualification attempts, cars failing post-qualifying inspection, cars withdrawn, cars bumped, cars crashing, some nostalgia and a true blast from the past.

Today, 24 spots in the field were filled in the first qualifying session from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., today, after which bumping began. The final nine sports in the field will be filled tomorrow.

At 4:30 p.m., the times of the fastest nine drivers were erased and a shootout ensued in a race for the pole.

When all was said and done, Team Penske driver Ryan Briscoe was on the pole with a four-lap average speed of 226.484 mph, just .003 miles per hour faster than Andretti Autosport driver James Hinchcliffe, whose four-lap average was 226.481 mph. This was the closest pole winning margin in history and was figured out to be 9.168 inches in the ten-mile run.

This was Briscoe’s first Indy 500 pole, but the 17th for Team Penske and he summed up his feeling about winning the pole.

“You know, this race is just so important; it’s so big and I think even just a pole win here is remembered, so it’s a great feeling. They were four really good laps and I was proud of myself and the team for the setup they gave me today. They were really consistent. It was lap four that got me the pole today. It wasn’t the outright speed that we had, it was the consistency we had over four laps. It’s just a great feeling. 17 poles for Roger here at the Indy 500 and to have my name on the list of drivers that have done that for him, it’s a great feeling,” he said.

Hinchcliffe was philosophical about losing the pole by such a small margin and said “I’m going to lose a little bit of sleep over how small that was to Ryan and to know we had it for three or four laps, but that’s Indy, man. It’s a gust of wind, it’s a shadow over a corner that changes, and that can sometimes be the difference. But, at the end of the day it’s a great result for us.”

During Hinchcliffe’s first qualifying run, which put him in the fast nine, he had the late Greg Moore’s driving gloves inside his driving suit. Moore was a talented young IndyCar driver who was killed at California Speedway in 1999. The gloves were given to Hinchcliffe by one of Moore’s former mechanics. They are special to Hinchcliffe as he was the winner of the Greg Moore Legacy Award in 2010 as the rising star of the Firestone Indy Lights.

Team Penske and Andretti Autosport controlled the top two rows with Andretti driver Ryan Hunter-Reay rounding out the front row with a speed of 226.240 mph. His teammate Marco Andretti will start inside the second row with a speed of 225.456 mph, while Team Penske drivers Will Power and Helio Castroneves qualified fifth and sixth with speeds of 225.422 and 225.172 mph.

Rookie driver Josef Newgarden, driving the only car with a Honda power plant in the top nine, qualified seventh with a speed of 224.037 mph.

KV Racing drivers Tony Kanaan and E.J. Viso did not make qualifying attempts during the fast nine session and were relegated to eighth and ninth places on the grid as a penalty for not coming out during the session.

In today’s first session, Tony Kanaan was the first car out to qualify with a four-lap average of 225.100, setting the bar high for the rest of the field. However, Kanaan’s car failed post-qualifying inspection for missing required ballast and the attempt was disallowed. Kanaan later re-qualified and was fast enough to be in the top nine.

Later in the day, Mike Conway’s qualifying run was also disallowed, as the car was underweight. He later re-qualified but was one of the last cars bumped today.

During the first session several cars were bumped from the field and several cars were withdrawn as they felt they would soon be bumped.

Ed Carpenter fell into the latter category and the decision would be costly for him as on the first lap of his second attempt he crashed hard in Turn 2. Fortunately, he was not injured and was cleared to drive.

The other two drivers who crashed during qualifying today were also uninjured and cleared to drive. Rookie Bryan Clauson, who was averaging well over 223 mph on his first three laps, crashed in Turn 1 on his fourth qualifying lap.

Later, Oriol Servia was coming to the green flag when he lost control of his car in Turn 4, hit the outside wall, and then spun to the left and hit the end of the pit wall.

During the break between the first and second qualifying sessions, Parnelli Jones took the #98 roadster he drove in 1962 on to the track. 50 years ago, during qualifying in 1962, Jones drove the car dubbed “Calhoun” to the pole position, breaking the 150 mph barrier with a four-lap qualifying average 150.370 mph. The next year Jones drove the same car to his only victory in the Indianapolis 500.

Qualifying will resume tomorrow, “B

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