What an adventurous day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for qualifications. The weather held up until late in the afternoon and we saw many of the dominant drivers flat out struggle.
The first row isn’t too surprising featuring Alex Tagliani, Scott Dixon, and Dario Franchitti. After that however, is a toss up.
Townsend Bell, Ed Carpenter, Oriol Servia, James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato all in the top 15.
Veteran John Andretti was the only driver of five for Andretti Autosport to qualify. Marco and Danica could never find sufficient speed while Graham Rahal had a poor engine. Andretti, a usual fierce power is having problems team-wide.
Team Penske failed to crack the top-three and Ryan Briscoe isn’t in the field yet after crashing his main car during morning practice. His backup struggled.
Helio Castroneves has won the last two poles but qualified just 16th today…that is an all-time worst for the Brazilian. Previously, his highest starting position was 11th.
The story of the day had to be the lady that never quit. Simona de Silvestro had a horrific crash earlier in the week but fortunately her HVM racing team got her backup car ready. To make her qualification even more impressive was the fact that her car was brand new and the backup car was a 2003 model.
She has always been a fun driver to cover. She’s enthusiastic, outgoing, and speaks her mind. Simona has become the fan favorite this year and they let her hear it when she got out of the car. And can you imagine signing dozens of autographs with burnt hands. I can’t, but she did it.
Things will get even more interesting tomorrow for bump day with so many notable drivers out of the race.
After a quick spell of rain, the top nine drivers went on out with one run at the poll.
The finish was thrilling. Oriol Servia was he top gun through six drivers. Dario Franchitti was extremely fast but gambled with fuel. The gamble didn’t pay off as Dario was a half-lap short. Getting out of his car, Franchitti was furious and didn’t even take the time to take off his helmet. Somebody may be fired tonight on his Target team.
Alex Tagliani had been the fastest all week and today was no different. Tags finished with a clutch last run to take home the pole which includes a $100,000 bonus. Sam Schmidt was extremely happy with Tags and rightfully so.