INDY 500 Qualifications often as dramatic as race

The closeness of the times means one mistake can mean two rows.
By STEVE HERMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS
INDIANAPOLIS -- One of the most important moments at the Indianapolis 500 is on the first day of qualifications, when pole position is decided and the list of race favorites is shortened to an elite few.
Any mistake, a slight wobble or an untimely gust of wind can send a potential front-row starter back to the middle of the pack. That's why qualifications often are as dramatic as the race.
"It's important to be consistent through the week. You want to be fast against your peers every day, but I saw a lot of guys busting their times drafting off people, and we did the same," said Scott Sharp, the 2001 Indy pole winner and IRL points leader this season. "You won't know what you can run on your own until much later in the week."
Running on your own -- that's the key.
Qualifying is the only time all month when a driver is alone on the track. No traffic to slow him, no drafting to help him, and certainly no time for a quick trip to the pits for an aerodynamic tweak of the chassis or a change of tires.
It's four laps around the 21/2-mile oval, with the average speed determining a driver's starting spot.
"Qualifying for a team is really a simple exercise of how much you're willing to risk," 1998 Indy winner Eddie Cheever said. "How much power you have, how long a driver can hold his breath. We're trying to make him hold his breath for five minutes, but he's turning blue at around three."
The format
Saturday is the first of three days of qualifications for the May 25 race. Each car gets three attempts, but if it completes a four-lap run to qualify, it has to be withdrawn or bumped once the lineup is full to make another attempt for more speed.
Only those cars in the original qualifying order are eligible for the pole.
Last year produced a record 228.648 mph average in qualifications for the 33-car field, and the past two years produced the two closest starting fields in Indy history. The total four-lap time was 3.2422 seconds between Sharp and slow qualifier Billy Boat in 2001 and 3.2646 seconds between pole-winner Bruno Junqueira and Boat last year.
That's what produces the tension, Cheever said.
"In a race, you can have a bad pit stop, you can have a bad set of tires, and still catch up under the yellow," Cheever said. "In qualifying, it is an exercise in trying to achieve perfection, and so rarely is that achieved, going out and getting the absolute maximum speed out of the car.
"You make one mistake, go 2 feet wide, you lose a 10th of a mile an hour. This year here, that can knock you back two rows."
And that's a big price to pay.
History
Cheever started 17th, from the middle of the sixth row, when he won the race in 1998, but that was an exception. Fifty-three of the other 85 races have been won by a driver who started in either the first or second row. And the front row has produced 36 winners, including a record 16 from the pole.
Conversely, only six winners have started from the final four rows, none since Johnny Rutherford's victory from the 25th spot in 1974. Helio Castroneves started 11th and 13th in winning the race the past two years.
The records for qualifications are 237.498 mph for one lap and 236.986 for four laps, both by Arie Luyendyk in 1996, before the IRL changed its chassis and engine specifications. Luyendyk's pole-position average in 1997 was 218.236, but the speeds have been climbing since then. Junqueira won the pole at an average 231.342 last year.