INDY ROUNDUP | News and notes

Fast Andrettis: Like his father and grandfather before him, Marco Andretti is the fastest rookie in the Indianapolis 500. The 19-year-old driver calmed his nerves, took a pair of warmup laps and coolly qualified Saturday with a four-lap average of 224.918 mph. "The good thing was there were no surprises," he said of his consistent run. "The guys put together an awesome car. But don't get me wrong, it was the longest six laps in my life." His grandfather, Mario Andretti, was the fastest rookie in 1965, when he finished third; his father, Michael, was the quickest rookie in 1984 and finished fifth. Both were rookies of the year.
Struggles pay off: Danica Patrick has had a much tougher time preparing for the Indianapolis 500 than she did last year, when she was the fastest driver in practice and came within seven laps of winning the race. This year, she struggled for speed in practice, lost a lot of needed track time to rain and found a setup that seemed to work just in time for qualifications "Yesterday was the most productive day we've had," she said. "Unfortunately, the productivity has mostly been to find out what doesn't work." Patrick qualified Saturday at an average of 224.674 mph, improving her speed on each of her four laps. "I've had some horrible laps that were much more difficult. So the run was good," she said. "We're finally stumbling on it and making it work. We finally got the car balanced. The changes that were made are absolutely things that can be carried over to the race." Patrick said she was much more comfortable than she was during her rookie race, when she started and finished fourth. "Being here the second time, knowing how it goes, more than anything knowing so much that anything can happen in the race, you really can drop back and come forward again," she said.
Surprise slowdown: The only surprise for rookie Townsend Bell was that his qualification average wasn't better. Bell had a top practice lap of 226.552 mph Saturday morning, more than 1.5 mph better than he had gone all month. In his first qualification attempt, however, he never even reached 224 and finished with an average of 223.659. Late in the day, his Vision Racing team withdrew the car and sent him back to try to regain his earlier speed. He improved, but only slightly, and his 224.374 mph average moved him up just one spot in the tentative lineup, from 16th to 15th. That still kept him the second-fastest rookie qualifier, behind Marco Andretti's 224.918 mph. "I'm a little bit shocked how much it slowed down," he said.
Rice ready: Buddy Rice is back in the Indianapolis 500 for the first time since his victory in 2004. Rice was injured in a crash during practice last year and missed the race. He qualified Saturday at 224.393 mph for a start near the middle of the pack. "There are a lot of emotions going on," he said. "You just have to try to stay as focused as you can to give yourself the best shot you can. We're in pretty good shape, but there are a lot of strong cars out there."
Associated Press
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