Monday, May 18, 2009
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — John Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay provided the drama Sunday, saving their best efforts for the final 10 minutes at the end of four days of qualifying for the Indianapolis 500.
Both wound up in the 33-car field for Sunday’s race, thanks to their gutsy qualifying runs with time running out on another emotional “Bump Day” on the famed 2.5-mile Brickyard oval.
“I’m glad the race isn’t tomorrow,” said Andretti, who didn’t wrap up his 10th Indy start until his third and final qualifying attempt of the day. “I couldn’t do it. I don’t think I could get in the car. I’m physically, mentally, just totally exhausted.
“I just can’t even believe it. I know that I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and realize I’m back in the Indy 500.”
Andretti and Hunter-Reay, whose successful qualifying effort was underway as the gun went off ending the six-hour final session of time trials, both had to find more speed after being bumped out of the lineup earlier in the day.
Hunter-Reay said he just considered himself lucky to make the race after bumping Indy rookie Alex Tagliani out with the Canadian driver sitting in his car, waiting and hoping to get one more chance.
“That was a timing issue there,” Hunter-Reay said. “I think Tagliani was pretty fast and we were lucky we went out last. I’ve never been so happy to take last place.”
The field was filled on Saturday, but poor weather conditions, including gusty wind, kept the speeds of the slowest qualifiers low enough to make them vulnerable to bumping by faster drivers on Sunday.
And speeds did climb considerably on the final day of qualifying, thanks to a cool, sunny afternoon with little wind.
The day began with 1996 race winner Buddy Lazier, 2002 pole-winner Bruno Junqueira and Indy rookie Stanton Barrett the only drivers with a chance to bump their way into the field. In the end, only Junqueira made it, turning a solid four-lap average of 221.115 mph despite not running a lap in his car until Sunday morning.
That bumped Andretti’s Saturday speed of 219.442 out of the field.
The day began with five drivers qualified under 220 and most of the qualifying efforts Sunday came from those drivers, trying to go faster and get themselves out of danger of being bumped.
Tomas Scheckter (221.496), rookie Mike Conway (221.417), E.J. Viso (221.164), Milka Duno (221.106) and rookie Nelson Philippe (220.754) each withdrew an earlier qualifying speed and improved upon it.