@Speed • Your Interactive News Home

[dave carr]

Chinese water torture is nothing. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway saw the fastest unofficial laps posted at the track all month but was denied any qualification attempts by the return of a brutal form of Hoosier water torture that has slowly and painfully drowned out most practice sessions and ruined the Indianapolis 500’s unique qualifications procedure.

Sunday, the meteorological Marquis De Sade was especially cruel. Not content to wash out the entire day’s activities as it had Saturday, the rain today delayed the start of the two scheduled 35-minute practice sessions almost four hours and then interrupted those sessions in spits and spurts until a more substantial rain fell with about 19 minutes remaining in the final session.

With the field divided in two halves based on qualifying order, the first practice session for cars in the first half of the qualifying draw started when the track was deemed to be sufficiently dry at 1:18pm. The session was originally scheduled for 9:30am.

Track conditions were the fastest they have been all month and most drivers were able to post their best times so far. Scott Dixon wheeled his Target Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda to a speed of 227.274mph. There were no incidents in the session, but the action was stopped a few times for sprinkles.

The second session was even faster as Dixon’s teammate Dan Wheldon was quickest overall with his lap of 228.663mph, just edging Marlboro Team Penske’s Sam Hornish Jr.’s speed of 228.220mph. With Hornish’s teammate Helio Castroneves posting a 227.888mph lap, it appears that the favorite for the pole in this year’s race is among the Penske and Ganassi teams.

This marks the second year in a row that the rain has spoiled the debut of the Indy 500’s new qualification procedure. This new procedure would allow drivers to compete only for the first eleven positions on pole day with each driver allowed up to three attempts each day. Last year’s pole day was rained out and 22 cars were allowed to qualify on the second day.

With both first and second qualification days rained out this year, all 33 spots will be open on Saturday, May 20th when the next qualifications session is scheduled. Sunday, May 21st, will still be bump day (weather permitting). This marks the first time the entire first qualifications weekend at the Indy 500 has been lost to rain since 1983.

Twenty-four drivers posted times during the two practice sessions with 20 of those times topping the best speed of the month for that car. The top ten speeds from the day’s practice session were: