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[Rad-oh-yeah?]

‘Indy is a cruel mistress sometimes’ - Hinchcliffe



By: RACER Staff | 12 minutes ago


James Hinchcliffe was the big shock of Bump Day as the man fifth in the championship failed to qualify for the 102nd Indianapolis 500.

The No. 5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsport car was first out on track following the first rain delay on Saturday and ended up near the back of the field. Once Oriol Servia managed to get into the 33 after two aborted runs, Hinchcliffe was left on the bubble and Conor Daly then went up to 33rd to bump the Canadian and require him to run again.

Hinchcliffe switched to Lane 1 to gain priority and head out on track – sacrificing his previous speed at the same time – but on his warm-up lap reported a “very, very, very bad vibration” and returned to the pits with a little over 11 minutes remaining in the session.

Pippa Mann was the other car outside of the 33 and ahead of Hinchcliffe in Lane 1 as both tried to prepare their cars for another run, allowing both Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi to head out from Lane 2. That saw the clock tick down and Mann was the final car out before time expired, bumping Hinchcliffe out of the race.

Hinchcliffe – engineered by Leena Gade this season – was on pole two years ago at Indianapolis Motor Speedway but as things stand, will now not race next weekend.

“It’s devastating in every way possible,” Hinchcliffe said. “We got in the lane there, we got a tire vibration and I’m not entirely sure what the problem was. It’s one of those things – Indy is a cruel mistress sometimes, the highest of highs and lowest of lows.”

-Chris Medland

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Hinchcliffe open to another 500 seat as SPM looks at options

 

By: RACER Staff | 37 minutes ago


James Hinchcliffe says he would be open to taking over a car that’s qualified for the Indianapolis 500 if a seat was purchased for him.

Trouble for the No.5 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda on Bump Day forced Hinchcliffe to abort a late attempt to qualify and then watch as time ran out to make the final 33 as both he and Pippa Mann missed out. As it stands, the No. 5 failed to qualify; but because it’s the car that qualifies he could take over another car.

When asked if he’d do so if the opportunity presented itself, he replied: “I’m here to race at the end of the day.

“I race for Sam [Schmidt] and Ric [Peterson] and whatever Sam or Rick tell me to do I will do. I believe that there are some options being investigated but at this point I don’t know any more than you do.”


Teammate and good friend Robert Wickens offers a hug. (Levitt/LAT)

While a switch with another SPM driver is one avenue to explore, Hinchcliffe could also take the place of any other driver on the grid should a deal be agreed to buy a seat.

Explaining his failure to qualify in more detail, Hinchcliffe says the team has identified the cause of a big vibration that forced him to pit before starting what turned out to be his final attempt.

“I pulled out of the pits, the track had been getting a little bit quicker so we were pretty optimistic to be honest and as soon as I left pit lane I felt a horrible vibration. Called it in but weirdly it started to go away so I just thought maybe I had some pickup on my tires or something. So I called into the team and said ‘No, I think it’s alright, I’m going to keep going.’

“Then at Turn 3 it was back again and it was violent. So came in and have since diagnosed a tire pressure sensor failure. It kind of broke off the rim and was rattling around inside the tire, which at 200mph-plus doesn’t feel good.”

With Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi inside the 33 and attempting to improve their times, the No.63 of Pippa Mann was ahead of Hinchcliffe in Lane 1 and got out for one final run before the session ended, depriving the No.5 of another attempt.

“I haven’t been on the internet, I haven’t heard anything myself, but I’ve heard some stuff from other people — this is in no way Pippa Mann’s fault or anybody else in line’s fault, this is our fault. So if there is anybody out there who has anything bad to say, you don’t know motorsports and keep your mouth shut.”

[alpiner]

Ima li šanse da uleti umesto Howarda?

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Ima li šanse da uleti umesto Howarda?[/size]

 
Ima, ali je komplikovano. Hauardov sponzor je njegov licni prijatelj i verovatno bi povukao sponzorstvo, sto nije toliko frka za ovu jednu trku jer ce samo pomeriti regularnog Hincovog sponzora na taj bolid ali znaci da su dugorocno spalili sve mostove s njim i da vise nikad nece saradjivati. No, sve je stvar dogovora, videcemo sta ce biti. Sve su opcije u igri.
 

 

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 20 May 2018 - 13:14.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

 

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Uzivo iz padoka:

 

 

Strim kvalifikacija (kao i juce, samo se ono strimuje sto nece biti na TV):

 

 

Tajming i radio-prenos (za ono sto ne bude strimovano):

 

http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Hinchcliffe's 500 options dwindle



By: Robin Miller | 40 minutes ago


James Hinchcliffe is the face of IndyCar racing. He’s on national Honda commercials. There are 400 Arrow customers coming to cheer him on in this year’s Indianapolis 500. IndyCar wants him in the race, Honda wants him in the race, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports wants him in the race and the majority of IndyCar fans want him in the race.

So Sam Schmidt writes a check to get his driver a ride and almost everybody is happy.

But, according to Dale Coyne, “it’s not as easy as it sounds.”

The day after Hinchcliffe got bumped from the 102nd Indianapolis 500, the big story was which car the Mayor could take over this Sunday.

So let’s look at the rumors/possibilities:

Take over teammate Jay Howard’s car. “Not for any amount of money,” said Howard, who did a splendid job of qualifying fastest among the three SPM cars.

Take over Jack Harvey’s car since Mike Shank is partnering with SPM. “The ride is not for sale,” said Shank, whose AutoNation/Sirius XM sponsors love the 25-year-old British driver.

Take over rookie Zachary Claman De Melo’s car. “Make that 3” tweeted De Melo in response to a report there were four viable options for Hinchcliffe. De Melo turned in a fine qualifying run in his oval-track debut as Pietro Fittipaldi’s replacement.

Take over Oriol Servia’s ride at Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan. “Nobody has called me but nothing is for sale on our team,” said Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner who got bumped in 1993 and didn’t try to buy his way into the race.

Take over Conor Daly’s ride with the caveat the second-generation driver can run other races in 2018 for SPM. “Conor got called and offered two or three races but there isn’t enough money,” said Coyne, who leases equipment to Thom Burns.

Because Howard, Servia and Daly are Indy-only deals with Honda power, they’re the likely candidates to take a buyout.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Coyne, whose fourth driver Pippa Mann was the other driver bumped on Saturday. “We’ve got contracts with the Air Force, Tom Burns, Conor and I don’t think there’s enough money to buy that ride.

“Nobody is going to write a check for $2 million.”

Daly, who went out for his qualifying run, said he believed he’d be in the No. 17 Honda on race day.

“As far as I know yes,” he said. “Unless somebody gives me millions of dollars, I don’t think there’s any way I won’t be in it.”

Asked if IndyCar had approached him, Coyne replied: “No but if IndyCar wants Hinch in they can just start 35 cars.”

Howard, sponsored by One Cure (an animal cancer research initiative out of Colorado) for the second straight May, spends all year working on his Indy deal. “I don’t think Sam (Schmidt) would make me get out of my car,” he said.

“It sucks for Hinch, I get that. But I worked hard to get this ride and as soon as the race is over, I’ll start working on next year.”

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

PRUETT: Speed zone



By: Marshall Pruett | 9 hours ago


“What’s normal for us is deemed completely insane by 99.9 percent of the population,” Sebastien Bourdais says of flirting with the walls at a 200mph-plus superspeedway. “I mean, how do you relate that to the guy sitting next to you in the airport?”

James Hinchcliffe isn’t sure it’s actually possible to translate the crazed world exploding past his visor at warp speed.

“It’s an experience that, in the grand scheme of people on this planet, a very small percentage have had the privilege to really live through,” says the 2016 Indy 500 pole winner. “As a driver, you almost have to forget what you’re doing while you’re doing it or else the smart part of your brain will kick in and say, ‘You know, you should probably stop now…’

“But there’s just something so beautiful about being able to take a machine and push it to those extremes and keep it in control. You’ve got this piece of metal that’s essentially exploding 12,000 times a minute behind your back and hurtling you through the air at 240mph, and you’re somehow controlling that. The precision required, the attention, the focus; it’s unlike anything else, and it’s a really, really hard feeling to describe to people who haven’t done it. But we’re very lucky to get to do what we do and get to say that we’re some of the few people who’ve lived it.”


(Image by LePage/LAT)

So how does the mind deal with the sensory overload that comes with driving devastatingly fast machines? To break everything down, the mental frame rate must increase – like a super high-speed camera that shoots a thousand frames per second – so each slice, every moment in time, appears in slow motion.

Bourdais, like all the top guys, is adept at it now, but recalls a time when his brain wasn’t so dialed in to life at warp speed.

“I remember my very first Formula 1 test back in 2002,” he continues. “That was the first time I had a feeling of, ‘OK, I’m not sure I’m up to this.’ It’s just – it’s overwhelming. I’m late on everything. The acceleration was insane, and then I kept missing apexes. I would brake too late. Everything was happening way too fast.

“That evening I was thinking, ‘I don’t think I can do this. I think I’ve reached my limit here. I can’t do this.’ But the next day I got back in the car and things had slowed down dramatically. I wouldn’t say I felt at home, but it was such a difference in terms of appreciation and perception of the whole experience.

“With a night to sleep on it, the brain had time to think about it and readjust; the body relaxed and the mind settled and everything felt much more normal, which I really didn’t know was possible. Sure, it was still quick, but I felt like I was somewhat back in control.”

The Verizon IndyCar Series is all about speed. Yes, it’s the drivers doing all that 240mph stuff, but it’s also the guys in the pit lane and on the shop floors. IndyCar’s unrelenting pace is a prerequisite for all those who accept the challenge.

“It’s the backbone of what we do,” says Team Penske competition director Kyle Moyer. “When we talk speed, the cars are a lot faster than when I first came here, but the biggest change recently hasn’t so much been the speed of the car; it’s the speed of everything else that happens.”

In an era of such evenly-matched cars, it was only natural for the hands and minds in charge of those machines to work faster, arrive at conclusions quicker, and try to solve the puzzle before the competition works out its own answers. Where drivers are judged by their lap times and – harsh reality alert – can keep or lose a job based on their effectiveness and results, similarly tough criteria has filtered down to the rest of the team.

According to Moyer, the mental stopwatch is always running within IndyCar Series teams, and the push to shave seconds from routine tasks – and minutes or hours from the big ones – has become a competitive way of life.

“Guys used to crash at Indy, and you’d be happy to get the car back out by the weekend,” he says. “Now, if you don’t make it back out by the end of the day, you’re disappointed in yourselves. The mechanics have to be so much more prepared. Everything’s evolved to be faster, more efficient, and you can’t really compromise there.

“We have less time during the sessions to make the cars faster, and the time between sessions isn’t that much, so the thing we fight for internally is to make more out of the same time that everyone’s given. If we have 45 minutes of practice and we can get through 10 setup changes while the guys next to us only get through eight, that’s an advantage. Our guys can do a front spring change in two minutes now. Three would be considered slow. That’s the pressure to perform that everyone’s under.”

How normal can we be?

For a Verizon IndyCar Series driver, 200mph-plus is normality. But even they question it sometimes…


(Image by LePage/LAT)

“It’s definitely more frightening to watch myself from outside of the car than to be in it,” says 2012 Verizon IndyCar Series champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. “I’ll watch the footage and it’s like, ‘Whoa, careful, man!’ I’m a late turn-in guy. Always have been. Road courses, short ovals, superspeedways, I’m always on the later side of town. I know some guys who turn in a little bit earlier and away from the wall, but I like to be right there with it.

“Doing 240 at a place like Indy, your eyes are so far up the track. You come halfway down the straightaway and you’re already looking at your turn-in point. By the time you get to turning, you’re already looking at the corner exit, where you’re going to place the car, because every inch of track that you can use is potentially an advantage.

“Radius equals speed, so that’s always the case. The more track you can use, that usually ends up being the better way to go at Indy. The hard part, or the whole challenge of it all, is not to use up too much. Sometimes, when you see your right-front tire is inches from the wall, you count your blessings.

“You’re strapped into this car, doing what’s probably the most ridiculous thing anyone can think of, defying the odds – just keeping it off the walls with every lap you turn – and loving every minute of it. How normal can we really be?”

This feature first appeared in the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series season preview issue of RACER magazine.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Sad ce poceti "brzih 9" za pol, do sada najbrzi Toni Kanan i Mateus Lajst - obojica Fojt - Sevrolet, i oni ce krenuti 10. i 11. Najvece iznenadjenje je Rosi na 32. mestu, imao je problem u pretposlednjem krugu i to ga je kostalo boljeg plasmana. Poslednji je Konor Dejli koji se i juce kroz iglene usi provukao medju 33.

[Sam633]

Carpenter prozujio pored ostalih. Jedini preko 230.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Karpenter klasa, ovo je njegov treci pol na Indiju. Njegovi bolidi su ovde uvek jaki, s obzirom koliko je to mali tim nije svejedno izaci na crtu Penskijima, Ganasijima i Andretijima. "Spesl" Ed je momak starog kova, jedan od poslednjih "privatnika" (vozac/gazda tima) u vrhunskom autosportu, odrastao u Sprintkar bolidima na kratkim ovalima sa podlogom od sljake i kao takav cini vezu sa nekim davno proslim vremenima kada je to bila norma i kad su najveca imena Indikar trkanja poput Vilbura Soa, Mori Rouza, Bila Vukovoca, EjDzej Fojta, Rodzera Vorda pekli zanat na Vincesteru, Salemu, Dukejnu, Langhornu...

 

Nekoliko stvari koje su ocigledne nakon danasnjih kvalifikacija je apsolutna dominacija Sevroleta. Nakon nekoliko sezona dge je Honda imala izrazitu prednost uprkos nesto slabijem aeropaketu, ove godine sa univerzalnim aeropaketom prisustvujemo vaskrsu Sevroleta na Indiju. Koliko je Honda dobila na svim ostalim stazama promenom pravila toliko je cini se izgubila na ovoj jednoj, najprestiznijoj. Do sada su njihovi motori imali prednost u snazi i ekonomicnosti (ako ne i u pouzdanosti) i to je bilo dovoljno za uspeh na Indiju uprkos boljoj aerodinamici Sevroleta, ove godine svi voze istu aerodinamiku ali izgleda da je Sevrolet odjednom nasao i jos brzine. No, brzina u kvalifikacijama na 4 kruga je jedna stvar, u trci na 200 krugova je nesto sasvim drugo jer puno zavisi i od toga koliko puta ce se morati u boks. Ali u svakom slucaju deluje da je Sevrolet u prednosti, narocito kad se pogleda apsolutna tabela po brzini - jedino Borde uspeva tu da parira Penskijevim i Karpenterovim Sevroletima, a Dikson koji ce startovati kao 9. zapravo ima tek 12. vreme - bolji od njega su oba Fojt-Sevroleta Toni Kanan i ruki Mateus Lajst, kao i Marko Andreti u Hondi. Dakle, medju prvih 10 svi Seviji osim Bordea na 5. mestu. Uz Karpentera na mene je upravo Borde ostavio i najveci utisak - narocito ako se setimo sta je bilo prosle godine.

 

Na osnovu dosadasnjih slobodnih treninga tokom Meseca Maja vidimo i da ce preticanje biti teze nego prethodnih sezona (tojest - preticanje medju prvih 2-3 u grupi ce biti lakse, a iza toga skoro nemoguce zbog efekta prljavog vazduha koji izaziva podupravljanje kroz krivine). Tako da ispada da ce ove godine pozicija na stazi biti mnogo znacajnija nego ranije, sto ce uticati i na takticke odluke kada se ide u boks. Svi se slazu da vozac na vodecoj poziciji u grupi nema sanse da sacuva poziciju do kraja dugih pravaca, ali i da je probijanje kroz masu u slucaju da neko padne na zacelje zbog incidenta ili greske u boksu sada prakticno nemoguce bez neke intervencije "spolja" poput pravovremene zute zastave ili ludacke taktike poput one Rosijeve od pre dve godine.

 

U svakom slucaju, ovo je Indi, ovde je sve moguce.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Grid za 102. Indi 500:

 

#20 Ed Karpenter (Karpenter-Sevrolet) - #22 Simon Pazeno (Penski-Sevrolet) - #12 Vil Pauer (Penski-Sevrolet)

 

#1 Dzozef Njugarden (Penski - Sevrolet) - #18 Sebastijan Borde (DCR-Honda) - #21 Spenser Pigot (Karpenter-Sevrolet)

 

#13 Danika Patrik (Karpenter-Sevrolet) - #3 Elio Kastroneves (Penski-Sevrolet) - #9 Skot Dikson (Ganasi-Honda)

 

#14 Toni Kanan (Fojt-Sevrolet) - #4 Mateus Lajst ruki (Fojt-Sevrolet) - #98 Marko Andreti (Andreti/Herta-Honda)

 

#19 Zakari Klaman DeMelo ruki (DCR-Honda) - #28 Rajan Hanter-Rej (Andreti-Honda) - #23 Carli Kimbal (Karlin-Sevrolet)

 

#30 Takuma Sato (RLL-Honda) - #32 Kajl Kajzer ruki (Junkos-Sevrolet) - #6 Robert Vikens ruki (SPM-Honda)

 

#33 Dzejms Dejvison (Fojt/Bird/Belardi-Sevrolet) - #59 Maks Cilton (Karlin-Sevrolet) - #29 Karlos Munjoz (Andreti-Honda)

 

#88 Gabi Caves (Harding-Sevrolet) - #25 Stefan Vilson (Andreti-Honda) - #24 Sejdz Karam (D&R-Sevrolet)

 

#26 Zak Vic (Andreti-Honda) - #64 Oriol Servija (RLL/Skuderija Korsa-Honda) - #66 DzejAr Hildebrand (D&R-Sevrolet)

 

#7 Dzej Hauard (SPM/AFS-Honda) - #10 Ed Dzons (Ganasi-Honda) - #15 Grem Rehol (RLL-Honda)

 

#60 Dzek Harvi (SPM/MSR-Honda) - #27 Aleks Rosi (Andreti-Honda) - #17 Konor Dejli (DCR/TBR-Honda)

 

Nisu se kvalifikovali:

 

#63 Pipa Man (DCR-Honda), #5 Dzejms Hincklif (SPM-Honda)

 

U slucaju bilo kakvih promena vozaca (neko sprecen da startuje zbog povrede ili bolesti, ili "prodat" bolid Hincu) vozac koji nije kvalifikovao bolid startuje kao poslednji, 33. Ako bude vise promena, onda startuju redom kojim su se prijavili - onaj koji uskace uvek uskace na 33. mesto u tom trenutku.

 

Daleko je jos do sledece nedelje, moze svasta da se desi. Cak i to da svih 35 prijavljenih bolida startuju.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Carpenter earns third career Indianapolis 500 pole

 

By: Robin Miller | 47 minutes ago


Ed Carpenter ruined Roger Penske’s party Sunday by capturing the pole position for the 102nd Indianapolis 500.

In winning his third Indy pole, Carpenter opened his Fast 9 shootout with a lap of 230.088mph and averaged 229.618mph in his Fuzzy’s Chevrolet to relegate Simon Pagenaud to the middle of the front row along with teammate Will Power.

“That first lap blew my mind,” said the 37-year-old veteran from Indianapolis. “I figured we could run a 229 based on last night. My run last night actually wasn’t very good. The car wasn’t near as good as we’ve been. I knew we had more left but I wasn’t expecting a 230.

“The whole ECR team, especially the guys on my 20 car, they put so much love into this car. It means everything to  me to put us in a position like this. And to be able to share the top nine with Spencer, his first time in the top nine with Preferred Freezer and Danica with GoDaddy, super happy to be here.”
 
Pagenaud averaged 228.761mph in his Menard’s Chevy.

“We tried to trim the car as much as we can to go super fast down the straightaway, managed to go through the corners for four laps, but it’s holding your breath,” he said. “Definitely the part that I hate the most is watching because you never know what the others have. Good job to Ed and Chevrolet, they did a tremendous job in giving us the power.” 

Power, the only driver to be in the Fast 9 every May since this system began in 2010, posted a 228.607mph in the Verizon Chevy. “We’re still in the front row, just didn’t have enough to beat Ed.”

Josef Newgarden (228.405mph) locked in the fourth slot in his Team Penske Chevy, while Sebastien Bourdais was fifth and the quickest Honda and ECR’s Spencer Pigot rounded out the second row — his career-best start in the Verizon IndyCar Series.

Danica Patrick qualified seventh, three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves was eighth and Scott Dixon rounded out the Fast 9.

 

 

13th a special Indy 500 starting spot for De Melo

 

By: Marshall Pruett | 1 hour ago


A kid who found out he’d be making his Indy 500 debut on Monday stormed to 13th on the grid during time trials on Sunday.

Zachary Claman De Melo, the 20-year-old native of Montreal, Canada, dropped the hammer in his No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing Honda to outqualify the entire three-car Rahal Letterman Lanigan team, all four of the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports entries, and five of the six Andretti Autosport drivers, among others. At the opening of practice last Monday, some wondered aloud whether the Indy Lights graduate would even make it into the show.

“The first time I got in the car I thought it would be difficult to be flat, but the car was so good, by my second lap, I was already pushing hard,” he told RACER. “The Coyne team has done a really good job at getting me prepared for this challenge.”

The surprise opportunity to participate in practice and qualifying for the Indy 500 meant Claman De Melo was behind the curve after most drivers were able to test on the 2.5-mile oval. As he sees it, it might have been a blessing.

“Not being ready maybe helped me in a way,” he added. “I was at home, training really hard, playing racing video games, and I didn’t get to do the testing here like everyone else, so I just came in thinking whatever happens will happen. I didn’t have any real expectations, but I think we’ve been exceeding expectations so far.”

The biggest news from the Indy 500 has been James Hinchcliffe’s failure to qualify for the race. As one of two Canadians left in the event, Claman De Melo hopes to give his countrymen another driver to root for in Hinchcliffe’s absence. And with so many Canadians or French-speaking members of the DCR team in his corner, there’s a strong feeling of support from inside the program.

“Me, my engineer Michael Cannon and [PR rep] Karina [Redmond] are from Montreal, Sebastien [Bourdais] and Olivier [Boisson] are from France, and we have me and [Schmidt Peterson Motorsports] Robert Wickens representing Canada, so we want to do all we can to give them something to cheer for,” he said.

In an interview with IndyCar.com last year, Claman De Melo spoke about the poignant reason he has the number 13 tattooed behind his right ear.

“My grandmother got freed from the Holocaust on Friday the 13th and the [concentration camp tattoo] numbers on her arm all added up to 13, so it’s always been a lucky number for me my whole life,” he said. “I’ve always worn it all throughout karting and all the series I’ve raced.”

Although he carries the No. 19 on the DCR Honda, Claman De Melo couldn’t help but smile while thinking about his grandmother after qualifying 13th.

“What are the odds?” he said.

Indeed.

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 21 May 2018 - 02:12.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

MILLER: Time for a qualifying re-think at Indy?



By: Robin Miller | 48 minutes ago


Can you imagine the Daytona 500 without one of the Busch brothers or Chase Elliott? Wouldn’t happen. Couldn’t happen. NASCAR has a provision to protect all its full-timers. It’s called the Charter System and it guarantees full-time license holders automatic entrance into every race for nine years.

IndyCar is facing the reality of running the 102nd Indianapolis 500 without one of its most popular and productive drivers. James Hinchcliffe (pictured above), who currently sits fifth in the Verizon IndyCar Series point standings, is on the sidelines after being bumped Saturday.

So the question is: should IndyCar protect its stars and its full-time teams so they can’t miss the biggest race in the world?

“It’s probably something that IndyCar needs to look at,” said Bobby Rahal, who along with David Letterman and Mike Lanigan fields two full-time entries for son Graham and 2017 Indy winner Takuma Sato. “You know NASCAR would have never run Daytona without Fireball Roberts or Buddy Baker because Bill France wouldn’t have allowed it.

“I know we all wanted to see bumping again but now one of the series biggest names is on the sidelines. So maybe we need a re-think.”


Bobby Rahal (Image by LAT)

Mark Miles, president and CEO of Hulman & Company, was asked if he had any second thoughts about the current qualifying procedure after Hinch was knocked out.

“I thought it was a great day,” he said. “The fans got a lot and ABC got a lot. But in a couple weeks, after all this has died down, I think we’ll sit down and talk about it.”

Rahal knows all about the agony of defeat at Indy. He was bumped in 1993 but opted not to buy his way back into the lineup despite having Miller Beer as his loyal sponsor.

“I think John Menard offered us a car but it was too much money and we just took our lumps and moved on,” said the 1986 Indy winner. “Five days later Miller came to Columbus (Ohio) and gave me a three-year extension.

“The next year we were in danger of missing the race again so we got a car and engine from Roger (Penske) and Miller didn’t care what kind of car or engine we had, they just wanted to be in the race.”

To his credit, Hinchcliffe was taking the high road on Sunday when asked if he would be in the race.

“There obviously has been a precedent in the past of people jumping into other cars, but at the end of the day, a single, one-race deal is occupied here by someone that worked their tail off all year long to get the sponsorship together, to get the team in line. This is their race, this is everything for the for the entire season. It’s hard to talk someone out of that.

“It’s not even my decision – I’ve got no say in it at this point, I do what I’m told. I certainly see both sides of the argument. We didn’t get the job done yesterday, so if it means we don’t get to race, so be it.”

Edited by Rad-oh-yeah?, 21 May 2018 - 00:14.

[Rad-oh-yeah?]

Foyt duo does 'helluva good job' with Row 4 spots



By: Robin Miller | 18 minutes ago


A.J. Foyt doesn’t care about Long Beach, Phoenix, Birmingham, Detroit, Mid-Ohio or Iowa. The only thing that matters to the legendary Texan is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

And he had plenty to smile about Sunday afternoon.

That’s because Tony Kanaan and rookie Matheus Leist were the two fastest drivers outside the Fast 9 and will start 10th and 11th in the 102nd Indianapolis 500.

“I’m happy for my boys, they did a helluva good job,” said Foyt after his ABC Supply Chevys earned spots on Row 4. “It’s a shame we didn’t get in the Fast 9 yesterday but we had to change gears and with al that rain we ran out of time.

“I expect good things out of Tony, he’s always fast here, but that kid [Leist] did a helluva job. He’s very smooth and fast and he’s only 19 — what else can you ask?”

Kanaan got the largest ovation of the day after averaging 227.664mph and was pretty demonstrative afterward.

“Man this feels like a win for us,” said the 43-year-old veteran. “We’re a little team compared to some but we work very hard so this was the least I could do for them. This is for them. This is the pole in my book.

“And that rookie did well didn’t he? My goal was to guide him through this month and he’s done a great job.”

Leist continued to be impressive at the track he won on a year ago in Indy Lights.

“I love this place and starting near the front is great, I hope we can end up at the front,” said the Brazilian. “My car has been good since the beginning of the month and we’ve had a strong pace.

“I have to thank A.J. and Tony for giving me such a great car.”


Kanaan offers his ear to Leist (Image by LePage/LAT)

Foyt, whose stem cell surgery a year ago has really improved his health, watched his drivers from his motorhome.

“I’ve got a lot of fans and they’re great but I can’t get any peace out there in the pits and I like to watch my cars up close,” said Indy’s original four-time winner.

“But it was a good day and I’m happy. This is all I care about. May in Indianapolis.”