Here we sit on the brink of Pole Day, and once more we get to analyze the practice times.
Team Penske tops the charts with Ryan Briscoe, followed by teammate Helio Castroneves. Clearly Roger Penske wants pole and his drivers seem intent on bringing it home for him. On a side note, Roger’s license plate on his car is “1 INDY 14”. Also of note is that Will Power was 7th quick.
Franchitti and Dixon were 3rd and 4th quick overall for Target Chip Ganassi Racing. Dixon has made comments that he fully expects both TCGR cars on the front row after tomorrow’s qualifying. Alex Lloyd also put in 10th on the sheet in his hot pink Chip Ganassi/Sam Schmidt entry.
Andretti Green teammates put in 5th, 6th, 9th & 12th on the sheet with Patrick, Andretti, Mutoh and Kanaan respectively. Again, AGR is showing good performance to go with the great results they had a Long Beach and Kansas. What is concerning is that Tony Kanaan has consistently been the slowest on the team. He even took laps in Marco’s car today, possibly to feel out his setup and see if he wanted to switch up his setup.
The only car in the top ten that belonged to someone other than the big 3 was Panther’s Dan Wheldon. I would look for him to be a first day qualifier. Dan clearly has the skills and Panther knows what they are doing at Indy.
Also of note is the 11th and 13th quick times put up by Newman Haas Lanigan drivers Graham Rahal and Robert Doornbos. Coming off a front row qualifying sweep at Kansas, NHL may also have a first day qualifier on their hands as they clearly have made a huge leap on the ovals in the offseason.
1 Ryan Briscoe 6 225.981
2 Helio Castroneves 3 225.438
3 Dario Franchitti 10 224.984
4 Scott Dixon 9 224.822
5 Danica Patrick 7 224.755
6 Marco Andretti 26 224.724
7 Will Power 12 224.588
8 Dan Wheldon 4 224.357
9 Hideki Mutoh 27 224.222
10 Alex Lloyd 99 224.219
11 Graham Rahal 02 224.144
12 Tony Kanaan 11 224.033
13 Robert Doornbos 06 223.955
14 Mario Moraes 5 223.575
15 Vitor Meira 14 223.562
16 Tony Kanaan 26 223.465
17 Paul Tracy 15 223.372
18 Raphael Matos 2 222.660
19 Sarah Fisher 67 222.444
20 John Andretti 43 222.079
21 Ed Carpenter 20 222.021
22 Davey Hamilton 44 221.981
23 Scott Sharp 16 221.739
24 Justin Wilson 18 221.738
25 Alex Tagliani 34 221.538
26 AJ Foyt IV 41 220.845
27 EJ Viso 13 220.837
28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 21 220.616
29 Mike Conway 24 220.500
30 Nelson Philippe 00 219.847
31 Milka Duno 23 219.669
32 Stanton Barrett 98 218.709
33 Robert Doornbos 06T 217.716
After practice today, the qualifying pill draw was held. All of the cars (whether a T car or a normal car) drew for their qualifying order. This does not mean that all of these cars will even attempt to qualify. In the event of rain, they must have worked through the entire initial pill draw lineup, or the days qualifying will not stand. However, tomorrow looks to be a beautiful day in central Indiana with weather forecast to be partly sunny with a high of 63F. Below is the qualifying order for tomorrow.
18 – Wilson
21T – Hunter-Reay
06T – Doornbos
26 – M. Andretti
36T – TBA
18T – Justin Wilson
2 – Matos
5 – Moraes
36 – TBA
12 – Power
27 – Mutoh
4T – Wheldon
7 – Patrick
6 – Briscoe
12T – Power
23 – Duno
14T – Meira
2T – Matos
27T – Mutoh
67 – Fisher
11T – Kanaan
13 – Viso
21 – Hunter-Reay
26T – M. Andretti
11- Kanaan
34 – Tagliani
17T – Servia (officially TBA)
14 – Meira
20 – Carpenter
41 – Foyt IV
4- Wheldon
9 – Dixon
25 – TBA
23T – Duno
10T – Franchitti
8 – Bell
16T – Sharp
98 – Barrett
06 – Doornbos
00 – Philippe
9T – Dixon
17 – Servia (officially TBA)
67T – Fisher
91 – B. Lazier
02T – Rahal
44T – Hamilton
5T – Moraes
16 – Sharp
44 – Hamilton
3T – Castroneves
02 – Rahal
27T – Mutoh
99 – Lloyd
20T – Carpenter
3- Castroneves
15 – Tracy
10 – Franchitti
48 – TBA
19 – TBA
7T – Patrick
24 – Conway
25T – TBA
43 – J. Andretti
24T – Conway
34T – Tagliani
6T – Briscoe
43T – J. Andretti
There will be a 2 hour practice session tomorrow morning followed by qualifying from noon to 6pm eastern time. Versus will be carrying the coverage live and video streaming from the track will be available on indycar.com along with live timeing and scoring.
I’m very excited about Team AGR and especially Hideki. I think Hideki will have a breakout season this year and score at least a couple of podiums if not a win.