I'm a retired educator and lifelong racing fan. I hope to return to fostering greyhounds in the near future. Living mainly in Indy and wintering in Florida. I attend about 10 Indycar races a year as well as some sports car events
Honda issues, a procedural penalty, and the third fastest qualifying average in history highlight the first round of qualifying.
Honda Problems
Marco Andretti was impeded by Takuma Sato on his warmup lap. Sato was still on the track on his cool down lap. he should have been in the warmup lane. Andretti also had an engine issue on his third lap. Sato’s qualifying time was withdrawn by Indycar.
Colton Herta lost all power on his warmup lap.
Juan Pablo Montoya’s car faled tech inspection and was withdrawn from the line by Indycar. he will qualify after everyone else has their guaranteed turn.
Stefan Wilson overrevved the gears in this morning’s practice session. The team decided to change the engine. Wilson has not been out to qualify yet.
Rinus VeeKay began his run with a lap of 234,4 mph. His average of 233.655 is the third fastest qualifying average in Speedway history. Arie Luyendyk and Scott Brayton are the two ahead of VeeKay.
The top 12 as of 1:25 PM;
Rinus VeeKay
Pato O’Ward
Felix Rosenqvist
Alex palou
Tony Kanaan
Jimmie Johnson
Ed Carpenter
Marcus Ericsson
Romain Grosjean
Scott Dixon
Will Power
Josef Newgarden
The chance for storms has pushed back to 2:45, so we may have a few second runs. There are still four spots open in the field. Back with more later.
Ed Carpenter turned a lap in this morning of 234.410 mph. It was the fastest lap at IMS since Arie Luyendyk’s 236 mph lap in 1996.
Jimmie Johnson was fastest in Group 1 with a lap of 233,961 mph.
Both of the fast laps were aided by a tow.
Only 23 cars ran laps this morning.
The three best laps without a tow were
Scott Dixon 233,340
Alexander Rossi 233.295
Rinus VeeKay 233.205
The best four lap averages:
The Dale Coyne cars of Takuma Sato and David Malukas did not practice this morning. neither did Team Penske.
Qualifying is scheduled for 11 am. The weather radar shows a possible storm right around 11 and another one around 2:30. With track drying, it may be tough to get through the qualifying line. Keep checking for updates @tutorindie the rest of the day.
8 a.m. – IMS Gates Open 8:30-9 a.m. – Practice Group 1 9-9:30 a.m. – Practice Group 2 11 a.m. – PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying begins Peacock
TICKETS: General Admission tickets are $20 for Indy 500 qualifying days. Military personnel with a valid military ID are admitted free, and children 15 and under are also admitted free with a paying adult.
PUBLIC GATES OPEN (8 a.m.-6 p.m.): Gate 1, Gate 2, Gate 3, Gate 4, Gate 6S, Gate 7, Gate 7S, Gate 10 and Gate 10A.
PARKING: Free parking for Indianapolis 500 is located in Turn 3 and Lot 7 (North 40), in the South Carousel Lot for motorcycle parking, and Lot 7 (North 40) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum parking lot for ADA parking. Parking is $10 in Lot 2, Main Gate and Lot 3G, and $20 in Gate 1. ADA parking is $10 in Lot 2 and Lot 3, and $20 in Gate 1. Bicycle parking is located outside Gate 1, Gate 6 and Gate 9.
CASHLESS OPERATIONS: All IMS concession stands and merchandise locations are cashless this year. Tap-to-pay phone payments will be accepted, as will credit and debit transactions. Cash-to-Card machines, which convert paper money onto a temporary debit card, will be located throughout the facility. These funds can be spent inside the venue, outside the venue, online or anywhere in the world where Mastercard/Visa debit cards are accepted. Parking and gate locations will accept cash.
*********************************************************************** 106TH RUNNING OF THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 QUALIFICATION ORDER DRIVER 1 #5 – Pato O’Ward 2 #21 – Rinus VeeKay 3 #77 – Callum Ilott 4 #7 – Felix Rosenqvist 5 #28 – Romain Grosjean 6 #48 – Jimmie Johnson 7 #29 – Devlin DeFrancesco 8 #11 – JR Hildebrand 9 #6 – Juan Pablo Montoya 10 #51 – Takuma Sato 11 #98 – Marco Andretti 12 #15 – Graham Rahal 13 #1 – Tony Kanaan 14 #18 – David Malukas 15 #23 – Santino Ferrucci 16 #26 – Colton Herta 17 #25 – Stefan Wilson 18 #9 – Scott Dixon 19 #10 – Alex Palou 20 #20 – Conor Daly 21 #06 – Helio Castroneves 22 #3 – Scott McLaughlin 23 #33 – Ed Carpenter 24 #27 – Alexander Rossi 25 #8 – Marcus Ericsson 26 #45 – Jack Harvey 27 #24 – Sage Karam 28 #2 – Josef Newgarden 29 #30 – Christian Lundgaard 30 #60 – Simon Pagenaud 31 #14 – Kyle Kirkwood 32 #12 – Will Power 33 #4 – Dalton Kellett
The latest update from my weather app shows a possible thunderstorm around 8 am, then dry until around 2 pm. The amount of track activity depends on when the rain stops and how long it takes for the track to dry. The expected high has lowered to 79 degrees today.
Qualifying will run until the regular ending time of 5:50 pm, weather permitting. To complete qualifying runs for 33 cars takes about three hours.
Yesterday’s warm and windy weather limited track action. The fast Twelve was wide open before Friday and it is still a tossup, especially for the last four or five spots.
Once qualifying gets underway, I look for quite a battle for the top twelve spots, who advance to tomorrow’s run for the pole. I hope there is enough time today for everyone to get a run. This qualifying has the potential to be quite intriging. Can Dale Coyne Racing get its first Indianapolis 500 pole? How will the qualifying draw affect some of the favorites? Who still hasn’t shown us what they really have?
I think the fight for pole is between the Coyne and Ganassi cars. Arrow McLaren SP drivers Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist may play a spoiler role. Rosenqvist has become a really good qualifier at all tracks. I will break down the field later this morning.
Check back for schedule and weather updates. I will be posting results often during qualifying.
Takuma Sato again ran the fastest lap of the day in the last half hour of Fast Friday practice. His 232.789 mph circuit beat Alexander Rossi’s speed of 231.883 set early in the day
. Tony Kanaan had the best four lap average of 230.517 mph, edging Sato’s teammate David Maluka, who ran four laps at 230.286. the rest of the top 12 drivers, in order- Sage Karam, Pato O’Ward, Sato, Jimmie Johnson, Simon Pagenaud. Helio Castroneves, Marcus Ericsson, Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, and Felix Rosenqvist.
Tony Kanaan
Gusty winds made consistent four lap qualifying simulations difficult. Several drivers waited until late in the day to get on the track. Scott Dixon ran four laps after 5 pm. He had the fifth best lap at 231.530 mph.
Christian Lundgaard was the last driver to get on track in the last 30 minutes.
Malukas ran the most laps, 39, and Dixon and Alex Palou ran only four laps each. Malukas credited Sato with helping find the speed he ahs shown this week.
Top Twelve
Teams in the top 12 single laps today:
Coyne- 2
Andretti – 1
Penske- 3
Ganassi- 4
AMSP- 2
Notes
Ed Carpenter racing did not get a driver in the top 12, but I would not count them out tomorrow. Other than Coyne and Ganassi, today was difficult to judge the relative strength of teams. Conor Daly was 14th, just a half mile an hour slower than Palou in 12th.
Time Change-
A reminder about the revised schedule for tomorrow:
8 a.m. – IMS Gates Open 8:30-9 a.m. – Practice Group 1 9-9:30 a.m. – Practice Group 2 11 a.m. – PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying begins
All action is on Peacock
. Qualifying is slated to run until the original stop time of 5:50 PM, weather permitting.
From earlier:
IMS Sustainability- Small Steps Now, Big Steps Later
Start of Indy 500 Qualifying Moved Up Saturday Due to Weather Forecast INDIANAPOLIS (Friday, May 20, 2022) – With the potential of rain in the afternoon for the first day of PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES is moving the start of Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge qualifying to 11 a.m. (ET) Saturday, May 21 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Qualifying will run until its previously scheduled end time of 5:50 p.m., weather permitting, with starting spots 13 through 33 locked in for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. ”The morning practice session also will be moved up, with group one on the 2.5-mile oval from 8:30-9 a.m. and group two from 9-9:30 a.m. Peacock Premium will provide live coverage of both practice groups and the entire qualifying session, with the INDYCAR Radio Network also offering coverage. Public gates at IMS will open at their previously scheduled time of 8 a.m. The revised schedule: 8 a.m. – IMS Gates Open 8:30-9 a.m. – Practice Group 1 9-9:30 a.m. – Practice Group 2 11 a.m. – PPG Presents Armed Forces Qualifying begins
Hot, windy conditions have limited track action in the first three hours of Fast Friday practice. 28 cars have posted speeds. Juan Pablo Montoya and the three Rahal letterman Lanigan drivers have not posted speeds although they have been on pit lane. Scott Dixon’s car has not left the garage as of yet.
Aboiut five minutes into the session race control lost power. The tack went green about 30 minutes later. Jimmie Johnson had the week’s first wall contact, slightly brushing the outside wall with the right side of the car.
Conor Daly posted a speed of 243.724 mph in the turn 3 trap.
Drivers are going out one at a time and attempting full or partial qualifying runs. Alexander Rossi has the single best fast lap today, 231,883 mph. Eleven drivers have turned a lap over 230 mph, nine in the 231 range.
David Malukas said about the wind conditions, “You’re making a guess going into each corner.”
Team Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin, Josef Newgarden, and Will Power currently sit sixth, seventh, and eighth respectively.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced sceral sustainability initiatives on Earth Day last month. The initiatives were bold and well thought out. Still, I wondered how and when the plan would go into action. My worries were unfounded. Roger Penske means what he says. This morning I took part in a guided tour of the Speedway, much of it behind the scenes, to get a look at the initiatives that are already in motion. I was impressed with what IMS has put into place in less than a month.
We visited four areas- transportation, food, Firestone, and merchandise. Doug Boles took time from his busy schedule to talk about what the fans see.
Electric Vehicles
All tires arrive at the track via electric powered trailers. The speedway uses 12 ev trailer trucks produced by Daimler. The vehicles have a range of 200 miles.
A charging station is in place in the museum overflow parking lot behind the turn 2 viewing mounds.
The station has a 150 kilowatt charge. In three hours the vehicle will have an 80% charge.
Tyrone Garrison, IMS vice president of facilites, said, “The Speedway is known for innovation on the track. Now we are looking at innovation off the track.”
Garrison said that at some point the track will have to look at charging stations for fans’ electric cars.
Food
The Speedway serves a lot of food during events. n addition to the concession stands, the suites cater for their patrons. A lot of food goes unused. Gleaners Food Bank takes the unused food and ingredients. Some of it goes to second Helpings where it becomes meals for non-profit agencies around Indianapolis. Packaged goods go to Gleaners’ food pantry.
Joseph Slater, Gleaners COO, said that they will rescue “a couple tons” of food during the month of May.
Uneaten food and other edible ingredients that can’t be used for new meals or the pantry are composted.
The compostable material is taken offsite to be converted to compost.
Logan Waddle said that eventually IMS will do their own composting on site and use the material for landscaping at IMS. He expects to compost 10,000 pounds of food waste this season.
Tires
Firestone tires are changing colors. The softer compound, known as “reds” will soon be “greens.” Cara Krstolic explained the new compound made of rubber from a more sustainable material than rubber trees.
The guayule shrub produces rubberlike material. the entire bush can be used to produce the material. Shrubs grow in the United States, reach maturity in 3-4 years and requires 50% less water than a rubber tree.
Cara Krstolic explains the new Firestone compound
The tires will be used during the pit stop competition May 27. Firestone has 26 sets available for the Carb Day contest. The tire will make its race debut at the Music City Grand Prix August 5-7 in Nashville.
Seeing this tire on track will be disconcerting for a lap or two.
Krstolic told me that a street course was chosen for the tire’s first outing because they wanted to start on a small scale and a street course puts the lowest load on tires.
The guayule tire will have a test at IMS in October. Krstolic said the plan is for the tire to be full time in the NTT Indycar series in 2024.
Merchandise
Souvenirs also have moved toward sustainability. An electric merchandise minitruck with shirts, totebags, and drink made of recycled material, can be found at various points in the pagoda plaza.
The T-shirts contain 40% recycled plastic bottles, about six and a half 16 ounce bottles per shirt. Using recycled materials saves 1.9 gallons of wate and 1.9 kilowatt hours of electricity per item.
1,000 Recycle Bins
IMS president Doug Boles spoke to us about the green recycle bins which have a prominent presence throughout the grounds this year. One of the 1,000 recycle bins is next to virtually every trash can. Boles said he is amazed at the number of fans who have commented about the green bins this week.
Boles also talked about reducing the carbon footprint of the entire event, something Penske is committed to.
Boles talked about the carbon offset program that fans can opt in to when they renew their tickets. The Speedway will also offset their use.
Boles told me that the track is working toward a wider use of mass transportation to the race. he expects 6,000-7,000 people to use the shuttle buses this year.
Many corporations make Earth Day proclamations about all the great environmental protection steps they plan to take. Many times, that is the last we hear of those measures. I’m glad to see that IMS is following through with their plans.
TICKETS: General Admission tickets are $15 for Indy 500 practice days. Children 15 and under are admitted free with paying adult.
PUBLIC GATES OPEN (10 a.m.-6 p.m.): Gate 1, Gate 2, Gate 3, Gate 4, Gate 6S, Gate 7, Gate 7S, Gate 10 and Gate 10A.
PARKING: Free parking for Indianapolis 500 is located in Turn 3 and Lot 7 (North 40), in the South Carousel Lot for motorcycle parking, and Lot 7 (North 40) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum parking lot for ADA parking. Parking is $10 in Lot 2, Main Gate and Lot 3G, and $20 in Gate 1. ADA parking is $10 in Lot 2 and Lot 3, and $20 in Gate 1. Bicycle parking is located outside Gate 1, Gate 6 and Gate 9.
All vendors and ticket sales are cashless. There are machines inside the track to convert cash to a card for purchases.
Today is the fastest day of the Indycar season. The cars get more boost for qualifying and Fast Friday is the day for practice with the extra power.
It could also mean the the drivers who were consistently at the top the speed charts yesterday and Tuesday could slide backwards today, and the drivers lingering mid pack or lower could shoot to the the front.
Today usually sees higher speeds than qualifying weekend because of the draft created by so many cars on track at once. Single car qualifying results in lower speeds.
Weather
Warm and windy according to @Indycar_Wxman
The wind
1knot equals 1.151 mph. a 30 knot gust is about 35 mph.
Things to Watch For
How many of Thursday’s top 15 drivers stay in the top 15? Which drivers will stay relrtively close to where they were yesterday?
Which drivers will break into the top 15 for the first time this week?
How many laps will each car run? Jimmie Johnson ran 166 laps on Thursday.
The no tow list is the key to who will succeed tomorrow. keep an eye on that. I will update that list often today on Twitter and The Pit Window’s Facebook page.
The Draw– The draw for qualifying order can have an effect on the results. If one of the favorites draws an early or late position, his run could be affected by the weather changes during the day. In the current qualifying format, it is less of a problem since multiple runs are allowed. The variable this weekend may be a possible rain shower interrupting Saturday. It takes about three hours to qualify 33 cars.
The Pit Window by Mike Silver 