Qualifying Day- Chasing Speed and Racing Rain

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Good morning. it’s Qualifying Day.

Today’s 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  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.

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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.

Sato Fastest Again on Fast Friday

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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

IMS Sustainability- Small Steps Now, Bigger Steps Later

Qualifying Starts Earlier to Avoid Rain

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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 
 

Fast Friday Midday Update; Rossi with Quick Lap

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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 fast 12 as of 321 pm Eastern:

IMS Sustainability- Small Steps Now, Bigger Steps Later

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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.

Fast Friday

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SCHEDULE (All times local):

10 a.m.-6 p.m.: Public gates open

Noon-6 p.m.: Open Practice Peacock

6:15 p.m.: Qualifications Draw, Pagoda Plaza

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.

Have a fun day. remember sunscreen and water.

Sato Leads Again

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Takuma Sato kept the fastest lap of the day in leading Thursday’s practice as he did Tuesday. His best lap, 227.519 mph, was a bit slower than Tuesday’s best of 228.939 mph. Scott Dixon again was second after leading until the final half hour.

Sato at Tuesday’s post practice conference

The Dale Coyne team also had its second driver, David Malukas, with today’s third best time. Malukas was seventh on Tuesday.

In the final hour Romain Grosjean had three close calls with the outside wall. He did not make contact, but with tomorrow’s higher speeds Grosjean needs to be careful about drifting out on that far on corner exit.

A. J. Foyt Racing jumped into the top 12 with J. R. Hildebrand fourth and Dalton Kellett 11th.

The top 12, by teams:

Ganassi- 3

Coyne- 2

Foyt- 2

AMSP- 2

Carpenter- 2

Meyer-Shank-1

Although no Penske driver cracked the top 12, Will Power was the fastest on the no tow list. I expect Penske drivers to be in the hunt for the top 12 on Saturday.

Results:

After practice Ed Carpenter said no one knows who will be really good for qualifying

“…a lot of people haven’t shown their hand just yet. I don’t think Ganassi has really shown anything — there’s someone else,
McLaren I don’t think did any Q sims either today. So
there’s some big hitters that still are concealing what they
can do.” he said.

Ed Carpenter, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Kirkwood after today’s practice

Kyle Kirkwood said of the additional power that cars will have tomorrow and Saturday,

“For me it’s a little bit intimidating going
from qually sim and pulling out the downforce out and
feeling how light the car is there. It’s kind of like you don’t
really want to turn the wheel because you’re just unsure
what the car is going to do, and adding another 10 or 15
miles per hour to it is going to be less than comfortable, I
would have to say.
From the people that I’ve talked to they all say it’s not that
big of a step. It actually feels better because you get the
runs out of the corners and it’s not like you lose tons of grip
due to the speed. I guess I’ll let you know after I go
through Turn 1 the first time with more power.”


Jimmie Johnson added, “Yeah, all of that, and then the only
thing to add is the last time I was in qualifying trim here
was in a Cup car, and we let off used little brake to get into
Turn 1.
So to feel the boost and the straightaway speed and look
down at that 90-degree turn and think that I’ll hold it flat, it’s
going to be an interesting conversation with my right foot.”

Thursday Midday Update

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What a difference a day makes. Today is sunny, beautiful, and 80 degrees. All 33 cars have been on track today. Some teams have had their cars run in groups to practice passing and drafting. The session has only stopped once for 11 minutes for a track inspection.

Scott Dixon has the fastest lap so far this afternoon at 227.335 mph, followed by Pato O’Ward at 226.048. More notable for qualifying are the no tow speeds and the trap speeds.

Will Power has the fastest no tow lap at 224.325 mph. Juan Pablo Montoya has the fastest trap speed on the front stretch at 237.625. Dixon is quickest through turns 1 and 2. Tony Kanaan has the best trap speed in turn3, and O’Ward is fastest in turn 4.

Kyle Kirkwood has run 66 laps today, the most of any driver. Alexander Rossi has turned just 16 circuits.

Sunday’s pole day qualifying has a slight tweak to help the cars in the Fast Six cool down for the final round. It will fit in the time window allotted for the pole run. It involves a five minute break to help cool the engines and two pace laps at 100 mph to bring the engines back up to peak running temperature. I will have more details later.

Some photos of today’s action.

Kyle Kirkwood (L) and Dalton Kellett play teammate tag
Pato O’Ward
Tony Kanaan
Graham Rahal

Ericsson Thrives in Chaos

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Marcus Ericsson doesn’t give up. He has a knack for getting back into contention after misfortune strikes during a race. Last year he won the Music City Grand Prix in Nashville despite an early incident which saw his car become airborne. In last Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix at IMS the Chip Ganassi racing driver came back to finish fourth after an off road adventure.

Ericsson talked about his knack for overcoming adversity.

“I’d like to be you know, running up front all day and having a steady race, leading the race and winning the race but yeah, it seems to be when there’s chaos we thrive so it’s just I don’t know, I think I have a you know, really good fit well, they’re, you know, good guys that are very smart and make good decisions and that helps us put us in good positions. And also for me, I you know, a driver can make a difference as well when it’s you know, harsh conditions and a lot of things happening and then it seemed to work in my favor.”

Passing was tricky on Tuesday, Ericsson said.

“It was pretty busy at times. There were some b ig packs running. And it’s always hard in practice because people are trying to blend out and drop back into field and it sort of gets- a few times where it gets tricky because of it but I thought our car especially towards the end of the day was really, really good, really happy in traffic. So that was promising. So looking forward to building on that again today and see if we can learn more.”

Marcus Ericsson talks to the media this morning

Today the Ganassi team may try some running as a group to get a sense of the draft and how difficult passing may be

“Yeah, I think since we are five cars, we’re gonna try and get out and do some, you know, some profit group brands. So that that is a plan, but as always, you know, we have to see how the day goes. But yeah, I think it’s one of our advantages for us being five cars that we can go out at a specific time together.”

Looking ahead to the weekend, Ericsson is wary of the weather changes and its effect on qualifying.

“It’s tough for me I find because especially around here that the weather and the temperatures really can make a car really good or really bad very quickly. So I think that’s something looking at the forecast for this week. Now. It was raining all day yesterday. I think the track is going to be pretty green to today, but it’s gonna warm up in the afternoon. So let’s see how that is. And even tomorrow is supposed to be really hot and windy. And then you look at Saturday and Sunday and it seems like it’s a cold front coming there. So I think it’s going to be quite tricky for all the teams and drivers to sort of try and get the get the car in the sort of sweet spots because around this place, you know, small changes makes a big difference. So yeah, it’s definitely a challenge and I think the experienced guys probably have a bit of upper hand there on starting you know, it’s my fourth year so I’m getting there but compared to hell, you and these guys I have a few years ago.”

I think Ericsson is a driver to watch in qualifying and the race. I have him as a dark horse to win.