Indy 500 Qualifying

Watching Sunday's "Bump Day" qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, one could easily assume that that the drama and excitement is back in the Indianapolis 500 qualifying process. As Lee Corso might say, "Not So Fast, My Friend..."

While at first glance, there were 36 cars competing for 33 starting spots, it was obvious all day long that of those 36 cars, only 34 were truly capable of making the necessary speed. Thus the drama was to an extent a creation of the coverage. Stanton Barrett and Buddy Lazier never really had the speed needed to make the field. The competition to not be bumped out was between John Andretti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, and Alex Tagliani. That was where the drama was. It was odd that the veteran Andretti was finding it hard to make the car handle when his teammates, even Milka Duno, were. That Ryan Hunter-Reay had trouble both weeks finding the speed when teammate Ed Carpenter did was also surprising. These two teams really provided the drama during qualifying. I'm surprised that Tagliani wasn't faster given that Bruno Junqeira put his car in the field fairly easily with little practice. Unfortunately, Junqueira's effort comes to naught as his seat has now been given to Tagliani. I can't help but feel sorry for Bruno; obviously the commercial aspect of racing has trumped the performance aspect of racing. With the performance he turned in, Bruno deserves the ride in the Indy 500.

Mac McCormick III
kf4lmt@comcast.net