INDIANAPOLIS — A busy and productive day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Saturday filled the field of 33 cars for the May 25 Indianapolis 500, but it was a different group of drivers that formed the 33-car starting lineup at the end of Bump Day.
There were 22 spots remaining to be filled when Saturday’s qualifications began after rain washed out the May 11 time trials.
Townsend Bell was the fastest of Saturday’s qualifiers, getting into the race with a four-lap average of 222.539 miles per hour for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing.
“We thought we would be right up there in the gang of three or four cars fighting for the 12th spot,” Bell said. “At the end of the day, it’s not critical, but we’re all racers and want to start as high as we can. It’s a good day, a good solid run. The team did an awesome job and we were able to get our window just right when we made our qualification attempt.
“We wanted to try a few things and it felt good. This is a long month, but I feel like I’ve been ready to race from the first day here. We have a good, solid car and we are ready to go.”
While Bell was the fastest, Marty Roth was the slowest driver with a four-lap average. Roth was bumped on Sunday, but worked his way back into the field and ended the day on the bubble, the slowest qualifier in the field.
Graham Rahal was the second-fastest driver with a four-lap average of 222.531 mph.
“It’s nice to get in,” Rahal said. “Obviously, I feel bad about my comments last week. This team is certainly known for its preparation and we showed it today. We’ve had a good car so far. Even Friday when we were doing the long runs with high downforce, we were really good.
“This is only the first step, though. We’re among the fastest today, but still have a long way to go.”
The day was also fraught with danger for several of the drivers, including last year’s rookie of the year, Phil Giebler, who had a hard crash into the first-turn wall at 4:20 p.m. He backed his Panoz chassis hard into the wall with a loud explosion that could be heard in the Gasoline Alley garages.
Giebler has pulmonary contusions (bruised lungs) after his crash, according to Dr. Mike Olinger, the senior medical director of the Indy Racing League. He was released from Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis on Sunday.
Mario Dominguez and Max Papis both crashed their cars during Saturday morning’s practice session. Another driver involved in a crash was Hideki Mutoh of Japan, who crashed in the second turn at 3:58 p.m.
Saturday’s qualifiers included an impressive performance by Sarah Fisher, who formed her own team with her husband, Andy O’Gara, and was promised sponsorship from several companies who have yet to make payment.
Mortgaging her personal finances, Fisher was able to qualify for the inside of the eighth row at 221.246 mph and is safely in the field for her seventh Indy 500.
“It’s not as fast as we wanted it to go, but we’ll take it,” Fisher said. “We’ll take a good, solid entrant and just keep working on our car. It was very gusty out there. That’s what happened on my second lap; otherwise, we would have had a higher finish, but it is what it is.”