INDIANAPOLIS — Gil de Ferran won the 2003 Indianapolis 500 before retiring from racing at the end of that season. De Ferran was back at the Speedway on Friday and will return to active duty as a race driver in the American Le Mans Series beginning with a race in Utah May 18.
“It is very touching to be here today,” de Ferran said. “I guess the last time I was sitting here in this chair was a very memorable day, certainly a day that is going to be with me until the end of my days. It’s very emotional to be sitting here today and getting ready for our upcoming race on May 18.
“I’m a little short on words today. I’m looking around and thinking, ‘Wow.’ My years at Team Penske were great years. Helio (Castroneves) and I were together there for four years that I was there. He continues on, and I believe he’s now the second-longest Penske driver in history behind (Rick) Mears. Helio and I, the friendship you saw from the outside was not only for show. To this day he remains one of my best friends. Obviously, I have a soft spot for him and for the team in general.”

• Alex Lloyd and Mario Dominguez both crashed during Friday’s practice session with Lloyd suffering the worst when the driver from Isle of Man, England, was sent to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Lloyd was held overnight for observation but X-rays of his neck showed no fractures after he made heavy contact with the SAFER Barrier in turn one. He was released on Saturday, but not yet cleared to drive.
“I’m disappointed for Alex and his team and crew,” said team co-owner Bobby Rahal. “He’d been doing such a good job and it was going well, but we’ll fix the car and get ready for tomorrow.”
Dominguez was uninjured when he spun exiting pit lane and made light contact with the inside wall.
“I am really disappointed,” Dominguez said. “I was returning to the track for our second full run, and I exited too fast coming out of the pits. I lost the rear of the car and crashed into the inside wall. I got a few laps at speed, and this is so unfortunate because we were on the way to making our car better. Everyone is telling me to keep my patience. We are already behind, and I guess I was trying to rush it back out there. We are working hard, and we have a lot of work to do.”

• Actor Jason Priestley is co-owner of Rubicon Racing and said his team lost some valuable track time because of the two days of practice that were lost to rain.
Max Papis of Italy is driving for the team in this year’s 500.
“Missing those two days this week leading into qualifying was tough,” Priestley said. “We’re a new team and still trying to set a lot of baselines and figure out where we are at. It set us back a long way. We missed out on two days of testing, but it’s a 500-mile race and the big thing is to qualify and get into the show.
“Whether we qualify today or on day two, or even on Bump Day, you can win this race from anywhere. The key is to get in the show.”
Priestley’s team is a partnership with Sam Schmidt Motorsports, a full-time team in the Firestone Indy Lights Series.

• Ryan Briscoe’s second qualification effort earned the driver from Sydney, Australia, the pole, but as he was being interviewed on television after his four-lap run that averaged 226.080 mph, he was knocked off by eventual pole winner Scott Dixon.
“I turned around, and Dixon was taking (the pole) away from me,” Briscoe said. “Aside from that, I thought I had a really good run. The car was balanced really well for the downforce level we trimmed out to, and it was a solid gain, for sure.
“Dixon put out a pretty quick time there, so we have a little bit of work to do. From what I did this morning, I’m happy with the gains we made in that second run, and I guess now we’ll just look at everything closely and see if we can get any more speed out of the car. We need to see what we can do to get those extra tenths of a mile an hour out of it to get the pole.”

• Sarah Fisher Racing announced that Milwaukee-based Direct Supply, Inc., the nation’s leading supplier of equipment and e-commerce solutions to long-term healthcare communities, will sponsor the No. 67 Honda-powered Dallara driven by Fisher in the Indianapolis 500.
Direct Supply, which returns as a sponsor at the Indianapolis 500 for the third time, is new to SFR. Fisher was the first female to start from the pole position in an IndyCar Series race.

• After Alex Lloyd crashed the Rahal Letterman car that is being shared with Target Chip Ganassi Racing on Friday, and Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed hard into the third turn wall on his second qualification attempt on Saturday, it wouldn’t be the last crash of the weekend for the team.
Two Rahal Letterman Racing mechanics en route to team’s headquarters in Hilliard, Ohio, to repair the damaged car of Hunter-Reay were involved in an accident of their own.
Mike Kranz and Jim Volini were uninjured in the collision with a deer on Interstate 70. Their car, however, needed to be towed nearly 100 miles to the shop.

• Ed Carpenter was very impressive in Saturday’s qualifications as the Vision Racing driver was 10th at 223.835 miles per hour.
“I kind of felt like coming into today that we were going to have to be over 224 (mph) to feel good about staying in the top 11,” Carpenter said. “I think it is slowing down for the most part.”