95th Indianapolis 500---The Centennial Edition

Marco Andretti nearly got bumped out of the 500 in the final minutes of Qualifying. With about 4 minutes to go, Alex Lloyd bumped Andretti off the bubble. James Jakes was next out on the track and if he had been near the qualifying pace, Marco would have been left in the pits, next in line. Jakes was very slow though and they flagged him in, allowing Andretti onto the circuit with just over 40 seconds to spare. Marco posted 4 laps of 224 MPH+ and comfortably qualified for the race. His times meant that his teammate Ryan Hunter Reay had been bumped out of the 500 though.

Scott Speed's miserable experiment at Indy ended early Sunday morning before he even got to take to the track for Qualifying. Called in to help setup the car, Patrick Carpentier crashed heavily and without a backup ride, Speed and Dragon Racing were out of the Indianapolis 500.

It's anybody's guess who might win this thing.

And it appears Andretti Autosport may have bought a way for Hunter-Reay to get back in the field..............

Speed Channel: IndyCar--Junquiera Out, Hunter-Reay In At Indy
According to Speed's Marshall Pruett, Andretti Autosport bought the #41 entry from A.J. Foyt Enterprises for Ryan Hunter-Reay so that RHR can race in Sunday's 500...........in turn, Bruno Junquiera lost his ride for this year's 500, the second time in the past three years that Junquiera has had a ride bought out from under him. :censored::no: >:(:censored::censored:

Along with that bit of news comes another bit of news from the above article............
Tom Anderson, Andretti’s team manager, was also reportedly let go this morning.
:o:o:o

Is it just me or is there a bit of a meltdown going on over at Andretti Autosport?
 
Starting Lineup, 95th Indianapolis 500

1} Alex Tagliani, #77 Bowers & Wilkins 227.472mph
2}(W)Scott Dixon, #9 Target 227.340mph
3} Oriol Servia, #2 Telemundo-NH Racing 227.168mph

4) Townsend Bell, #99 Herbalife-SSM 226.887mph
5} Will Power, #12 Verizon Wireless 226.773mph
6}(W)Dan Wheldon, #98 WilliamRast 226.171mph

7}(W)Buddy Rice, #44 Fuzzy's Premium Vodka 225.786mph
8} Ed Carpenter, #67 Dollar General 225.121mph
9}(W)Dario Franchitti, #10 Target 226.379mph*

10} Takuma Sato, #5 Lotus-KV Racing 225.736mph
11} Vitor Meira, #14 ABC Supply Co. 225.590mph
12}(R)J.R. Hildebrand, #4 National Guard 225.579mph

13}(R)James Hinchcliffe, #06 Sprotts-NH Racing 225.572mph
14} Bertrand Baguette, #30 Aspira-RACB 225.285mph
15} Davey Hamilton, #11 HP-Kingdom Racing 225.250mph

16}(W)Helio Castroneves, #3 Shell V-Power 225.216mph
17} John Andretti, #43 Window World 224.981mph
18} E.J. Viso, #59 PDVSA-KV Racing 224.732mph

19} Justin Wilson, #22 Z-Line Designs 224.511mph
20}(R)Jay Howard, #88 Service Central-RLL Racing 224.483mph
21} Tomas Scheckter, #07 Redline-SH Racing 224.443mph

22} Tony Kanaan, #82 GEICO-KV Racing 224.417mph
23} Simona de Silvestro, #78 Nuclear Clean Air Energy 224.392mph
24} Paul Tracy, #23 WIX Filters 224.939mph

25} Danica Patrick, #7 GoDaddy.com 224.861mph
26} Ryan Briscoe, #6 IZOD 224.639mph
27} Marco Andretti, #26 Venom Energy 224.628mph

28}(R)Charlie Kimball, #83 Novolog-Levemir FlexPen 224.499mph
29} Graham Rahal, #38 Service Central 224.380mph
30} Alex Lloyd, #19 Boy Scouts of America 223.957mph

31}(R)Pippa Mann, #36 Loctite-Conquest Racing 223.936mph
32} Ana Beatriz, #24 Ipringa-DRR 223.879mph
33} Ryan Hunter-Reay, #41 ABC Supply Co. 224.961mph**
*--speed orginally set prior to Pole Day Shootout
**--car was qualified by Bruno Junquiera on Pole Day; Andretti Autosport bought the entry from A.J. Foyt Enterprises for AA's Ryan Hunter-Reay
 
I just got hold of this fantastic footage from the 1967 Indy 500. So of course I had to share it with you guys. There are quite a few appearances from the F1 stars of this era. Hill, Gurney, Stewart, Clark, Andretti, and Rindt to name a few. They were all helpless to keep up with the Turbine car though. Could Parnelli Jones bring the revolutionary machine home to a win? Let's just say it was eventful race one way or the other.


If there is any significant interest in this here video, I might just have to bring you guys the classic 1974 race as well.
 
What a shame I can't watch this live.

There's no stream on the official site and I don't have Sky Sports 4 :disappointed:
 
Wheldon wins in the final 50 yards!

Hildebrand led the last three laps but ran wide into 4, hit the wall, and crossed the line with only three wheels left. What a finish...
 
Got to feel sorry for the Ganassi boys, they had that controlled for almost 75% of the whole race distance. Last couple of pit stops weren't very well planned though.
 
Wheldon wins in the final 50 yards!

Hildebrand led the last three laps but ran wide into 4, hit the wall, and crossed the line with only three wheels left. What a finish...

Heartache and celebration..........what a fitting way to celebrate Indy's centennial. Little Al's words still ring true from 1992...........
You just don't know what Indy means.......

Hearing the emotion in Wheldon's voice in Victory Lane and seeing the agonized look on Hildebrand when he got out of his car reminds you of just how great the 500 is.....it would've been oh-so-sweet to see the National Guard colors in Victory Lane on Memorial Day Sunday, though.
 
Got to feel sorry for the Ganassi boys, they had that controlled for almost 75% of the whole race distance. Last couple of pit stops weren't very well planned though.

Just goes to show that even the best teams can have their off-moments, Pyrope. Ganassi's satellite team had a decent time of it w/Graham Rahal finishing 3rd, though.
 
For all those (not here, but elsewhere I have found quite a few) who are still clinging to the faint hope that Wheldon passed under caution:

Screen shot 2011-05-29 at 7.12.17 PM.png


Wheldon is past Hildebrand and the light is clearly still green.

Screen shot 2011-05-29 at 7.13.58 PM.png


2 seconds later, Wheldon is at least three car lengths clear, and only now does the light change to yellow.

Besides, who on Earth says you can't pass a mobile accident, that happens all the time?
 
It was a very entertaining and exciting race, the number of adverts on ESPN fries my brain though,
 
Yes, that was astonishingly annoying. They were running at a rate of 40 minutes of adverts in a single hour at one point. I actually lost track of the race because of it.
 
For all those (not here, but elsewhere I have found quite a few) who are still clinging to the faint hope that Wheldon passed under caution

I saw it happening live...it happened so quick that no one would have penalized Wheldon even *if* the light had changed instantaneously.

Indy would have become a joke had they given Wheldon a penalty.
 
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