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Massa

Indianapolis 500

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Hinchcliffe does a 225.062 with a very, very, very slight tow. Looks quick to me.

Andretti is on top at 225.916. That was with a tow.

Beatriz doing 224.899 with a very, very, very slight tow.

What I'm trying to say: watch for these Andretti cars. They're really strong.

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224.877 for Hunter-Reay all alone. 210.901 for de Silvestro. Only 14 mph off the pace, not a safety hazard at all!

Seen at the track: Buddy Lazier. Get him in a T car! Do it do it do it do it please.

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225.243 for Hunter-Reay. Very minor tow. Guy can probably break 225 in qualifying. Andretti brought it this year. They had to, after what happened in 2011.

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Andretti in clean air. No tow. All alone. Does four laps, simulates qualifying.

225.052

225.230

225.307

225.273

I have a feeling Marco Andretti will be on the pole, and Ryan Hunter-Reay will be on that first row with him.

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Jourdain in smoke on the back stretch. A little fire. Jourdain's the first engine failure of the month, and probably not the last today with the extra boost. Jourdain was in the 221.3 range.

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Waiting to hear from Servià and Bourdais...the latter didn't really get to practice at all yesterday. You would think with a late start, that team would be desperate to get running.

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It seems to me that de Silvestro just doesn't have it in her to run oval races. Maybe she's better off in sports cars. I say that as nicely as possible. I'm not discrediting Alesi at all, but a 47-year-old rookie with a team formed a week ago shouldn't be faster than someone in her third 500 with a team that's been in the sport for decades. He has been, every day. If we get one T-car, de Silvestro FTQs, Alesi races. If we get two, they're both out, but just one, Alesi's still in the 500. I just don't think de Silvestro has the confidence or the courage to be a racing driver in a series that includes ovals. Nice person, can't cut it. No excuses this year.

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If five of the nine cars in the pole shootout tomorrow evening are from Andretti Autosport, don't be surprised. Saavedra does a 224.661 all alone and that's slow compared to his teammates.

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Power on the track all alone:

224.931

224.732

224.520

224.285

That's a top nine time for sure, though not pole pace.

Bryan Clauson:

222.436

222.854

222.320

221.789

I'd like to see a little more speed there.

Ryan Briscoe:

220.142

222.880

223.147

222.880

None of those times are good at all for a Penske guy. Something's missing in the 2 camp.

Charlie Kimball:

221.197

221.291

221.247

220.977

Looked better in race trim.

Ed Carpenter:

221.290

220.437

224.114

224.400

I have no idea where the jump in those final two laps came from. Did Ed find the gas pedal? :P

Alesi can trim the car out more and go faster, according to his team. Won't matter; he's already gotten as far as he can go, which is faster than the other Lotus. I know Alesi's getting on in years but you know...if someone invited him back next year to drive a real car with a real engine...I think he'd do alright.

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Fidel Castroneves:

224.375

224.118

224.125

224.221

Not bad, a little underwhelming.

James Hinchcliffe:

225.815 (HOLY ****)

225.652

225.716

225.667

I haven't seen anything like that.

Marco Andretti:

225.802 (WHOA)

225.946 (WHOA)

226.017 (NO WAY...NO WAY...THERE IS NO WAY...)

225.892 (WHOA)

No tow, none at all. That's pole. That car is going to win the pole. What a car. What an engine.

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Marco did 227.540 with a hgue tow from Tony Kanaan.

Where's Oriol Servià? Engine trouble.

Takuma Sato: high 223s alone. Bit of a disappointment, though RLL may be playing it conservative today after losing Jourdain's motor. Sato was super fast yesterday and I'd think he'd be doing high 224s. However, it seems like the team is hitting the limiter.

Wade Cunningham's ball cap is covering his ears. Is that cool in New Zealand? :P

What I observe, maybe someone who understands cars like Craig can help: it seems like with higher boost (such as on the road/street courses, and today/this weekend at Indy), the Chevrolet twin turbo is dominant. With the lower boost (like the rest of this month and the Indy 500 itself), the Honda single turbo is on equal footing. Is there a reason for that?

Chevrolet may have a reliability and fuel efficiency advantage. That's huge. Huge huge huge. Very much so. Engine competition is cool when it's actual competition.

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I don't like to link to Robin Miller articles but I like quotes and this is an interesting subject.

This was an even playing field, you started from scratch and it was fair game. This place has always been about building a car or engine and you were stuck with it for the month so I don’t feel sorry for anybody.

Thank you, A.J. I bet if they gave Lotus extra boost, A.J. would send out his T car to knock them out anyway. He gets it. Usually.

Either boost them up or don’t let them run.

How about we do the latter? Sorry to say Simona will still be a chicane even with boost. Either that or she'll have too much power and find the wall.

But the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and at least one INDYCAR official doesn’t like the idea of no bumping on Sunday and supposedly there was a move afoot to get Jay Howard, Vitor Meira, Alex Lloyd or Pippa Mann in a Dale Coyne or Foyt car on Sunday to knock at least one of the Lotuses out.

Well, there are enough spare cars but evidently no engines. Chevy says it is tapped out with 16 drivers and ditto for Honda at 15. They would help their existing teams in the event of an accident, but no new clients.

Give me Meira and give me Lloyd and let's go!

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/miller-help-or-heave-lotus-at-indy/

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NT = no tow.

Tagliani: 223.456 NT. Not a bad time, though certainly not a frontrunner. For a Honda, that's a decent time (I saw Sato do a little better than that. Chevrolet has gained a lot more with the boost than Honda).

Jimmy Jakes: 221.749 NT.

Dixon: 224.032 NT. That's the best Honda time I've seen, though I didn't see Newgarden's laps today, so maybe he was NT as well. Falls down to 223.875 on the second lap, still NT.

Weird feed now. They're overlaying the radio broadcast on the track feed. Female interviewer in the image, male voice for audio.

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Bourdais Bourdais Bourdais, Bourdaaaais, Bourdaaaais...it's like olé but that's hard to gather from that. He's on it. So is some kid named Marco.

225.496 right off the bat for Andretti. 226.264! No tow! 226.264 this guy is fast.

Bourdais is the slowest non-Lotus. He's NT; Legge did have a tow.

226.362 for Andretti. Bourdais stuck in the 218s.

Wade's out doing a 216, then a 209. I wonder if he's having an issue?

226.324 for Andretti. Three 226+ laps without a tow.

Bourdais and Wade both in...hmm...226.387 for Marco now...

Marco pits. I bet he's the pole winner tomorrow. Best guess I have.

211.211 for Alesi.

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224.224 for Clauson. 225.387 and 225.146 for Briscoe. Not sure if there was tow involved but those are the best of the day for both.

Track is packed. Look for tows and fast times.

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225.021 NT fro Newgarden. Best Honda I've seen. High 224s. Track's very calm for Happy Hour.

Bobby Rahal doesn't seem too optimistic about Jourdain getting to go out and qualify tomorrow. Says Sato's among the top Honda guys, but Chevrolet won't be beaten. Confident about race trim.

Bourdais, Dixon, and Clauson out now. Purple for Bourdais: 219.627. Moves past Legge, who is the slowest non-Lotus. Mid- and high-223s for Clauson. Same for Dixon.

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Servià: the problem wasn't the engine. They're putting the engine back in. No running today. How...what...I...no...huh? You take an engine out and find nothing wrong? I'm lost.

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1991:

It was Penske versus Andretti. Great battle between Rick Mears and Michael Andretti for the win. That year, they both had Chevrolet engines, just like Penske and AA do this year. Mears was driving the #3, just like Castroneves does now, and went on to win his fourth Indy 500, exactly what Castroneves wants to do next weekend.

You think we're going to see a repeat of that for 2012? It's entirely possible.

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I guess Honda might try to figure out the gearing for tomorrow and resolve that rev-limiter problem. Hopefully that takes them back up the field.

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Going by non-tow laps, I have a rough fast nine from today (not a prediction for tomorrow necessarily...unless it's correct tongue.png):

1. Andretti

2. Hunter-Reay

3. Hinchcliffe

4. Castroneves

5. Briscoe

6. Beatriz

7. Power

8. Newgarden

9. Dixon

Also note that positions 1-24 are filled tomorrow. You qualify 25-33 tomorrow? You have to go out again on Bump Day. I expect Lotus won't even attempt tomorrow. Why risk wrecking it when there's no chance to get locked in?

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So what about Tomas Scheckter? He's fast at Indy, put him in a T-car...

Not quite. Scheckter was in the U.S. under a sports visa. However, he doesn't compete in anything anymore, so the U.S. took his visa away. Scheckter now lives in England has retired from auto racing.

Buddy Lazier it is. :P

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This is why Wade doesn't have regular gainful employment.

Disappointed with the day. Going home to self harm.

Time for A.J. to get the hammer...though A.J. probably isn't on the Internet much and won't see Wade's tweet. :P

I'll make a formal prediction for the top 24 locked in tomorrow:

1. Andretti

2. Hunter-Reay

3. Castroneves

4. Hinchcliffe

5. Power

6. Briscoe

7. Dixon

8. Hildebrand

9. Newgarden

10. Franchitti

11. Beatriz

12. Saavedra

13. Wilson

14. Kanaan

15. Carpenter

16. Sato

17. Servià

18. Rahal

19. Kimball

20. Tagliani

21. Viso

22. Jakes

23. Cunningham

24. Clauson

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So I'm sitting in me car at the end of the pitlane, waiting on the motorbikes to finish their controlled testing so I can go out on track, and a marshal comes over to talk and we get talking about the Indy 500 and he reckons Scotty hit 238....like what? Don't think so sonny Jim...but if he did, he's taking pole tongue.png

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