Indy 500 qualifying

It's time for the Indianapolis 500 yet again. Sunday's race will be the 94th running of the greatest spectacle in motorsports. Who's excited?

Last year was the first time I was able to attend the Indy 500. I went with my family and had a blast. The few downsides were Marco Andretti crashing on the first lap of the race, and Helio Castroneves taking home the win. I was pulling for some of the "underdogs."

I really wish I was going back to the speedway this weekend to be a part of the largest single-day sporting event in the world, but I guess I'll just have to wait. For those that haven't been to see an IndyCar race in person, you're missing out. Television doesn't do the sport justice.

Now that I am the Marco Andretti Examiner for Examiner.com, I have been paying even more attention to everything related to the IZOD IndyCar Series. That includes getting fired up when the Indy 500 festivites commence.

Let the racing begin!
The drivers arrived at the brickyard a week before Pole Day (which was this past Saturday). They practiced all week leading up to the qualifying weekend, including Pole Day and then Bump Day on Sunday.

All week, the weather conditions at the track were mostly overcast and fairly cool. There were even delays for rain, and Monday's practice sessions were scrubbed altogether. But when the weekend hit, the sunshine beamed down onto the pavement, resulting in significant changes to the race track and therefore, qualification speeds.

Versus provided the coverage all day long on both Saturday and Sunday, so if you had nothing else to do, sitting in front of your TV watching racing would be a great way to spend your time. I watched all the coverage I could when I wasn't busy, and also stayed updated by my beloved Twitter.

Pole Day, Fast Nine and Bump Day
This year is the first for a new format on Pole Day. Positions 1 through 24 were decided, and the remaining drivers would have to try and qualify on Bump Day. In addition, the top nine drivers advanced to the Fast Nine 90-minute qualifying session to determine the pole position and the remaining P2 through P9 order.

The Fast Nine segment was exciting to watch. Although, Castroneves took some wind out of the sails when he posted laps in excess of 228 mph as the first car out on the track. Positions jostled during the rest of the session, but no one could match Helio's blistering speed.

There were a few crashes during the weekend. Tony Kanaan had near identical crashes in qualifying and then practice. His bad luck at Indy continued, and he was lucky to make it into the field on Bump Day. He'll start 32nd.

Poor PT
I think the biggest disappointment for me, and for a lot of race fans, is that racing veteran Paul Tracy failed to make the field. He was one of the first cars to attempt to make a qualification on Saturday morning, but his car decided to go into neutral on him.

That left Bump Day, where he had appeared to make the cut. But if a driver wants to make another attempt to try and better his or her speed, he or she must withdraw the previous attempt - as if it never happened.

Tracy's team made the call to go out again late in the session because they felt PT would be bumped by rookie Jay Howard. He failed to make it in and was unable to make another run before the gun went off. As the saying goes, that's racing.

It's really heartbreaking for Tracy because he has unfinished business at Indy. He feels he should have won the 2002 race (instead it was Helio's second win), but was denied on a technicality regarding a yellow flag that came out around the same time Tracy made a pass for the lead on Castroneves.

There was so much more that happened over the weekend, and as usual, I'm already writing a lengthy entry. Check out IndyCar.com or the Indy 500 website for more details and tidbits about qualifying and the race itself. Or, head over to my Marco Andretti Examiner page for the specifics relating to Marco and his Andretti Autosport teammates.