Final qualifier ready for anything to happen at Indy 500

Hours before winning the Indianapolis 500 Pole Saturday, Ed Carpenter said that anything can happen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In Carpenter’s case, “anything” meant being the only driver from a single-car team to qualify for the “fast nine,” beating Team Penske and Andretti Autosport for the pole position.

Canadian driver James Hinchcliffe, an Andretti Autosport driver who qualified ninth, Carpenter said.

“You’re fighting over the smallest amounts of time and the smallest bits of speed,” he said. “The series is so competitive and even taking just two seconds to have a break and enjoy it, you’re probably going to get passed by someone else. When you come here to the speedway, everybody starts at zero and everything that we’ve learned in the first four races pretty much goes out the window.”

Hinchcliffe said that while he thinks it’s great to see Andretti Autosport cars on top of the speed charts, he’s not resting too comfortably.

“We’re not sleeping too well at night because this is Indy and anything can happen,” he said. 

Last Sunday, referred to as Bump Day at IMS, showed the truth of the sentiment that truly anything can happen en route to determining the Indy 500 champion.

For Katherine Legge, a last minute entry as the driver of the No. 81 Angie’s List car, “anything” meant racing at the IMS for the first time in 2013, and despite missing out on eight days of practice that other drivers had, qualifying for the 2013 edition of The Greatest Spectacle in Racing as the final driver in the field of 33.

“Would it be great to have a week’s preparation?” she asked before her qualifying attempt. “Yes. But I know by the end of the day, we will have this beat, so I’m not worried.”

At 9:04 a.m. May 19, she completed her first lap at IMS in nearly one year. She said that she drove fewer than 20 total practice laps before attempting to qualify. Between Wednesday and Thursday of last week alone, the rest of the field accumulated 4,392 laps.

“I’m not going to lie, I was freaking out this morning,” Legge said.

At 12:56 p.m., she had qualified for the Indy 500 for the second consecutive year.
The British driver was filled with emotion after her qualifying run.

“I haven’t slept in like three days, so I’m going to sleep tonight, which is good,” she said. “It’s been a long day, but it’s been a great day and a great opportunity. So just happy now, relieved to be in the field.”

When one door of opportunity opened, another closed. Michel Jourdain Jr., who qualified for the Indy 500 in 1996 and 2012, did not feel comfortable driving the No. 17 Office Depot car and did not officially attempt to qualify on Bump Day.

“We know, for sure, that there is something wrong with the car,” he said. “Something bent, broken, loose, bending. Something is broken in the middle of the car we have not seen.”

In practice, Jourdain Jr. attempted to use the set-up of his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammates James Jakes and Graham Rahal in order to correct for the mysterious flaw in the car.

Despite averaging 220.461 mph in his qualifying attempt on Pole Day, Jourdain Jr. said that his car was undriveable on Sunday no matter which driver’s set-up was implemented or who was driving the car.

“Then we put Graham in the car,” he said. “It was impossible for him to make a difference; he just couldn’t drive it. He got to 204 and said, ‘I can’t go any faster.’”

With Bump Day in the rear-view mirror, Legge will try to make the most of the remaining practice sessions because anything can happen on Sunday and by starting in the 33rd position, she can only improve.

“You know, stranger things have happened,” she said. “I’m not under any illusions that we’re likely to win, but stranger things have happened, and I have a really good race car. It’s going to be about being smart. It’s going to be about getting through the field.”