Indy 500 Pole Day Approaches

Tomorrow marks the first day of qualifying for the Indy 500 – Pole Day – where the first 11 starting positions are set. This caps the first full week of practice and is the first major event of the month of the Indy 500. The fastest lap recorded overall in practice was registered by Scott Dixon in the final practice – 226.968 mph, which is the average speed of the lap. This equates a top speed of over 233 mph at the end of the straights for the fastest cars.

However, before we can look forward, we have to examine the controversial and unfortunate events of the day. First, Alex Lloyd, the 2007 Indy Pro Series champion and current IndyCar rookie, crashed hard off turn 1 and was taken to the hospital complaining of neck and back pain (video). This crash will likely limit Lloyd’s ability to participate in the events leading up to the Indy 500, although the extent of his injuries are unknown. While the opportunity could be taken to criticize the somewhat dangerous Dallara chassis, I say the car held up well for the impact, which was at 220+ mph, and we hope for Lloyd’s return soon.

The major news of the day involved Danica Patrick mowing down a Dale Coyne Racing crew member on pit road (video Note: video is gruesome although ESPN has no problem replaying it thousands of times). Accidents on pit road, one of the most feared occurrences in racing, happen from time to time and usually result in injuries. However, for the media to react to this happening by immediately saying “It’s not Danica’s fault!!” rather than focusing on the crew member is ridiculous. Also, the story has been reported by saying “Danica’s car strikes crew member.” Let’s get this straight – Danica drove her car into the pit area, turned into her pitbox, and SHE hit the guy. Everybody’s arguments that “the guy shouldn’t have been there” or “he should have been more attentive” are all true and the crew member could have prevented the incident, but in the end the driver is responsible for the car and what he/she does with the car. Of course it wasn’t intentional and who knows if Danica had enough time to react, but the media should be focusing more on the injured guy than covering for Danica. Upon watching the replay, it is clear that the crew member, Charles Buckman, is fairly lucky to not have serious head/neck injuries from the back wheel and wing of Danica’s car and hopefully like Lloyd, he will recover quickly. At the very least, it’s good to see that this list has not been updated since 2003.

In the coming weeks I’ll try to post a picture of an Indy 500 car from each decade – we’ll see how far I get. First up is the Marmon Wasp, winner of the first Indy 500 in 1911. This car is famous for having the first rear-view mirror (visible above the dash). It was controversial at the time because it meant that this car was the only one in the field without a passenger mechanic – a clear advantage. The average speed for the race? About 75 miles per hour, which means the race took more than six and a half hours.