Writing from Speedway, Indiana
Sunday, May 22, 2011
What Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Alex Lloyd, Mike Conway and Ryan Hunter-Reay went through Sunday afternoon helps explain why the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race is at the pinnacle of motor sports.
Miss Milwaukee? There’s another race next week somewhere on the championship trail.
Miss the Indianapolis 500? You have to wait until next year.
Lloyd, Plainfield-based Dale Coyne Racing’s lead oval driver, need not wait. He made the field five minutes before qualifying ended on the bumpiest Bump Day in years, doing so with an effort that, he said, included engine vibration so severe, he could barely see on the final circuit of the 2.5-mile oval.
But he’s in next Sunday’s 95th International Sweepstakes, which is more that can be said for Hunter-Reay and Conway, a pair of better-known and better-financed drivers.
Hunter-Reay’s clock began ticking when the gun went off at 6 p.m. So did Conway’s.
All they’ve done so far this year is win the last two races at Long Beach, Conway doing so this year. And if Conway thought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a fickle track last year, when he ended up with broken bones after being launched into the catch fence at the north end of the track, imagine what he’s thinking now.
He’ll watch the 100th anniversary 500 from a suite. So will Hunter-Reay, his Andretti Autosport teammate.
And Michael Andretti, the team’s owner? His feelings were even more jumbled after the frantic final 21 minutes of Bump Day qualifying. Hunter-Reay didn’t get in because Michael’s son and driver, Marco Andretti, made it back into the field on the weekend’s final qualification attempt. Marco was on the track before the gun was fired, making the attempt legal, and he made the most of it, running four laps at 224.628 mph to take the 28th spot in the 33-car grid.
“It was ‘Stick it in the fence or stick it in the show,’ ” Marco Andretti said. “I was just so fortunate to be on the upside of circumstances.”
Those included waiting through a pair of rain delays, putting his car in the qualifying line just in case, then pulling it out, then putting it back in seconds before Hunter-Reay’s crew moved his car in line. Hunter-Reay was next in line when 6 p.m. hit.
“We were at Mother Nature’s mercy there,” Marco Andretti said.
He had plenty of company, including teammate Danica Patrick, who was ready to go out at mid-afternoon when the day’s second rainstorm, which included a stray lightning bolt hitting the track’s press center, lashed the Speedway.
For a time, with the rain falling the the radar pessimistic, it appeared Patrick, open-wheel racing’s most notable drawing card, would miss the 500. But the skies cleared, and Patrick put up the second-best time of the day, a four-lap average of 224.681 mph, in her Dallara-Honda.
“It throws a lot at you, but that’s why this is the greatest racetrack in the world,” Patrick said.
The track’s ever-changing conditions, coupled with the weather, nearly derailed Coyne’s two-car effort. In the end, and almost at the end, Lloyd made the field but James Jakes, the road-racer who had never before raced on an oval, did not.
“One of the most stressful weekends of my career,” said Lloyd, who was placed fourth after crossing the finish line third in last year’s 500. “After Fast Friday, we lost 1 mph each day. I was really worried.”
His worries multiplied after his early afternoon qualifying run of 223.472 mph. It was 28th-fastest at the time and 31st-fastest when the field was filled. If two other cars were bumped, he’d be on the bubble.
As skies darkened for the second time, Marco Andretti bumped Raphael Matos. Then Paul Tracy, dodging raindrops on his last two laps, posted a speed of 224.939, the day’s best. And then it poured again.
With Lloyd sitting on the bubble. But, rather than do a rain dance, he wanted another chance.
When he received it, things went sour, as in a lap of 222.820 followed by a major wiggle that nearly forced him into the wall. He pulled in. There were 58 minutes left in qualifying.
“When the rain came, I wasn’t too stressed,” Lloyd said. “It wasn’t crunch time. But the 222, then you’re starting to get … not panic … but you have the realization that you might not make the field.”
And that simply will not do.
Each car gets three attempts per day to qualify. Lloyd was down to his last chance. They were ready to go at 5:30 p.m., then pulled the car out of line. With one opportunity left, Coyne and Lloyd decided to wait, moving the car to the back of the line.
Lloyd went out again at 5:51 p.m. It was still hot and humid, which makes the track greasy. The run would not be easy.
“We tried to get a little more grip in it,” Lloyd said. “On the warmup lap we nearly lost it because we didn’t have the grip in the tires (yet). I had to lift so badly in (Turn) 3, I thought there’s no way we can do this now.”
Think again, Alex. His first lap: 223.732 mph, good enough to make it if the average held up.
“I thought, you know what? Maybe. Maybe,” Lloyd said.
Lap 2 was better, 223.905 mph. Lap 3 even better, 224.114 mph.
“At that point I’m holding it flat or I’m in the wall,” Lloyd said. “There’s not going to be a lift. The only lift that I’m going to be doing is when I’m going backwards flying into the SAFER Barrier. So it was all or nothing, and that’s what Indy’s about.”
Oh, and the engine was acting up, too.
“The oil temperature went sky high and on the third lap, the engine was vibrating so much, by the fourth lap I couldn’t see where I was going,” Lloyd said. “I was absolutely convinced the thing was going to blow up. I was looking in the mirror to see if I could see smoke.”
In the end, there was no smoke and mirrors, only a solid run. Lloyd ran the fourth lap at 224.078 mph. The average of 223.957 places him on the inside of the 11th and final row. Not a great spot to start from, but a spot, and that’s what qualifying is all about.
“The one thing I learned today that I thought I had already figured out in my three years of racing this race is, I honestly believed I knew what Indy meant, what it means to race this race and go through some of the emotions you do,” Lloyd said. “This is why I’m over in America, why I want to race IndyCar. Every race is important, but Indy is what gets me up in the morning.
“When we crossed that (finish) line and knew that I was safe, the feeling was beyond anything I’ve ever felt in my career.”
Conway and Hunter-Reay, on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum, could say the same thing.
- Tim Cronin
