It’s Time to Put the Pedal to Metal

Predicting--some call it guessing--the pole speed for the Indianapolis 500 is a time-honored tradition.

What will be it be? 222? 220? 218? There is a wide range of thought, depending largely on the weather, which has been ranging close to 90 degrees. The hotter the day, the slower the cars.

This year, there is a second factor in pole-day speculation: How many people will show up today for the first day of qualifying for Pep Boys Indy Racing League cars in the May 24 500.

Not too many years ago, 200,000 fans jammed the Indianapolis Motor Speedway grandstands to watch drivers and cars take their four-lap qualifying runs. It was called the second-largest sporting crowd of the year, second only to the 500 itself.

Attendance began falling off even before the CART-IRL split, but since the two open-wheel series went in different directions, interest has waned even more. However, the compressed Indy 500 schedule has brought more cars to the track, and a year’s technological advances have brought more speed to the IRL cars. The result has been larger crowds the past several days.

When practice opened Sunday, IRL champion and pole favorite Tony Stewart predicted that 218.263 mph, last year’s pole speed, would not make the field for the May 24 race.

That may have been a bit bold, although 27 cars have bettered that speed, set by defending champion Arie Luyendyk, for at least one lap around the 2.5-mile rectangular oval.

Stewart, who turns 27 on Wednesday, has been consistently the fastest. His Friday lap of 223.797 is the best of the week, and his 223.703 on Monday is second fastest.

“The weather will be a major factor in what we run Saturday, but I don’t care whether we run 200 mph, I just care if we get the pole,” said Stewart, who has started on the front row in both of his 500 appearances. He started on the pole by default in his rookie year when pole-sitter Scott Brayton was killed while practicing for the race.

Asked what the ideal conditions would be for qualifying, Stewart said, “If it were up to me, I’d throw two feet of dirt on the track, groove the tires and go sliding through the corners.”

Stewart, when he isn’t racing his Indy car for Team Menard or a Busch Grand National stock car for Joe Gibbs, keeps sharp by sliding through the corners on dirt tracks near his home in Columbus, Ind.

With no second week of practice after Sunday’s time trials, teams have had to work on both their qualifying and their race trim.

“Qualifying up front is very important, but if you’re a mid-pack car, it makes more sense to work on your race setup,” said Davey Hamilton, whose top speed has been 218.946. “If you’re not in the first three rows, it doesn’t make much difference where you start.”

The rewards for the pole, however, are worth fighting for.

The PPG Pole Award is worth $100,000 to the driver with the fastest four-lap average, with another $25,000 guaranteed from GTE, Oldsmobile and TrueValue, plus a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Depending on what sponsor decals are on the car, an additional $46,000 is possible.

“When the prize for the pole is more than the winner gets at some races, it gets your attention,” said Scott Sharp, winner of the Phoenix 200 in March and a strong pole contender today. Sharp, who missed last year’s 500 because of head injuries, has the week’s fourth fastest speed, 222.107.

“To get a hot lap in practice, where you sometimes get a [drafting] tow from another car, is one thing, but putting four laps together when you’re all alone on the track is another thing,” Sharp added.

The only incident Friday, when teams were pressing for those final fractions of seconds necessary for speed, was Billy Boat slamming into the third-turn wall, damaging the right side of one of A.J. Foyt’s cars. Boat, uninjured, climbed into the team’s backup car and ran 221.691 mph, third fastest of the day.

Second fastest was Boat’s teammate, Kenny Brack of Sweden, at 223.464.

“A.J. would like to see both of his cars on the front row,” Brack said.