| LIVE UPDATES Wednesday, May 14 - PRACTICE |
NOTES: Updates are listed with most recent post at the top. If you have any specific questions that I can
answer regarding activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, please e-mail them to me HERE and I'll do
my best to post a response below.
Wednesday, May 14 PHOTOS
UPDATES:
7:30 pm
You think trying to dry this massive 2.5-mile oval is easy? Fifteen Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing
League safety vehicles combined to drive more than 6,750 miles today in their track-drying efforts. That equates
roughly to a roundtrip between San Diego and the Maine/Quebec border. Each of the 15 vehicles logged
approximately 450 miles. Impressive effort!
Hate to say it, but expect another day like today for tomorrow's track activity, as the morning - when there's no
on-track activity scheduled - should be rain-free, but the afternoon doesn't look good. That being said, both
Friday and Saturday - at this point - look to be fairly decent as far as weather.
6:00 pm
Cars finally got on track around 5:00 pm for basically a 10-minute warm-up session under yellow-flag conditions.
When the green flew for what turned out to be about 30 minutes of action, the (smallish) crowd let out a cheer as
they had been waiting - just like all of us - for some on-track practice. Unfortunately, we had a brief shower at
around 5:45 pm that shut the track down for good for today, with our top-two qualifiers once again leading the
day's speed chart - Scott Dixon on top with Dan Wheldon right behind. Speeds were not indicative to what was
being accomplished, as Dixon's 222.834 mph run was the team obviously trying to get some consistency for
race-day conditions. John Andretti, in his first outing in the Roth Racing #24, had a nice practice session, getting
his car up to 221.386 mph in only 13 laps total for the month.
4:20 pm
We were just told in the media center that race control is aiming for a green flag to today's practice at 5:00
pm...better late than never, I guess!
Jaques Lazier and Alex Barron are walking through the garage area today looking for any opportunity to hop into
a ride this week.
Sarah Fisher today announced a new partnership with Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI),
an urban research and academic health sciences campus with 21 schools and academic units, that includes
sponsorship of Sarah Fisher's #67 Honda-powered Dallara for the upcoming Indy 500.
3:40 pm
Still no on-track activity. Trucks still circling the track trying to get it dry.
Arie Luyendyk Jr., who is actually sitting in the media center right now working on his computer, has had a really
good year so far, landing a ride in the Firestone Indy Lights series for Andretti Green Racing/AFS Racing after
spending the off season racing in A1GP for A1 Team Netherlands. Arie related to me that he had to make a
difficult decision for 2008 - to try to put everything on the line and see if an IndyCar Series ride opened up for the
season or even for the Indy 500, or accept the offer to drive for Andretti Green's Indy Light's program - one of the
top teams on the circuit. After having been told that Gary Peterson, who is the AFS part of the team (stands for
Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc.), might consider moving his operation up to the IndyCar Series in '09, Arie decided
to spend the year in good equipment in the Lights series, hopefully tallying up some wins, and wait to see if the
team will advance to the big cars in the future. Arie currently sits 5th in Indy Lights season points after three
top-six finishes in the first four races of the season.
3:30 pm
Medical Update: #16 Alex Lloyd is cleared to drive. Lloyd was transported to Methodist Hospital for precautionary
X-rays May 9 after his car made heavy contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 1. A CT scan showed no fractures.
Legendary motorcycle daredevil Robbie Knievel will attempt to jump over 20 Hummer vehicles during the pre-race
activities for the June 7 Bombardier Learjet 550k IndyCar Series event at Texas Motor Speedway. Knievel, son of
daredevil icon Evel Knievel, successfully jumped the entire IndyCar Series starting field on Oct. 8, 2001 at Texas
Motor Speedway.
Indy 500 veteran PJ Jones scored his first hole-in-one Monday at Brickyard Crossing Golf Course. Jones aced
the 298-yard, par-4 14th hole, using a Taylor Made R5 driver.
3:00 pm
Still no on-track activity, and the trucks are still trying to dry the track. There's been periodic rain drops falling -
not enough to even get the pavement wet again - but that's enough to keep the cars off the track. The race
teams are bored and just standing around waiting for something to do after three days of garage work. Many of
the non-qualified teams are aching to get on the track and get some practice time in, while the 11 qualified
teams/drivers are OK with sitting out today as they'd prefer to not be on the track with some of the newer teams
who might be trying a little to hard for some speed.
James Garner of "Rockford Files" fame, and an avid Indy 500 (and racing in general) fan, has been hospitalized
after a stroke. I am hearing he is responding well to surgery and may be released soon. Get well, Jim! Many
years ago when I was working with Linda Vaughn, I was with here making an appearance at the "Hoosier 100"
USAC Silver Crown race on the Friday of race weekend, and we were in the "suite" at the Indiana State
Fairgrounds getting out of some bad weather. Garner walks into the room just as Linda needed to go
somewhere, so she asked me to stay there with him and visit a bit while she ran an errand. So I got to spend
some neat one-on-one time with what was then and is still now one of my favorite television stars (who still
remembers me when I see him each year he's here).
12:50 pm
Although they previously announced that we'd be practicing at 1:00 pm, the track is still wet around the edges and
the trucks are still circulating trying to dry it off. There's no team activity in the pits right now. It's going to be a
little while before we get on track today. I'm headed for the garage area and will be back with a report soon.
11:30 am
The # 21 Playa Del Racing entry has been withdrawn. The #88 Gardner Trucking American Dream Motorsports
entry has been added with Phil Giebler as the driver of the Panoz chassis. Former Indiana Boxing Commissioner
William Kelsey and Arizona businessman Eric Zimmerman purchased majority ownership of Playa Del Racing and
have changed the team's name to American Dream Motorsports. The two have entered cars in the IndyCar
Series, Champ Car World Series and NASCAR intermittently since 1997. This will be their first full-time racing
endeavor.
11:20 am
Roger Yasukawa, 30, has just been announced as the driver of the #98 Beck Motorsports entry, and will be
sponsored by HHGregg and Real Power. He's in the media center (in his new firesuit) and if I can grab him, I'll try
to get some reaction. Yasukawa is a veteran of five Indianapolis 500s from 2003-2007 and has posted two top-10
finishes. Overall, he has 38 IndyCar Series starts with eight top-10 finishes. Beck Motorsports has competed in
the Indianapolis 500 since 1995, posting four top-10 finishes despite often arriving at the Speedway well after
Opening Day.
Roger Yasukawa: "Hopefully we have the hardest part of the job done now, and we can concentrate on being on
track and going fast. The good thing is Greg (Beck) has such huge experience here at the track, and I've been
here five years so I feel comfortable just going into it. I've done the second-week deal last year, so this is nothing
new to me. At this point, I really want to focus on the race setup. I have no question about getting into the field."
Greg Beck: "It's a great opportunity to have a driver the caliber of Roger in our car. Being an Indy 500 veteran,
he has the depth of experience a team looks for, plus it's great to build on the relationship we started in Japan."
There has been a total of 3889 laps run here at the Speedway this month.
The fastest lap of the month as been 228.318 mph by Marco Andretti.
11:00 am
It was just announced that today's practice has been delayed from a noon start to starting at 1:00 pm, pending no
more rain.
It has rained overnight, and the grounds are still wet, but the good news is that it's not raining now. Let's hope for
at least a few hours of practice today for the sake of the transition teams and non-regular drivers like Sarah
Fisher and Davey Hamilton.
answer regarding activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, please e-mail them to me HERE and I'll do
my best to post a response below.
Wednesday, May 14 PHOTOS
UPDATES:
7:30 pm
You think trying to dry this massive 2.5-mile oval is easy? Fifteen Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing
League safety vehicles combined to drive more than 6,750 miles today in their track-drying efforts. That equates
roughly to a roundtrip between San Diego and the Maine/Quebec border. Each of the 15 vehicles logged
approximately 450 miles. Impressive effort!
Hate to say it, but expect another day like today for tomorrow's track activity, as the morning - when there's no
on-track activity scheduled - should be rain-free, but the afternoon doesn't look good. That being said, both
Friday and Saturday - at this point - look to be fairly decent as far as weather.
6:00 pm
Cars finally got on track around 5:00 pm for basically a 10-minute warm-up session under yellow-flag conditions.
When the green flew for what turned out to be about 30 minutes of action, the (smallish) crowd let out a cheer as
they had been waiting - just like all of us - for some on-track practice. Unfortunately, we had a brief shower at
around 5:45 pm that shut the track down for good for today, with our top-two qualifiers once again leading the
day's speed chart - Scott Dixon on top with Dan Wheldon right behind. Speeds were not indicative to what was
being accomplished, as Dixon's 222.834 mph run was the team obviously trying to get some consistency for
race-day conditions. John Andretti, in his first outing in the Roth Racing #24, had a nice practice session, getting
his car up to 221.386 mph in only 13 laps total for the month.
4:20 pm
We were just told in the media center that race control is aiming for a green flag to today's practice at 5:00
pm...better late than never, I guess!
Jaques Lazier and Alex Barron are walking through the garage area today looking for any opportunity to hop into
a ride this week.
Sarah Fisher today announced a new partnership with Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI),
an urban research and academic health sciences campus with 21 schools and academic units, that includes
sponsorship of Sarah Fisher's #67 Honda-powered Dallara for the upcoming Indy 500.
3:40 pm
Still no on-track activity. Trucks still circling the track trying to get it dry.
Arie Luyendyk Jr., who is actually sitting in the media center right now working on his computer, has had a really
good year so far, landing a ride in the Firestone Indy Lights series for Andretti Green Racing/AFS Racing after
spending the off season racing in A1GP for A1 Team Netherlands. Arie related to me that he had to make a
difficult decision for 2008 - to try to put everything on the line and see if an IndyCar Series ride opened up for the
season or even for the Indy 500, or accept the offer to drive for Andretti Green's Indy Light's program - one of the
top teams on the circuit. After having been told that Gary Peterson, who is the AFS part of the team (stands for
Automatic Fire Sprinklers, Inc.), might consider moving his operation up to the IndyCar Series in '09, Arie decided
to spend the year in good equipment in the Lights series, hopefully tallying up some wins, and wait to see if the
team will advance to the big cars in the future. Arie currently sits 5th in Indy Lights season points after three
top-six finishes in the first four races of the season.
3:30 pm
Medical Update: #16 Alex Lloyd is cleared to drive. Lloyd was transported to Methodist Hospital for precautionary
X-rays May 9 after his car made heavy contact with the SAFER Barrier in Turn 1. A CT scan showed no fractures.
Legendary motorcycle daredevil Robbie Knievel will attempt to jump over 20 Hummer vehicles during the pre-race
activities for the June 7 Bombardier Learjet 550k IndyCar Series event at Texas Motor Speedway. Knievel, son of
daredevil icon Evel Knievel, successfully jumped the entire IndyCar Series starting field on Oct. 8, 2001 at Texas
Motor Speedway.
Indy 500 veteran PJ Jones scored his first hole-in-one Monday at Brickyard Crossing Golf Course. Jones aced
the 298-yard, par-4 14th hole, using a Taylor Made R5 driver.
3:00 pm
Still no on-track activity, and the trucks are still trying to dry the track. There's been periodic rain drops falling -
not enough to even get the pavement wet again - but that's enough to keep the cars off the track. The race
teams are bored and just standing around waiting for something to do after three days of garage work. Many of
the non-qualified teams are aching to get on the track and get some practice time in, while the 11 qualified
teams/drivers are OK with sitting out today as they'd prefer to not be on the track with some of the newer teams
who might be trying a little to hard for some speed.
James Garner of "Rockford Files" fame, and an avid Indy 500 (and racing in general) fan, has been hospitalized
after a stroke. I am hearing he is responding well to surgery and may be released soon. Get well, Jim! Many
years ago when I was working with Linda Vaughn, I was with here making an appearance at the "Hoosier 100"
USAC Silver Crown race on the Friday of race weekend, and we were in the "suite" at the Indiana State
Fairgrounds getting out of some bad weather. Garner walks into the room just as Linda needed to go
somewhere, so she asked me to stay there with him and visit a bit while she ran an errand. So I got to spend
some neat one-on-one time with what was then and is still now one of my favorite television stars (who still
remembers me when I see him each year he's here).
12:50 pm
Although they previously announced that we'd be practicing at 1:00 pm, the track is still wet around the edges and
the trucks are still circulating trying to dry it off. There's no team activity in the pits right now. It's going to be a
little while before we get on track today. I'm headed for the garage area and will be back with a report soon.
11:30 am
The # 21 Playa Del Racing entry has been withdrawn. The #88 Gardner Trucking American Dream Motorsports
entry has been added with Phil Giebler as the driver of the Panoz chassis. Former Indiana Boxing Commissioner
William Kelsey and Arizona businessman Eric Zimmerman purchased majority ownership of Playa Del Racing and
have changed the team's name to American Dream Motorsports. The two have entered cars in the IndyCar
Series, Champ Car World Series and NASCAR intermittently since 1997. This will be their first full-time racing
endeavor.
11:20 am
Roger Yasukawa, 30, has just been announced as the driver of the #98 Beck Motorsports entry, and will be
sponsored by HHGregg and Real Power. He's in the media center (in his new firesuit) and if I can grab him, I'll try
to get some reaction. Yasukawa is a veteran of five Indianapolis 500s from 2003-2007 and has posted two top-10
finishes. Overall, he has 38 IndyCar Series starts with eight top-10 finishes. Beck Motorsports has competed in
the Indianapolis 500 since 1995, posting four top-10 finishes despite often arriving at the Speedway well after
Opening Day.
Roger Yasukawa: "Hopefully we have the hardest part of the job done now, and we can concentrate on being on
track and going fast. The good thing is Greg (Beck) has such huge experience here at the track, and I've been
here five years so I feel comfortable just going into it. I've done the second-week deal last year, so this is nothing
new to me. At this point, I really want to focus on the race setup. I have no question about getting into the field."
Greg Beck: "It's a great opportunity to have a driver the caliber of Roger in our car. Being an Indy 500 veteran,
he has the depth of experience a team looks for, plus it's great to build on the relationship we started in Japan."
There has been a total of 3889 laps run here at the Speedway this month.
The fastest lap of the month as been 228.318 mph by Marco Andretti.
11:00 am
It was just announced that today's practice has been delayed from a noon start to starting at 1:00 pm, pending no
more rain.
It has rained overnight, and the grounds are still wet, but the good news is that it's not raining now. Let's hope for
at least a few hours of practice today for the sake of the transition teams and non-regular drivers like Sarah
Fisher and Davey Hamilton.
