Bathtub Conversion Indianapolis

Indy 500 Qualifications: What a Weekend it Was | KentSterling.com

Just when I think I’ve seen the best the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has to offer, the old Brickyard makes another deposit in its historic bank of memories.

Let me start by saying I wrote on Friday that you should watch out for upstart Sam Schmidt Motorsports. Well, Alex Tagliani, Townsend Bell and Dan Wheldon all crashed the Team Penske and Target Chip Ganassi Racing Pole Day party Saturday, landing in the first two rows. Tagliani was the star of the upset special, winning the PEAK Performance Pole in an exciting, dramatic shootout.

Simona De Silvestro was another one of the highlights of the weekend. The HVM Racing driver crashed earlier in the week, resulting in burns to both hands. The team’s brand new car, prepared specifically for Indy, was toast. The small team’s backup car had seen better days. It’s a car she admitted was nowhere near as good as the car she crashed. She had to shake off fear and pain to somehow try to get the old tub in the show.

The likable and charismatic Swiss Miss didn’t disappoint. She put the old sled in the field in the closing minutes of qualifying Saturday, bandaged hands and all.

“My body’s shaking,” De Silvestro said just before rain began falling to secure her spot in the field. “I was pretty nervous out there. A day ago, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get back in the car. I was really freaked out about it. After the crash, I was like: ‘I don’t need this. This is too crazy. It’s way too dangerous.’ After a while, you’re back to being a race car driver and thinking, ‘Nah, I can do this.’ And you suck it up.”

And how about Charlie Kimball? He will be the first licensed driver with diabetes to drive in the Indy 500. It’s one of the better feel-good stories in a long list of them.

But the weekend was full of so many thrilling and agonizing moments. It was only fitting that it ended the way it did on Bump Day.

Drama consumed Andretti Autosport all weekend. The team struggled to find speed for any of its full-time drivers. Only the one-off entry of John Andretti was in the field as of Saturday.

Mike Conway, fourth in the IZOD IndyCar Series standings, did not make the field and will not have the opportunity to exorcise the demons of that horrific crash in the closing moments of last year’s race. Oh, the other car involved in that crash last year: Ryan Hunter-Reay. Can you say foreshadowing?

Danica Patrick’s fate seemed to be in the hands of Mother Nature as Patrick was on the outside looking in before the track went green again around 4:45 p.m. Andretti Autosport would soon get the best result they’d experienced since John Andretti’s successful run Saturday as Patrick put her car safely in the field with a four-lap average of 224.861 mph.

American cars, 1946-1959, every model, year by year

The law of property

Motor trend

Country life

The New country life