Indy 2011: The story so far

With the biggest entry in years - and in many drivers' opinion, perhaps the highest quality ever - the Indianapolis 500's centenary race could potentially recapture the glory of the event's halcyon years.

The practice and qualifying weeks certainly featured more than enough incident and intrigue, and some heart-warming storylines as many of the usual big guns floundered and some highly popular underdogs came to the fore.

Practice

The truncated schedule adopted in recent years already meant a lot less pre-qualifying running for the drivers than was once the case. And this year the weather was determined to trim their mileage even further.

Ed Carpenter delighted new employer Sarah Fisher Racing with the quickest lap on the shower-interrupted first practice day on the opening Saturday, which was largely a shakedown for most, but Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all lost to further rain.

In between, Alex Tagliani gave an early hint of what he and Sam Schmidt Motorsports were capable of with the fastest time on a rain-free Monday.

Carpenter went quickest on the first day of official practice for the Indy 500 © LAT

"It's nice to start the week with a car that's quite strong," the Canadian said. "Hopefully we can build on it. You can never take anything for granted at this place. We have to stay on our toes all week."

Tagliani did indeed stay on his toes and was right behind Penske pacesetter Will Power when practice resumed on Thursday after more rain days.

But no one was talking about who was quickest in this session as the big news was the frightening accident Simona de Silvestro suffered when her HVM car had a suspension breakage on the approach to Turn 3 early in the day. It briefly became airborne on the way to the wall, then properly took off and travelled down the fencing before landing upside down and on fire at Turn 4. She escaped with burns to her hands sustained while climbing out.

"I hit the wall and it took forever to land, it seemed, and then it started getting pretty hot out there," she recalled. "It was pretty shocking, actually, especially to be on fire. It's kind of weird because the fuel is splashing on you and you don't really know what to do. A lot of things go through your head, but you want to get out of the car as quickly as possible.

"I don't think I was a good patient in the infield medical centre because I was in a lot of pain and I was screaming for water to cool my hands down."

She did not receive medical clearance to drive on the final full day of practice on Friday, when Penske was again quickest, this time with Helio Castroneves. Tagliani, meanwhile, kept himself in contention with another close second place.

The excitement about what the Canadian and his small team could achieve was building and the 'is pole possible?' question was being asked more and more regularly.

"The way the car is running right now, for sure it is," he replied. "I think we would be foolish to think that we couldn't do it.

"But the truth is that Penske and Ganassi have really good cars, and they know their way around this place. They have 10 times more experience than us.

"I'm sure by qualifying they're going to do something amazing to their cars, and all of a sudden they're going to be up to the top and we're going to end up fighting with them. But if that happens, that's okay. We should be proud that guys like Roger [Penske] and Chip [Ganassi] are looking at us, going, 'Why are those guys so quick?' That's kind of our mindset right now."

Pole Day part one

Tagliani celebrates with team owner Sam Schmidt © LAT

When the big day came, it was still Tagliani who was the man to beat. Quickest in morning practice, his 226.954mph average speed early in the first part of qualifying proved unbeatable, even for Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.

It wasn't just Tagliani going quickly in a Schmidt-prepared car. His team-mate Townsend Bell was fifth, behind the Schmidt-assisted Bryan Herta Autosport car of 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon.

In fact the all-important top nine group that would go through to the end of day pole shoot-out was dominated by underdogs, with Carpenter setting the sixth-quickest speed for Sarah Fisher's squad , and Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia and Panther's one-off signing Buddy Rice also making the cut.

Other impressive upstarts had spells in the top nine before being edged back. KV's top runner Takuma Sato, Foyt's Vitor Meira, Rice's team-mate JR Hildebrand, Servia's team-mate James Hinchcliffe and returnees Bertrand Baguette and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing could all be very content with 10th to 14th places on the grid even though they could not hang on to their provisional spots in the top nine.

As the surprise packages showed their might, the usual suspects were in all kinds of trouble. Penske only got one car into the pole session, seventh-placed Power. His team-mate Castroneves' first time was only good enough for 16th, and he lost his chances of a second go when rain arrived in the final minutes of the opening qualifying segment.

"The track definitely changed for us from yesterday to today; the same for everyone. The wind was a big factor," he said. "We went a little bit conservative this morning. We started pushing, and it wasn't quite the way we expected."

He fared much better than Penske's third driver Ryan Briscoe, who left the track on Saturday night not even assured of a place on the grid. He had crashed heavily in morning practice and could not break into the top 24 with his T-car so would have to hope for the best on Bump Day. The Australian remained confident that he could get enough speed out of the car once the team had chance to set it up properly.

While Ganassi's 'main team' drivers both reached the pole session, its all-American 'B team' had a tougher day. Charlie Kimball was pushed back to 26th as others improved, and Graham Rahal had engine and then fuel system issues and was a long way off the pace.

But the least happy of the habitual frontrunners was Andretti Autosport. Its cars had been off-song for much of practice, and the problems got worse in qualifying. Only a mighty late effort managed to get John Andretti into the field in 17th. Regular quartet Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Mike Conway would all have to try again on Bump Day.

John Andretti made the field on Saturday. Those from cousin Michael's team did not © LAT

Paul Tracy was in the same position, edged back to 25th by a frustratingly small margin.

The first feel good story of the day came from HVM and de Silvestro. Slightly off the pace at first and later conceding she had been severely spooked by Thursday's horrific crash, she dug deep and grabbed 24th on the grid with a supreme performance.

Right at the back, one team did not set a time at all. Scott Speed had been a long way off the pace with Dragon Racing in practice and decided against trying to qualify today. Ho-Pin Tung looked good to make the field in the sister Schmidt-supported car, but crashed on his final qualifying lap, sustaining concussion and ending his weekend - and his Indy 500 attempt.

Pole Day part two

With the weather not looking good, it seemed the first part of qualifying might decide pole as well. Potentially great news for Schmidt and Tagliani, who remained nervous that Dixon, Franchitti and Power might be able to ramp things up when it really counted. Tagliani remembered being in exactly the same position last year, when the team was still known as FAZZT, and a fastest time in early qualifying became a still-excellent but not quite as satisfying fifth on the grid after the pole shoot-out.

When the rain relented, there was time for one run each for the top nine if the officials were happy to let things drift on slightly past the usual 6pm finish time.

To his great surprise, it was Servia who looked set for provisional pole at first.

"Six months ago, a month ago, Monday even, I would have not bet we were going to be in the front row and that close to pole position," he said.

Servia was stunned to qualify on the front row for Newman/Haas Racing 2011 © LAT

"We knew even before we started the week we were going to have a good race car because that's what the team always works on and always achieves. It always gives you good race cars. But at the same time we knew that over the winter we just didn't have the millions to go in windtunnels and find the last little bit of speed that you need in qualifying.

"Then when we were in the top nine, we had a bit of a conversation where we were like, 'well, let's not be too stupid here. We have a good race car, let's not crash it. Do we want to just be conservative? We go out there, we put a lap, same set-up, or do we go for it?' I just had such a good feeling in the other qualifying in the morning with the car that we just said, 'let's go for it', because it just really felt good."

Even Franchitti looked unlikely to beat Servia's time - even before the Ganassi car inexplicably ran out of fuel and failed to complete its run. The frustrated Scot did not attend the subsequent top nine press conference.

Dixon had the same problem, though not quite as dramatically. His car began to stutter on its final lap, and he still had enough speed to edge ahead of Servia...

...but not to deny Tagliani. The provisional polesitter completed an incredible story by blasting to Indianapolis 500 pole position with a four-lap average of 227.472mph.

"I'm probably going to be pinching myself until I go to bed," said Tagliani. "I wanted this one so bad."

Dixon reckoned the fuel glitch had probably been all that denied him pole, yet was very gracious towards the man and team who beat him.

"Not to obviously take anything away from Tagliani. He did a fantastic job," Dixon said. "It's a team that he put together a few years ago, and obviously to see them so strong and take the pole, I feel real happy for him and what he's achieved."

Franchitti's car ran out of fuel during the pole shoot-out © LAT

But the 2008 winner did suspect that Schmidt's package might be more qualifying than race-focused.

"I don't think I ever saw them do one race run. They focused solely on trying to get the pole," Dixon mused.

Tagliani responded that the team knew the car was quick and preferred not to risk damage with too much running in traffic.

Penske's sole pole contender Power was back in fifth, sandwiched between the outstanding Bell and Wheldon, with Carpenter and Rice next up.

"That car was solid all day. And I was pretty trimmed out, so I don't know what else I could have done," Power said. "We just didn't have the speed. But happy to be on the second row. As far as the team today, we didn't do that well. We were probably a little bit surprised. But it's a long race, and congratulations to Alex Tagliani. He deserves that. He's a very good driver, and I'm very happy for him."

Bump Day

The final day of qualifying began with a surprise reappearance. For the first time since 2005, Patrick Carpentier was driving an IndyCar. The Canadian Champ Car and IndyCar veteran popped back from his stock car career to try and help Dragon get at least one car in the field. He hoped for a "fun comeback" - instead he had a massive crash at the end of morning practice. Carpentier was unhurt, but Dragon's 2011 Indy 500 was over.

"The result is what it is, and now we don't have a car to run," said the spectating Speed. "I really, really hate it for the guys because the last two weeks these guys have worked so, so hard and to see their faces around the garage now is terrible."

So with Speed, Carpentier and Tung all ruled out of the crucial 33, the remaining 14 contenders faced a race against the weather to grab the last nine places on the grid.

Graham Rahal and Dreyer & Reinbold's Ana Beatriz were first out and produced solid lap times that looked safe enough, but then a huge downpour caused a break of several hours and a long nervous wait for the others.

Briscoe made into the field on speed once the track dried on Bump Day... © LAT

When the track dried, Briscoe - as he had predicted - rapidly put himself in the field, as did Kimball and Conquest's Pippa Mann, and Andretti's Hunter-Reay and Andretti, albeit with times that looked vulnerable.

As the clouds darkened again with three hours left, Tracy and Patrick were the drivers in jeopardy, having not managed a single run on Bump Day.

Tracy made it - but only just. His speed was plenty quick enough as he raced the weather, completing his final lap on a track that was getting increasingly damp.

"I definitely have a flair for bringing the dramatics," he said. "I said to my engineer, 'I think it's going to frickin' rain.' And I didn't say friction'."

The session was halted straight afterwards, leaving Patrick in real jeopardy. It looked like her only hope might be to take over an already-qualified car or to see if the officials might let the session run past 6pm again.

In the end, there was no need, as the weather eased and a final hour of track time became possible. Unsurprisingly, Patrick was straight out and straight into the field, at the expense of Dale Coyne Racing's Alex Lloyd.

After his amazing fourth place (or third, in his team's eyes) last year, Lloyd wasn't going to settle for that and went out for one last desperate effort.

...unlike Andretti Autosport duo Conway and Hunter-Reay © LAT

"On the warm-up lap, we nearly lost it because we didn't have the grip in the tyres at that point," he said. "But I had to lift so badly in [Turn] 3, I thought there's no way we can do this now.

"I saw the time for the first lap and thought 'you know what? Maybe, maybe.' At that point I'm holding it flat, or I'm in the wall. There's not going to be a lift. The only lift that I am going to be doing is when I'm backwards flying into the SAFER barrier.

"So it was all or nothing, and that's what Indy's about."

And it paid off, as he bumped Andretti back out of the field and took 30th place, to boss Dale Coyne's delight.

"That run was all Alex. The car we gave him, he said, 'This is it, it's time to go,' and he got the job done," said Coyne.

There were not many minutes left. AFS' Raphael Matos and Conquest's Sebastian Saavedra had tried and failed to find enough speed, the latter saving a huge slide along the way. Amazingly - and sadly after his recovery from last year's injuries - Conway could not get sufficient pace out of his Andretti car either.

Lloyd's team-mate James Jakes - who hadn't even seen an oval before his Indianapolis rookie orientation - did his utmost, even brushing the wall, then withdrew out of politeness when it became clear he wouldn't be quick enough.

Had he not done so, Andretti would have stayed among the non-qualifiers. But Jakes and Coyne's good manners left Andretti enough time for one final shot and he duly blasted to 28th, pushing team-mate Hunter-Reay out of the field.

"I can't even process this right now. It's just devastating," said Hunter-Reay. "I don't know how it's going to be on race day."

Junqueira's spot was sacrificed by AJ Foyt to get Hunter-Reay into the field © LAT

Not so bad for him, as it turned out. An arrangement was made for Hunter-Reay to take over the Foyt car that Bruno Junqueira had qualified a safe 19th. For the second time in three years, Junqueira's reward for a brilliant qualifying effort was to have to step out of the car and let a non-qualifier and their sponsors in. The Twitter-prolific IndyCar field were soon making their feelings known, though their anger was at the situation, not Hunter-Reay himself, who admitted that was a very awkward moment.

"I understand [fans'] passion for the Indy 500 and I hope they understand that I am just the driver," he said. "And, my job is to drive when and where I'm told to drive. I don't determine things like this. The team needs me in the car this Sunday and I'm going to give it everything I've got.

"Again, I feel terrible for Bruno. But, really, this is not about me and Bruno. This is about our teams and those who support our teams all season long."