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Indy 500: Michel Jourdain Jr left as only non-qualifier

Rahal Letterman Lanigan will be left with just its two full-time drivers Graham Rahal and James Jakes in the Indianapolis 500 after its third entry for Michel Jourdain Jr was the surprise Bump Day casualty

The Mexican finally abandoned his efforts to make the field with just under 20 minutes of track time remaining, his last run only reaching 214mph.

The RLL team had spent the day in a fruitless hunt for enough speed to secure a spot on the grid.

"It's so hard because the guys tried so hard, but we struggled a lot," Jourdain said.

"And some days it was feeling a little better, but it was just never really there.

"This morning we tried James Jakes' set-up, and it was impossible to drive. And then we tried Graham's set-up, but it felt exactly the same and we couldn't drive it."

Jourdain was among those who attempted to qualify on Saturday, but the appearance of Katherine Legge in the third Schmidt entry for the first time pushed the entry list above the 33-car limit, meaning that one car would not make the cut.

Despite having missed out on the entire week of practice, Legge managed to post a four-lap average of 223.176mph to earn herself a place in the field.

"Obviously it's not nice to [make the field] in that manner; I feel bad for Michel," said Legge.

"However I am happy I am in the field, I'm not going to lie about that. I'm going to sleep tonight for the first time in a few days.

"I feel really bad for Michel. I can't even think what's going through his head. I'm gutted for him."

Buddy Lazier, winner of the 1996 Indy 500, also made the cut in his one-off, family-run entry.

"It's really about the team," he said. "They did a great job. Very small amount of time. A lot of hard work, a lot of heart. We were sweating today. The temperature was going up, everybody was struggling.

"[The DW12] is a great car, but it's a huge learning curve. We never were trying to qualify on the pole, so we've been doing a lot of three-quarter tank runs. We think we have a pretty good race car."

Indianapolis 500 grid:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car           Speed
 1.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy    228.762
 2.  Carlos Munoz         Andretti/Chevy     228.342
 3.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy     228.261
 4.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy     228.150
 5.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske/Chevy       228.099
 6.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy       228.087
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy     227.904
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy       227.762
 9.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy     227.070
10.  JR Hildebrand        Panther/Chevy      227.441
11.  Alex Tagliani        Herta/Honda        227.386
12.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy           226.949
13.  Oriol Servia         Panther DRR/Chevy  226.814
14.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda        226.370
15.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy       226.196
16.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda      226.158
17.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda      226.069
18.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda         225.892
19.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda      225.880
20.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda        225.809
21.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda      225.674
22.  Townsend Bell        Panther/Chevy      225.643
23.  Ryan Briscoe         Ganassi/Honda      225.265
24.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy           225.226
25.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda       225.731
26.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda        225.007
27.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy       224.929
28.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda      224.873
29.  Ana Beatriz          Coyne/Honda        224.184
30.  Pippa Mann           Coyne/Honda        224.005
31.  Conor Daly           Foyt/Honda         223.582
32.  Buddy Lazier         Lazier/Chevy       223.442
33.  Katherine Legge      Schmidt/Honda      223.176

Did not qualify:

     Michel Jourdain Jr   Rahal/Honda

Positions 1-24 set on Pole Day
Positions 25-33 set on Bump Day

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