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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