INDIANAPOLIS -- IndyCar's marquee names turned a day of qualifying for the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" into a throwback, nail-biting, bumping affair.
Helio Castroneves, seeking a redemptive record-tying fourth victory, was fastest around Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Danica Patrick was fast, too, and she averaged 227.610 mph to snag the ninth and final spot in the next round of qualifying, the Fast Nine. But this was a full field for the first time in years, and it meant two drivers weren't making next Sunday's show.
Never did the renewed bumping expect to be a threat to James Hinchcliffe, one of IndyCar's top drivers, a popular Canadian, and a celebrity from his stint as runner-up on ABC's Dancing With the Stars show.
Add in this is the final Indy 500 on ABC, ending a partnership that started in 1965 and is second in sports only to CBS and the Masters. The network has been a strong partner for tiny IndyCar, and it helped turn Hinchcliffe and Castroneves into crossover stars.
And no one expected trouble for Pippa Mann, a perennial presence in the Indy 500. The British driver spends her entire year working to raise the money to run the Indy 500.
Yet after a day of bumping, it was Hinchcliffe and Mann who were surprisingly sidelined.
"We didn't have Fast Nine speed but we didn't think we'd miss the race," Hinchcliffe said. "It's Indy and we finally have bumping again and everyone was thrilled about it. Well, I'm a lot less thrilled about it."
Mann is a one-off. She races whatever events she can scrape together the funds to buy an open seat, and Indy is her yearlong pursuit. Without her in the field, the Indy 500 will have just one woman in the field, Patrick, at the time her return to American open wheel's crown jewel event is being celebrated. Patrick is retiring after this Indy 500.
There's a chance IndyCar could intervene. The standard is 33 cars, but the Indy 500 is only race that matters to the IndyCar elite and it had a 35-car field in 1997. So the hand-wringing could be real as purists wonder if Tony George, head of the family that owns all things-Indy, can force an exception to get Hinchcliffe and Mann in the field.
The absence of Hinch and Mann is as surprising as the run by Patrick, who would have been content qualifying with something in the middle of the pack. Instead, her four-lap average around the track earned her a slot among the nine drivers who will shoot it out today for the pole. Her Chevrolet from Carpenter is fast, and Carpenter was second only to Castroneves. She's now guaranteed a starting spot in the first three rows of her final Indy 500.
"I have high expectations for doing well here," said Patrick, the only woman to lead laps in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500. "But to think that I was going to come back and be in the Fast Nine right off the bat, I mean, I'm going to tell you ... I definitely am relieved."
It was jubilation for Castroneves, who posted the best four-lap average of 228.919 mph to make a statement in the Penske Racing "Yellow Submarine." Castroneves is a wildly popular Brazilian seeking a record-tying fourth victory. He's been sidelined to sports cars this season by Penske, but he's back home again in a car as bright and familiar at Indy as Castroneves' yellow suit from his winning stint on Dancing With The Stars.
He's a threat to win the pole, and maybe even the race.
All 33 spots for the May 27 race will be set today.
All three of Castroneves' teammates -- 2016 series champion Simon Pagenaud, 2014 series champ Will Power and defending series champ Josef Newgarden -- made the final nine. Pagenaud was third at 228.304, Power was fourth at 228.194 and Newgarden was seventh at 228.049.
Scott Dixon and Sebastien Bourdais are the only Honda drivers in the shootout. Bourdais, who drives for Dale Coyne Racing, was fifth at 228.090. Dixon, of New Zealand and the star for Chip Ganassi, was eighth at 227.782.
Sports on 05/20/2018