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IndyCar
INDY 500: Matos Leads Day Two, 22 Now Qualified
Luczo Dragon driver Raphael Matos sets the fastest time of the day at 223.429 as Scott Sharp used his third and final attempt to bump his way back into the field as the gun went off at 6pm.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted May 10, 2009   Indianapolis, IN
Brazil's Rafael Matos was the fastest of the day two qualifiers, posting an average speed of 223.329, 12th in the lineup, and best of the runners trying for 12th-22nd positions on Sunday. (LAT)
2008 Firestone Indy Lights champions Rapfael Matos served up the fastest four laps of qualifying on the second day of time trials at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The day was marked with Pole Day returnees -- the majority of the runners on Sunday had been bumped the day before. Dan Wheldon, A.J. Foyt and Davey Hamilton were the best of those who missed out on Pole Day activities.

Sunday was notable for a lack of stunning speeds, but with the bulk of the big teams having qualified on Saturday, the 2 mph drop in peak average speeds today wasn't completely unexpected, despite better weather condition all day long.

Matos made the most of what the Jay Penske and Steve Luczo-owned team had to offer after being bumped from the top-11 on Saturday. The rookie finds himself 12th in the field for the 93rd running of the Indy 500.

With laps of 223.561, 223.407, 223.417 and 223.329, Rafa's average speed of 223.429 is 7th fastest of all 22 qualifiers. Had he set it on Saturday, he'd be positioned on the inside of row 3 next to Marco Andretti.

"I was a little bit surprised, but we did a qualifying simulation during the five minutes before qualifying started, and we made a few adjustments in the car for the qualifying run and found almost half a mile an hour. So I'm extremely happy for the Air Force Luczo Dragon team. The whole crew did an amazing job. Let's go racing."

Matos was followed by KV Racing's Paul Tracy, whose average speed of 223.111 was an appreciable jump from the 221.915 he managed yesterday prior to being bumped from the top-11. "I'm not really happy with the laps we qualified on, so I'm disappointed. But we're just out of miles and need to get some full-tank running in. We wanted to be in the 223s today. We achieved that on the first lap, then started sliding the front tire with a tail wind in Turn 1, and then it kind of fell off. The last couple of laps I just couldn't get the speed out of it. The race is a long race, and we've got an OK starting position. We're starting in mid-pack, and we'll go from there. A lot of things can happen in a 500-mile race. It's three times longer than any other race in the series, and a lap can change over the course of the race. You work on that car until the end of the race to get it competitive."

A.J. Foyt Racing had the best team effort on Sunday with full-season driver Vitor Meira the 3rd fastest of the day (14th overall) at 223.054, and Indy-only driver A.J. Foyt the fourth coming home in 19th, 8th fastest of the 11 qualifiers today. "The main thing was getting in the show today," said Meira. "That's more important than the position you qualified for today. If we are in the race, we don't have to worry about that anymore. We can start working on the balance of the car. The weather was better today and that helped, but so did a lot of changes that we made. We came back to basics a little bit, and it worked. We got the speed we were looking for on a day like this, but yesterday is where we really wanted to be. Our starting position was secondary to the priority of getting qualified today. Now we have a whole week to think about the race."

The next best pair of teammates came from Panther Racing with 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon a surprisingly low 18th overall and 2001 Indy pole sitter Scott Sharp last of the day two runners in 22nd. Sharp, struggling to find speed from his Patron Tequila Dallara-Honda, was at the center of the drama from the outset of qualifying.

A first run of 221.103 at 3:50pm ET put him in 21st, but the speed was less than solid. After Foyt was bumped from 22nd, HVM's E.J. Viso bumped Sharp out of the field at 4:05pm. The 1996 IRL co-champion bumped his way back in an hour later with a speed of 222.333, but that left him on the bubble once more in 22nd.

Foyt bumped his way back in at 5:41, leaving Sharp on the outside the top-22 yet again. It was now Sharp's turn to repay Viso as the Venezuelan sat on the bubble.

With Viso in line and ready to go with two minutes left before the end of qualifying, his team was faced with withdrawing their position in the field and making another qualifying run -- in essence, bumping himself back into the field -- or moving out of the way and letting Sharp come through to make an attempt.

"There was a lot of drama going on, and things obviously didn't end up as we all wanted," Viso admitted. "But we knew that being in the 21st, 22nd position is a very vulnerable position and anything could happen. And it happened just in the last minute, and that's a sad thing because we didn't have time to go back out and defend ourselves."

IndyCar Series officials moved Viso, Davey Hamilton and Sarah Fisher out of the way in a hurry to aid Sharp's quest to get out before the gun fired at 6pm to end the day's activities.

The Patron car was rolling with approximately 30 seconds to spare and Sharp did not disappoint. Laps of 222.165, 222.245, 222.127 and 222.111 for a 222.162 average was good enough for the 20th fastest speed, knocking Viso out of the top-22.

It also meant Sharp has a small if not entirely comfortable margin to ride into next weekend when he'll be competing at the American Le Mans Race in Utah.

"Wow. It's been a tough week, let me tell you. I mean, it's not supposed to be this tough I thought. With all my experience, I guess leaning on that I figured I'd come back in and pretty easily, and I did early, pretty easily get up to speed and pretty much thought, I didn't know, obviously, if we'd be a first or second row contender, but thought if maybe things really fell into place we would be, but certainly a top 10 car no problem. And just, obviously had a few things go wrong that led to our crash the other day. The team did an amazing recovery. The Panther guys, I can't say enough about them. A few of the guys pulled all night Thursday night to get that done. And then Dan (Wheldon) of course had his crash, so it's been really tough, but they've rebounded and never missed a blink. So yeah, today we pulled out, and it just seemed like we were really chasing a bit of speed and got a fair amount of wing out of the car and still couldn't really get a lot of speed out of the car.

"We'd make a couple of runs in practice with no one in front of us with no tows and run a good enough speed to get into the field and then go do it for ourselves with no one in a qualifying run and couldn't get the number, so it was very strange. And then I really thought at the last bit we were done, because we made a change to the car at that point where we were down to our final draw. We laid the wing down some more, pulled up into the tech line. I lost my radio. I don't know why, but I couldn't hear anything anymore. I saw four guys in front of me, and I looked at my watch and it said six minutes to go and I said, 'That's it. It's over,' and then all of the sudden, just boom, boom, boom. You know, the guys that aren't going to make a run, or if you're not fast enough to take up a lot of track time, they got them off or got them out of the way and all of the sudden it was fire it up and go."

Dale Coyne Racing's Justin Wilson was the early pole sitter with an average speed of 222.903, up from the 222.444 average he achieved on Saturday. The ChampCar veteran finally seems to have gotten his Z-Line Designs Furniture car into the window at the Speedway, and 15th fastest was considered as the best effort they had to offer.

"I really enjoyed being out there. The car was working well, and Dale Coyne Racing had the car to where it was comfortable and fun to drive. Each time we went out this weekend, we were quicker. Things really worked out. It was fun to drive today. The run was fairly straightforward. I noticed straightaway that I had more push than I was expecting. I kept playing with the roll bars and weight jacker to cancel out the understeer. It usually gets worse lap after lap, and I was canceling that out with my adjustments. The more laps in the car, the more I enjoy this place and you appreciate what it's about. Every time I came out of the corners, I had a big grin on may face. Now is the time to begin getting ready for the race, to get everything as perfect as we can and go do some race setups with full (fuel) tanks and long runs."

AGR's Hideki Mutoh just trailed Wilson with an average speed of 222.805, good enough for 16th fastest.

Sarah Fisher in 21st at 222.082 and Davey Hamilton in 22nd at 221.956 rounded out the field, but are by no means safe. Fisher was relieved to qualify, but won't be sleeping easily until qualifying is over next weekend.

"The first run was a little hairy. We just had to readjust some things from our first attempt and put in a solid run in our second time around. We were a little quicker than we were all week today, by ourselves, so I was really happy with that. We would have liked to have qualified Saturday, but with the weather and needing to make readjustments to the car, it just wasn't in the cards. Boy, that first run really woke me up; obviously I didn't have enough coffee this morning. The car just had too much push in it and wouldn't take the extra speed going into Turn 1, with the wind. We then went back to our pit to make sure the car would tolerate that extra entry speed."

With Hamilton precariously placed as the slowest qualifier in the field, his Dreyer & Reinbold team will have even less rest over the next week. Rookie Mike Conway put the Purex car hard into the wall in the morning warmup followed by John Andretti's SAFER barrier-breaking impact in turn 1 at 4:45pm. Conway could miss next weekend (and thus the race) but Andretti was fine; he knows how much he's put his team behind in their program.

“It’s just unfortunate. We didn’t start out fast enough, and we didn’t finish fast enough. That’s all I can say. You know you always have to work to do here at the Speedway. I don’t know why it ran like it did, but it didn’t run good. We need to get in today so that we can work on the race stuff. If you don’t get in today, you’re still battling to get into the race, and you can’t really work on the race stuff, so that’s the disappointing part about it all. You know, whether somebody else can go up there and beat that and knock us out of the top 11, I don’t know but it’s certainly not the quality time that we were expecting. All I care about is that we’re here and we should be going quicker than that, and we didn’t. I’m sorry I can’t get in a happy mood right now, you know, I’m just not happy. We’re going to go figure out what we’re going to do, and do it, and get ‘er done. This morning started out real good, felt good about the car. And then for qualifying, it didn’t do what I expected as far as speed, and the handling is kind of what I expected, and I played with it a little bit, but that wasn’t all of it so I don’t know what to say. Right now it’s a little bit confusing, but we’ll go back, we’ll look at data and we’ll go back out. I thought we would run in the 222 range, and we didn’t at all, not even a lap, and that’s disappointing. I really felt like we had it in the car, and after practice we went back and we did this, we did that, you know, you do the little tweaks and twiggers and you’re supposed to go out and go a little quicker.”

D&R's 4th driver Milka Duno was the slowest qualifier of the day at 219.072 and was easily bumped once the 12th car made a qualifying attempt today. With two wrecked cars, one bumped car and the final one sitting as the slowest in the field, the hard working Indy-based effort will need everything to go perfectly this week and next weekend in the final round of qualifying for the big show.

Ryan Hunter-Reay looked like a tortured man today, with his IZOD/WilliamRast Vision Racing entry simply too slow and treacherous to drive in order to make the top-22. Conquest Racing's Alex Tagliani make it back out today after an early crash, but the French-Canadian ace didn't have enough time to work his way up to speed in time to make a serious shot at the field. Like RHR, Tags will be a second weekend qualifier.

The two remaining drivers to be bumped today (with unharmed cars) -- E.J Viso and Milka Duno -- both Venezuelan, coincidentally, will be itching to secure a safe starting position. Full assessments on the crashes of Conway and John Andretti will dictate whether both cars will be ready for action Thursday.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Robert Doornbos has now crashed two cars, and will also find himself trying to make his first Indy 500 in the pressure packed final qualifying weekend. The N/H/L cars certainly have the speed to make the show, but Bobby D is at a loss to explain why he's had two crashes. Trying to answer those questions while finding his confidence AND putting his car into the field will be one of the hardest things the Dutchman has had to do in his short IndyCar Series career. Nelson Phillipe's crashed HVM car will also be back to action.

A number of cars are expected to make their first appearances next week when practice kicks off on Thursday, with the gorgeous Rahal Letterman entry leading the list of veteran teams fighting for a spot in the top-33.

The next few days will also be frenzied as rideless drivers try to swing deals to drive backup cars. With Justin Wilson safely in the field, Dale Coyne is expected to put Bruno Junquiera in his second car, and Oriol Servia is believed to piloting Rahal's sponsorless #17 car.

Townsend Bell, Buddy Rice, Darren Manning, Tomas Scheckter and even Jimmy Kite will be amongst the many trying to work their way into rides.

Follow the action on SPEEDtv.com starting next Thursday.

Qualifying order by row:

1) Castroneves | Briscoe | Franchitti
2) Rahal | Dixon | Kanaan
3) Moraes | Andretti | Power
4) Patrick | Lloyd | Matos
5) Tracy | Meira | Wilson
6) Mutoh | Carpenter | Wheldon
7) Foyt | Sharp | Fisher
8) Hamilton

Final qualifying order for positions 1-22

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Raphael Matos 223.429 2nd Day
13 Paul Tracy 223.111 2nd Day
14 Vitor Meira 223.054 2nd Day
15 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
16 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
17 Ed Carpenter 222.78 2nd Day
18 Dan Wheldon 222.777 2nd Day
19 AJ Foyt IV 222.586 2nd Day
20 Scott Sharp 222.162 2nd Day
21 Sarah Fisher 222.082 2nd Day
22 Davey Hamilton 221.956 2nd Day


6:03pm ET: Sharp bumps HVM's E.J. Viso from the field -- one green and black car changes place with the other. Great job by the Patron Panther Racing team. P20, 222.162.

6:02pm ET: Sharp safe so far -- 222.1 average.

5:59pm ET: Sharp makes it out before the gun fires. 3rd and final attempt.

5:57pm ET: Alex Tagliani out shaking the car down during a qualifying run. Not fast enough by any means.

5:56pm ET: 221.7, 221.5 and 221.3 for RHR before ending his run early. The 2008 Indy rookie of the year isn't having an easy time of it this year.

5:51pm ET: RHR rolling. Will be hard with no real practice before this attempt. Unhappiest man at the track.

5:49pm ET: 11 minutes to go. Very tense on pit lane right now.

5:47pm ET: Look for RHR and Sharp to make last minute runs.

5:44pm ET: Qualifying results:

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Raphael Matos 223.429 2nd Day
13 Paul Tracy 223.111 2nd Day
14 Vitor Meira 223.054 2nd Day
15 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
16 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
17 Ed Carpenter 222.78 2nd Day
18 Dan Wheldon 222.777 2nd Day
19 AJ Foyt IV 222.586 2nd Day
20 Sarah Fisher 222.082 2nd Day
21 Davey Hamilton 221.956 2nd Day
22 EJ Viso 221.745 2nd Day


5:41pm ET: Foyt bumps sharp out of the field with the 19th fastest speed, 222.586.

5:39pm ET: Foyt looking fast. 222.994 first lap. Plenty to make the field.

5:37pm ET: Current order:

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Raphael Matos 223.429 2nd Day
13 Paul Tracy 223.111 2nd Day
14 Vitor Meira 223.054 2nd Day
15 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
16 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
17 Ed Carpenter 222.78 2nd Day
18 Dan Wheldon 222.777 2nd Day
19 Sarah Fisher 222.082 2nd Day
20 Davey Hamilton 221.956 2nd Day
21 EJ Viso 221.745 2nd Day
22 Scott Sharp 221.333 2nd Day


5:36pm ET: Foyt rolling. 24 minutes left to go.

5:30pm ET: Wheldon clearly not happy. Very direct communications from Dan to the team. Foyt looking to make a run shortly. 223.4 in practice moments ago.

5:25pm ET: Wheldon lapping in his National Guard car. Lots of understeer and a few hairy moments. A lesser driver would be in the wall right now.

5:15pm ET: Sharp gets back in at a 222.333, last of the qualifiers. Even if he stays in the top-22, he's likely to be bumped next weekend. Not the insurance plan he wants heading in his ALMS race in Utah next weekend -- a return flight to get back into the field is all too likely.

5:08pm ET: Scott Sharp in line for tech -- should be out to qualify shortly.

5:00pm ET: One hour left to go. Cleanup and track repairs almost done.

4:50pm ET: Tough day for Dreyer & Reinbold. Conway crashed in the morning warmup, Duno was bumped from the field and now they have Andretti's big impact. Davey Hamilton in 20th is the only bright spot so far.

IMS safety crew replacing a section of the SAFER barrier from the #43 car's hit.

4:45pm ET: Yellow flag. Hard hit from behind in turn 1 by John Andretti. Punched the right rear corner into the SAFER barrier. Graham Rahal locks all 4 tires to avoid, spins, blows most of his tires, but doesn't hit anything. Andretti walks away from the crash under his own power -- appears to be OK.

4:28pm ET: Sharp, Dario and Briscoe lapping right now.

4:16pm ET: Standings so far:

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Raphael Matos 223.429 2nd Day
13 Paul Tracy 223.111 2nd Day
14 Vitor Meira 223.054 2nd Day
15 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
16 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
17 Ed Carpenter 222.78 2nd Day
18 Dan Wheldon 222.777 2nd Day
19 Sarah Fisher 222.082 2nd Day
20 Davey Hamilton 221.956 2nd Day
21 EJ Viso 221.745 2nd Day
22 John Andretti 221.109 2nd Day


4:15pm ET: 1hr 45min left to go. Practice underway with no cars in line to qualify.

4:05pm ET: 221.745 for Viso -- 21st fastest -- won't stay there long -- a prime candidate to get bumped. Can't be pleased with that, but also can't be surprised. Despite the pretty looking car, HVM works from the smallest budget in the field.

4:01pm ET: HVM's Venezuelan ace E.J. Viso starting his qualifying run.

4:00pm ET: 223.054...Meira moves his teammate out of the top-22.

3:59pm ET: Meria looking strong -- 223s.

3:58pm ET:

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Raphael Matos 223.429 2nd Day
13 Paul Tracy 223.111 2nd Day
14 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
15 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
16 Ed Carpenter 222.78 2nd Day
17 Dan Wheldon 222.777 2nd Day
18 Sarah Fisher 222.082 2nd Day
19 Davey Hamilton 221.956 2nd Day
20 John Andretti 221.109 2nd Day
21 Scott Sharp 221.103 2nd Day
22 AJ Foyt IV 220.355 2nd Day


3:55pm ET: Vitor Meira on track for another qualifying run.

3:50pm ET: Scott Sharp makes the field, but just barely. 21st for the veteran at 221.103.

3:18pm ET: Returning to practice session momentarily. Cleanup just about finished.

3:05pm ET: Yellow flag for spray from Castroneves' backup car.

2:55pm PT: 223.111 for Tracy -- P2 for the day-- much better and more representative of the pace expected from the ChampCar ace.

Conditions that were already good are getting even better.

2:52pm ET: PT giving it another try.

2:44pm ET: 223.429 average for the Brazilian rookie. Nice job -- fast speed of 2nd day qualifying. Would have put him 7th on Pole Day.

All 22 spots are now filled. Everything from here out will be bumping.

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Raphael Matos 223.429 2nd Day
13 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
14 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
15 Ed Carpenter 222.78 2nd Day
16 Dan Wheldon 222.777 2nd Day
17 Paul Tracy 222.749 2nd Day
18 Sarah Fisher 222.082 2nd Day
19 Davey Hamilton 221.956 2nd Day
20 John Andretti 221.109 2nd Day
21 AJ Foyt IV 220.355 2nd Day
22 Milka Duno 219.072 2nd Day



2:41pm ET: Matos about tor make his run.

2:29pm PT: Dario, Dixon and PT out practicing.

2:02pm ET: 222.780 for Ed Carpenter! Well done on his home track and a nice change of fortunes for Vision Racing whose week hasn't been anything like what they'd hoped.

1:35pm ET: Open track for practice.

1:32pm ET: 222.77 for Dan. Ran the high line the entire run -- expected fireworks from the 2005 Indy winner -- fast time of the day,for sue, but he only managed the 14th fastest speed (overall) and 3rd fastest of the day. A bit of a shocker after his laps 15 minutes ago well above 223.

1:30pm ET: Dan Wheldon starting his qualifying run.

1:15pm ET: Dan Wheldon's looking to test his National Guard car before preparing to qualify. 223.647 and 223.520 so far.

1:06pm ET: With no cars in line for qualifying, the track is open for practice.

1:03pm ET: 221.596 for A.J. Foyt. Close to teammate Meira's 221.934. Well done.

12:59pm ET: 222.082 for Fisher.

12:55pm ET: Sarah Fisher back out to make a second run.

12:50pm ET: 221.956 for Davey. Another solid performance for him.

12:46pm ET: Davey Hamilton rolling. Track temperature reported at 105F.

12:42pm ET:Speeds so far:

Pos Driver Average Speed Comment
1 Helio Castroneves 224.864 Pole Day
2 Ryan Briscoe 224.083 Pole Day
3 Dario Franchitti 224.01 Pole Day
4 Graham Rahal 223.954 Pole Day
5 Scott Dixon 223.867 Pole Day
6 Tony Kanaan 223.612 Pole Day
7 Mario Moraes 223.331 Pole Day
8 Marco Andretti 223.114 Pole Day
9 Will Power 223.028 Pole Day
10 Danica Patrick 222.882 Pole Day
11 Alex Lloyd 222.622 Pole Day
12 Justin Wilson 222.903 2nd Day
13 Hideki Mutoh 222.805 2nd Day
14 Paul Tracy 222.749 2nd Day
15 Vitor Meira 221.934 2nd Day
16 John Andretti 221.109 2nd Day
17 Milka Duno 219.072 2nd Day

12:36pm ET: All quiet on the track.

12:34pm ET: John Andretti goes 221.815 in his D&R/Petty Dallara. A solid run for the Indy vet.

12:30pm ET: 222.847 average for Mutoh. Not bad, but a surprise to be slower than Wilson's Dale Coyne entry.

12:27pm ET: Hideki Mutoh's moving.

12:26pm ET: Sarah Fisher getting ready to make another attempt.

12:24pm ET: Great 4-lap average for "Bad Ass." After two slow runs on Saturday, Justin Wilson's now fastest today. 222.971 average. 2 mph faster today than yesterday.

12:21pm ET: 222.749 average for PT's GEICO car. Fastest of the day.

New day two order: Tracy, Meira, Fisher, Duno.

12:18pm ET: A motivated Paul Tracy out for his first attempt today.

12:17pm ET: 221.934 average for Meira. Fastest of the days, 12th place. Fisher 13th and Duno 14th.

12:15pm ET: 222.173 first lap for the 2008 Indy 500 second place finisher.

12:12pm ET: Vitor Meira rolling.

12:11pm ET: 218.942 lap 2 for Duno. Drivers complaining of a cross wind in turn 2. 219.072 average. Second fastest today. Last 3 laps were int he 218s.

12:09pm ET: first lap of 220.024 for Milka.

12:07pm ET: Milka Duno next up. Davey Hamilton pulls out of line.

12:06pm ET: 4-lap average of 219.911 for Sarah. Can't imagine they'll rest on that.

12:02pm ET: Sarah Fisher's first out to qualify. A bobble on her 2nd lap in turn 1 dropped the #67 Dollar General car to a 217.376.

First lap was a 222. 661. That hurts. Great conditions so far today. Wind just under 10 mph, ambient close to 70 deg.
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