May 10, 2009

IRL: 11 more in the Indy 500 field

The second day of qualification is in the books at Indy and two-thirds of the field is now set.

Raphael Matos posted the fastest time of the day and rounds out row four.

Row five will be made up of Paul Tracy, Vitor Meira and Justin Wilson.

Row six will be made up of Hideki Mutoh, Ed Carpenter and Dan Wheldon.

Row seven will be made up of A.J. Foyt IV, Scott Sharp and Sarah Fisher.

And finally, Davey Hamilton qualified 22nd to take the final spot on the roster.

Our View: The pressure is off these drivers, but the remaining hopefuls have to sweat all week until next Saturday's session.

F1: Spanish Grand Prix Results

Jenson Button has gotten off to an amazing start in 2009 by winning four of the first five events on the Formula 1 calendar, but the Spanish Grand Prix was a study in domination for the entire team. This week, Button led teammate Rubens Barrichello to the line. Team orders may have come into play, but either way, both drivers earned maximum points.

FinishStartDriverLapsStatus
11Jenson Button66Running
23Rubens Barrichello66Running
35Mark Webber66Running
42Sebastian Vettel66Running
58Fernando Alonso66Running
64Felipe Massa66Running
713Nick Heidfeld66Running
89Nico Rosberg66Running
914Lewis Hamilton65Running
106Timo Glock65Running
1110Robert Kubica65Running
1212Nelson Piquet Jr65Running
1311Kazuki Nakajima65Running
1420Giancarlo Fisichella65Running
1516Kimi Raikkonen17Hydraulics
1618Heikki Kovalainen7Gear Box
177Jarno Trulli0Accident
1815Sebastian Buemi0Accident
1917Sebastian Bourdais0Accident
2019Adrian Sutil0Accident

Two crewmen also suspended

In addition to Jeremy Mayfield, two NASCAR crew members were also suspended for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy. These were Tony Martin, a crew member with the No. 34 Cup team and Ben Williams, a crew member of the No. 16 Nationwide Series team.

Our View: Fans should appreciate the integrity that NASCAR tries to bring to their sport, as opposed to the stick and ball sports. Stock cars are just too dangerous to allow any leniency in regards to drugs.

Bowyer's streak ends at 83

Clint Bowyer came up one race shy of tying Herman Beam's long-standing record of 84 races in which he was running at the end. On lap 221 of the 367 that make up the Southern 500, he bounced off the wall and was turned into the inside retaining wall. The damage was too great to overcome.

Our View: In some ways, this was karma. Two weeks ago at Talladega, the team waited until two laps remaining to get his crash damaged Chevrolet back on track—most likely because it would not have been capable of meeting NASCAR's minimum speed requirement in that race.

IRL: 11 locked in to Indy 500

In the first day of qualification, 11 drivers have been locked into the Indy 500. Led by pole sitter Helio Castroneves, Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe is in the middle of the first row and Chip Ganassi's Dario Franchitti is on the outside of that row.

Graham Rahal, Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan make up row two.

Mario Moraes, Marco Andretti and Will Power make up row three.

And finally, Danica Patrick and Alex Lloyd will take the inside and middle of row four. The rest of the field will be filled on Sunday and next Saturday.

Our View: Castroneves has bragging rights, but the remainder of the field can rest easier knowing they will start near the front of the field.