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Foyt IV’s woes headline third day of quals; BUMP DAY ON TAP!

This is what I get for trying to predict a grid.

After yesterday’s third day of qualifying for the 92nd Indianapolis 500, A.J. Foyt IV of Vision Racing is still not yet in the show. Friday practice crashes from Will Power and E.J. Viso knocked them down the grid farther than I thought they’d be. The two A.J. Foyt Racing cars of Darren Manning and Jeff Simmons qualified safely in the show. Same goes for Sarah Fisher; that’s probably the only part that I’m glad I got wrong.

What’s more, Phil Giebler’s probably still in a hospital bed after destroying his Panoz in a fiery wreck. Mario Dominguez and Max Papis also ate SAFER Barrier yesterday as well during morning practice. So as of now, we’ve got Dominguez and Papis –  in repaired cars — plus “Quattro” and Giebler on the outside looking in.

Considering that 33rd-place Marty Roth is at 215.5 m.p.h., I expect that to change quickly this afternoon at the Speedway. Roger Yasukawa’s 218 and change (good for 31st) would have been tenuous as well, but the crashes by Dominguez and Papis may have saved him from a trip to the bubble. Buddy Lazier, however, isn’t out of the woods yet at 217.939 m.p.h. (32nd place). He could be involved in this mess today.

So what happened to AJ4 yesterday? Blame it on a shoddy gearbox. Here’s what he had to say:

“The gearbox went to crap out there. When I tried to shift, it just wouldn’t go into second. It jumped into third. Then, when I finally got up to speed, it jumped back into second. It’s a bad day here today, but hopefully we’ll come back out here tomorrow and get in the race.”

Go back to my article on Fox. Remember what I wrote about something akin to Team Penske’s 1995 qualifying debacle having a very tiny chance of happening? Hahaha…yeah. Continuing on, I’m not saying Foyt IV missing the show would be as historic as Penske in ‘95, but considering that his name and Indianapolis are one and the same, it’s not a fun thought to have at all.

If everything holds up on the No. 2 Vision car though, I expect him to be in the show. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t say that out loud…I mean, I’ve been wrong before.

Bump Day starts at Noon ET today on IndyCar.com and Indy500.com. ABC-TV’s got coverage from 1-3 p.m. ET, then ESPN2 carries it from 4-6:30 p.m. ET.

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All quotes used were taken from yesterday’s trackside report. 

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2008 at 10:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.