IndyCar > 2007 Round 05: Indy500 > Qualifying 4
INDYU.S.A.May 20, 2007
IRL IndyCar Series
Round 05: Indy500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Qualifying
Hearn, Giebler Complete Indy Starting Field Race Results >>

Veteran Roberto Moreno led the way in final qualifying Sunday for the Indianapolis 500, and provided most of the “Bump Day” excitement by withdrawing his previous day’s qualifying run of 216.229 mph and then re-qualifying more than four miles an hour faster to secure his place in the 91st running of the Memorial Day Classic.

For the second consecutive year, the Honda Indy V-8 engine powered the entire field of race hopefuls for two weeks of practice and qualifying, with 36 drivers and teams recording 12,799 laps [31,997.5 miles] around the historic 2.5-mile oval since the track opened for rookie practice on May 6.

Once again, clear blue skies and near-perfect weather conditions ruled the day at Indianapolis, in stark contrast to the previous two seasons when rain frequently interrupted both practice and qualifying.

Highlight of the day came with just less than one hour remaining, as Roberto Moreno withdrew his previous day’s qualifying run before he could be “bumped”, and then succeeded in re-qualifying his Chastain Motorsports Honda Panoz at a much quicker 220.299 mph. Moreno himself was a secondweek replacement for original driver Stephane Gregoire, who suffered a back injury in a crash on May 17.

The 33-car starting field was completed by veteran Richie Hearn & rookie Phil Giebler, who bumped slowest qualifier Jimmy Kite to make his first “500” start. Giebler became the second rookie to qualify for this year’s race, joining sports car racer Milka Duno who made her successful qualifying run on Saturday.

The speed differential of just 6.9 mph between the fastest qualifying run of Helio Castroneves and Marty Roth’s slowest run is also much closer than 2006, when the spread was 13.3 mph.

Activities at Indianapolis Motor Speedway resume on Friday with the traditional final practice session, known as “Carb Day”. The 91st running of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race starts at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday, May 27. with live television coverage beginning at 12 noon on ABC.

Robert Clarke (President, Honda Performance Development) on Honda powering the entire Indianapolis 500 starting field for the second consecutive year:
“Once again, we’ve accomplished our first goal for the ‘Month of May’ providing the full field of 33 qualified cars and drivers with equal Honda Indy V-8 engines. I’m impressed by the quality of this year’s starting grid and the closeness of the competition, the speed differential from first to last is much closer than in ’06. I’d like to thank all of our associates at HPD and our technical partners at Ilmor for their hard work and attention to detail in making this program operate so smoothly. Now we’re looking forward to a sucessful and exciting race on Sunday.”

IRL IndyCar Series
Round 05: Indy500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Bump Day Qualifyingline		  
1 Helio Castroneves (Team Penske)
2 Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing)
3 Dario Franchitti (Andretti Green Racing)
4 Scott Dixon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing)
5 Sam Hornish Jr. (Team Penske)
6 Dan Wheldon (Target Chip Ganassi Racing)
7 Ryan Briscoe (Luczo Dragon Racing)
8 Danica Patrick (Andretti Green Racing)
9 Marco Andretti (Andretti Green Racing)
10 Tomas Scheckter (Vision Racing)
11 Michael Andretti (Andretti Green Racing)
12 Scott Sharp (Rahal Letterman Racing)
13 Jeff Simmons (Rahal Letterman Racing)
14 Ed Carpenter (Vision Racing)
15 Darren Manning (A.J. Foyt Racing)
16 Buddy Rice-W (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
17 Kosuke Matsuura (Super Aguri Panther)
18 A.J. Foyt IV (Vision Racing)
19 Vitor Meira (Delphi Panther Racing)
20 Davey Hamilton (Vision Racing)
21 Sarah Fisher (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
22 Buddy Lazier-W (Sam Schmidt Motorsports)
23 Roger Yasukawa (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing)
24 John Andretti (Panther Racing)
25 Al Unser Jr. (A.J. Foyt Racing)
26 Alex Barron (CURB/Agajanian/Beck Motorsports)
27 Jon Herb (Racing Professionals)
28 Jaques Lazier (Playa del Racing)
29 Milka Duno (SAMAX Motorsport)
30 Marty Roth (Roth Racing)
31 Roberto Moreno (Chastain Motorsports)
32 Richie Hearn (Hemelgarn/Racing Prof.)
33 Phil Giebler (Playa del Racing)
 


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