Indianapolis

May 23, 2012

James Hinchcliffe

Ashley Judd

Indianapolis 

Basically after attending the Jane’s Addiction show on Friday night in South Beach, I stayed out all night before catching a taxi to the Ft. Lauderdale airport to catch a 5 AM flight to Indianapolis. With no sleep whatsoever, after landing and getting my rental car, I was off straight to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to attend Pole Day qualifying for this year’s Indy 500 and the start of a whirlwind week of fun in my hometown.

Before I get too far into my Indy adventure, I want to go back a couple of days to the Walk on White the Thursday evening before I took off. The show at the Studios of Key West featured young artists from Key West High school and we went over to check it out and to see our friend Heather who was in town visiting her family from her home in New York. It was a great night of visiting with old friends and marveling at the young talent represented by local students.

Heather & Joyce

Bonnie, Kelly & Kathy

Alyah, Neal & Bonnie

Upon arrival at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, I was greeted with beautiful warm, sunny skies and the roar of Indy Cars as they finished up their final practice before the start of the qualifying session. Pole day at Indianapolis is all about one thing, speed, as the fastest twenty-four qualifiers are locked in and the battle for the coveted Pole position comes down to a nine car shoot-out in the final ninety minutes of the day.

Ryan Hunter-Reay

As usual I was happy to once again have passes that allowed me access to the garage and pits during the activities and I was able to stop by and visit many of my friends who work in and around the Indy Car series. My good friend Jason just recently switched jobs moving from working on the Andretti Autosports car of Marco Andretti to the Target Chip Ganassi team of driver Dario Franchitti. He definitely seemed happy about his new situation and even though his driver struggled somewhat qualifying 16^th, Jason remained upbeat about the race.

Justin Wilson

Having access to the garage and pits allows for access to all of the drivers as well as the occasional celebrity such as Dario’s wife, actress Ashley Judd who was unusually chatty and friendly with fans, coming out and signing autographs and posing for photos with fans. I was also able to meet model Elaine Irwin in gasoline alley. I recognized her immediately and knew that she was good friends with my employer’s ex-wife and struck up a nice conversation with her. She is a huge Indy Car fan and was actually the first woman ever to drive the pace car to start the race back in 2002. 

Elaine Irwin & Michael

The quest for speed can be costly to some teams as they push the envelope trying to get the last little bit of speed out and end up in the wall. Sadly it caught a couple of drivers on Saturday as both Ed Carpenter and Bryan Clauson found the concrete, pushing back their efforts until Sunday and a starting place no better than 25^th.

Bryan Clauson

Ed Carpenter

Marco Andretti

At the end of the day Team Penske driver won the pole over Andretti Autosports driver James Hinchcliffe by the narrowest time ever only .0023 seconds or about one foot after the ten mile run. Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the front row. It was a great first day at the track and the start of a hopefully great week in Indiana.

Justin Wilson

Parnelli Jones

Kevin & Ted