The action mostly came in two spurts; one in the first two hours of the noon - 6pm session, and the other in the last 35 minutes. A.J. Foyt of Vision Racing got things started by putting his car solidly in the show with a four lap run averaging just over 219 mph. This bumped the slowest previous qualifyer, Marty Roth, out.

 A.J.'s tough week wasn't over, however. Later in the afternoon, while making a run in race trim, part of the fuel system assembly came apart, resulting in ethanol spilling out and catching fire! The car was destroyed in the resultant wreck, & A.J. suffered a minor burn on the back of his neck. The team will have his car repaired in time for the race next Sunday.

Next, Marty Roth (pictured above from day 3) went out and posted a run with a four lap average of 218.9 mph, good enough to bump his way back onto the grid, displacing Buddy Lazier who had the slowest qualifying average at that point. Next up was Mario Dominguez, who failed to get his Pacific Coast Motorsports car up to the roughly 218.2 mph that would be needed to bump Roger Yasukawa, who was slowest at that point.

Most of the rest of the day passed with those outside the grid & those near "the bubble" - as the saying goes - practicing with various trim configurations, looking for more speed. Meanwhile, several drivers who were comfortably in the show worked on their race set-ups.

At 5:25 pm, with the clock running out, Buddy Lazier decided that the time was right to take a stab at bumping his way back onto the grid. His attempt came up short, but Mario Dominguez, who went out immediately after him, did force his way into the show. However, from that point on Dominguez's time would be the slowest, making him the man "on the bubble".

Roger Yasukawa was now on the outside looking in. He would make two attempts to bump his way back onto the grid, but would fail both times. Max Papis would suffer the heartbreak of clearing the pre-qualifying tech inspection process, only to have his clutch break as he was ready to roll out for his qualifying attempt!

The last ten minutes would be the most exciting. With his car trimed out for minimal downforce - which also means minimal grip - Buddy Lazier would go out for one last run. He put togeather 4 laps at over 219 mph, more than enough to bump Dominguez out and force his way back onto the grid.

With the 6pm time limit nearly upon him, Dominguez went out for one last attempt to bump Marty Roth - who was, once again, the slowest on the grid - and make the starting line-up. His first lap was a blistering 219.7 mph, better than he had done all month. However, going in to Turn One for lap two of his run, the car swapped ends and backed into the SAFER barrier, ending his chance.

Here then is the final starting grid for the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500, which will start at noon Eastern Time on Sunday, May 25th.

http://www.indy500.com/grid 

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