Castroneves, Patrick survive on bump day
Harvick wins $1 million in NASCAR All-star Race
IndyCar’s marquee names turned a day of qualifying for the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” into a throwback, nail-biting, bumping affair.
Helio Castroneves, seeking a redemptive record-tying fourth victory, was fastest around Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Danica Patrick was fast, too, and she averaged 227.610 mph to snag the ninth and final spot in the next round of qualifying, the Fast Nine. But this was a full field for the first time in years, and it meant two drivers weren’t making next Sunday’s show.
Never did the renewed bumping expect to be a threat to James Hinchcliffe, one of IndyCar’s top drivers, a popular Canadian, and a celebrity from his stint as runner-up on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” show.
Add in this is the final Indy 500 on ABC, ending a partnership that started in 1965 and is second in sports only to CBS and the Masters. The network has been a strong partner for tiny IndyCar, and it helped turn Hinchcliffe and Castroneves into crossover stars.
And no one expected trouble for Pippa Mann, a perennial presence in the Indy 500. The British driver spends her entire year working to raise the money to run the Indy 500.
Yet after a day of bumping, it was Hinchcliffe and Mann who were surprisingly sidelined.
“It was devastating in every way possible,” said Hinchcliffe, who is fifth in the IndyCar standings and a full-time series racer for an anchor team. “We came here with big expectations and high hopes. We didn’t have Fast Nine speed but we didn’t think we’d miss the race.
“It’s Indy and we finally have bumping again and everyone was thrilled about it. Well, I’m a lot less thrilled about it.”
Hinchcliffe nearly lost his life at Indy in a 2015 crash in which he was pierced in an artery and would have bled to death if not for IndyCar’s standard-setting medical staff. He missed the race that year, but otherwise is a staple of the series.
Mann is a one-off. She races whatever events she can scrape together the funds to buy an open seat, and Indy is her yearlong pursuit. Without her in the field, the Indy 500 will have just one woman in the field, Patrick, at the time her return to American open wheel’s crown jewel event is being celebrated. Patrick is retiring after this Indy 500, her first since 2011 because of a brief and unsuccessful move to NASCAR. Back for the second leg of a farewell in “The Danica Double” she’s bookended Indy with the Daytona 500 on a two-race goodbye tour.
There’s a chance IndyCar could intervene. The standard is 33 cars, but the Indy 500 is only race that matters to the IndyCar elite and it had a 35 car field in 1997. So the hand-wringing could be real as purists wonder if Tony George, head of the family that owns all things-Indy, can force an exception to get Hinchcliffe and Mann in the field.
“Should they just start everyone? To me, I’m definitely a traditionalist,” said Ed Carpenter, son of George and the owner of Patrick’s car. “As tough as it is to watch a guy like Hinch, who has had great moments here, really tough moments, I feel for him, I feel for Pippa. We’ve all worked very hard to be here. I really feel for them.
“At the same time, Indianapolis, that’s part of the lure of what makes this race so special and important to all of us. Growing up around this event, seeing years where Team Penske struggled and missed the race, Bobby Rahal missed the race one year, it’s happened to great teams.”
The absence of Hinch and Mann is as surprising as the run by Patrick, who would have been content qualifying with something in the middle of the pack. Instead, her four-lap average around the track earned her a slot among the nine drivers who will shoot it out Sunday for the pole. Her Chevrolet from Carpenter is fast, and Carpenter was second only to Castroneves. She’s now guaranteed a starting spot in the first three rows of her final Indy 500.
“I have high expectations for doing well here,” said Patrick, the only woman to lead laps in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500. “But to think that I was going to come back and be in the Fast Nine right off the bat, I mean, I’m going to tell you I definitely am relieved.” NASCAR All-Star race: Nothing can stop Kevin Harvick these days, and the hottest driver in NASCAR picked up a $1 million payday with yet another victory.
Harvick won the All-Star race on Saturday night exactly 11 years to the day of his only other win in Charlotte Motor Speedway's exhibition event. This time it is part of a raging hot streak that sent him into the All-Star race with five points race victories, including the last two.
It's technically three in a row now, although the All-Star race is for cash only.
Because it doesn't count, NASCAR could play with the rules and it experimented with a package that included a horsepowersapping restrictor plate and was designed to improve a race that has become beyond boring over the last 10 years. The package Saturday night did make for better racing, but the same result: Harvick celebrating again.