Prelude to Bump Day, Part Three

Today's goal for the folks at The Brickyard was to fill up the remaining 11 positions in the starting grid, but unfortunately that was not happening. Only 32 stand qualified, and two of those (Jimmy Kite and the ageless Roberto Moreno) are at speeds well below the projected cutoff near 218 MPH.

Roger Yasukawa in the third Dreyer & Reinbold car looked exceptional, as did John Andretti in the third Panther car as both logged qualification averages of well over 221 MPH. Little Al and Milkalicious are both in and likely safe, although who knows how many pop-up-outta-nowhere drivers will be taking a crack at these folks tomorrow.

One driver who is not in the current 32 is PJ Jones, son of racing legend Parnelli Jones. Parnelli actually took a bit of a spin in PJ's car today, and although it was most assuredly not a qualifying effort it did provide for some awesome photos (and a nice story), like this one from Dana Garrett of Indycar.com.


Safety be damned; open-wheel racing needs more goggles. Period.