Still raining at Indy

A gloomy day at Indy

The rain is falling pretty heavy here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway putting a hold on qualifying and putting the new two day qualifying format in question. What happens if no one qualifies today? What if it rains again tomorrow? The answer is yet to be determined. I know we cannot control the weather nor can we install a dome over the race track.

The driver's biggest concern is the points for the pole position because they award more points for the qualifying here. 42 points for the pole is almost a race win for other races. Graham Rahal, driving for Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing, commented on the points. "As far as qualifying and points, last year in May we lost 89 points to Rossi. That's two full races worth of points."

Sebastien Bourdais, driving for Dale Coyne Racing and the fastest car on Fast Friday, had this to add about qualifying. "When your car is awesome in race trim, it doesn't really matter where you're qualifying. So it's great if you do qualify at the front 'cause it's exposure for your sponsors and your team, rewarding for all their hard work. There are good points involved for qualifying. It's almost a race win when you're on pole. You know, hopefully we can collect a few good ones on Sunday. But, yeah, as far as the race is concerned, it's pretty irrelevant."

Juan Pablo Montoya, a two time Indy 500 winner driving for Team Penske, added his thoughts on qualifying. "I don't play big into qualifying, I never have here. You know what I mean? For me I proved it two years ago when I won, after eight laps, I was dead last. It doesn't really matter where you qualify. It's nice to be up front to run good here. I think we've got good cars. But the main focus, you know, yeah, you remember who was on pole here when you come back a year or two after, but the people I remember are the people that win the race."

Takuma Sato, driver of the number 26 for Andretti Autosport, added this. "Yeah, I mean you can win from the back of the grid, for sure. But be in the front obviously minimize the risk, any possible damage early part of the race. It's always advantage. I think it's been third row, let's say top nine, wouldn't be much different. But nice to be in the front row. To be in back, huge turbulence at the start of the race. That's very difficult. Working your way, you have 200 laps to do it. I guess everything is possible here."

So as the rain continues to fall here in Indy, the hopes of qualifying today get slimmer – one of IndyCar's precious ABC network TV slots about to get wiped out by rain. But the good news is the chance for rain expected for tomorrow has been lessened. Lucille Dust reporting from Indy