Indy Qualifying update at 12:30
Complicating the Tagliani situation is that his teammate, Bruno Junqueira, sits on the sidelines due to sponsorship (and if rumors are true, parts shortage) issue. In previous years the parts from Tag's car could simply be used on Bruno’s car, but now the second pole attempt twist in qualifying means that the car must be kept intact until the end of the day.
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Dale Coyne still has a couple of cigars left over from his team's first Indy car win last summer at Watkins Glen. Dale assures us that he'll have even more cigars to give away should he win the Indy 500. He was confident going into qualification, predicting a speed in the 226 mph range for Alex Lloyd. We assume that he didn't mean Milka's qualification speed would that high, which is good since Milka clocked a 222.408 in her first attempt.
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Another F1 driver hit the wall at Indy. During morning practice, Takuma Sato spun and hit the wall in turn 2. The car is repairable, and should be ready to run later today. However, Sato was transported to the hospital for back x-rays.
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Paul Tracy went out early for qualification, but gearbox troubles cause him to abort the run before it began.
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The crowd at Indy is disappointing. Whether this is a reflection of the popularity of this new format is subject to much conversation here. Then again, the size of the press corps is definitely much smaller than in the past. Tim Wohlford reporting from Indy