Hearn, Giebler Take Final 500 Spots on Bump Day
Written by George Katinger · May 20, 2007
Veteran driver Richie Hearn and rookie Phil Giebler earned the final two starting spots for the 91st Indianapolis 500 as Bump Day played out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
From Indy Racing League Media Reports:
Hearn, who practiced in his No. 91 Hemelgarn/Racing Professionals Dallara/Honda/Firestone for the first time on Bump Day, had a four-lap average of 219.860 mph to complete the 33-car field. That set the stage for Giebler, who returned to the track one-day after crashing on his initial qualifying effort.
Giebler’s average speed (219.637) gave him the fastest rookie honor and bumped Jimmy Kite. It also put Roberto Moreno on the bubble, which didn’t set well with team owner Tom Chastain, who withdrew the qualified time of the No. 77 Honda-powered Panoz from May 19 (216.229 mph) in an attempt to solidify its position.
Moreno, in his second day in the car after replacing the injured Stephan Gregoire, posted a qualifying average of 220.299
Comments
3 Responses to “Hearn, Giebler Take Final 500 Spots on Bump Day”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
One of the things that used to make the 500 qualifying ritual interesting to spectators, the bottom of the field often had speeds FASTER than all but the front row in the “bumping” process.
I know, we have what we have today, and I’ll still watch the race, but the reality is that there are still only three teams and 3-4 drivers with a chance to win. My pick? Dandy Dan Wheldon.
This will be me and my brother’s 50th Indy 500 in a row. I think I know what I’m talking about.
I wish they had never split! I understand why. But here we are eleven years later and Penske is still in control of the finish of the race. What’s old is new again. I think it’s too bad Marco didn’t move over just a little bit and take the win last year. It would have been called racing. So much racing so many years I wish we could go back to driving a car out and sticking it in the field.
What do we call it now IRL/IROC? If you want real racing let them build the cars and motors from scratch and then lets go racing.
It’s still fun but I guess I have seen so much over the years.
Michael
What kept the Indy cars nearly on a par with formula one in the good old days (and why many F1 drivers raced at Indy, besides the payday) was both series fostered creativity and innovation.
Michael knows of what I speak, as he’s been there when things were sweet and saw it all.