In the interest of full disclosure, I did not go to the track yesterday. If you read my post from Wednesday evening, you know that I have been under the weather (and that’s putting it mildly). After a terrible night, I woke up Thursday in pain, with little sleep and with a trip to Nashville staring me in the face to go get Susan and bring her back up today. Spending a day at the track can wear you out under normal circumstances. When you feel awful, it gets worse. I thought if I was going to safely make it to Nashville, I’d better forego the track. That’s when you know how bad I felt.
The good news is that I got back home in time to watch the last hour and a half of practice. It doesn’t look like I missed too much, except a beautiful day at the track. Some more good news is that for the first time since really Monday – I’m feeling better.
Friday is Fast Friday, which had carried that moniker as long as I can remember. My first time in attendance for Fast Friday was in 1995, and I remember being enthralled at the sight of Joe Montana, who was brought in as a part-owner at Target Chip Ganassi Racing, with Bryan Herta and Jimmy Vasser as drivers. I have a picture of Montana on the pit stand somewhere. That was back when we still had our photos printed. It may be worth something nowadays, because I don’t think that partnership lasted very long.
Fast Friday got its name because that was the teams made their final tweaks to optimize their cars for the next day, which was Pole Day.
Today it has a slightly different connotation. It’s when the series turns up the boost on the engines for the weekend. This started in 2012, which was the first year that turbochargers had returned to the race since 1996. While it’s exciting to see the teams flirt with the now-thirty-year-old track record, it’s more of a tease to fans to show what could be.
I always wondered why not just give the teams more boost at the beginning of the month and carry it through the race. Of course, we already know the answer – the manufacturers don’t want it because more engines would blow up. I say let the teams make that call. If they run the car too hard in the race, it’ll break. Do they want to go fast, or do they want to protect their equipment. Personally, I didn’t mind seeing the occasional engine failure. It added suspense and intrigue for someone that was leading the race. Would they hold together? Today, there’s not much intrigue. Of course they will hold together. The boost is turned down to make them last. Mario Andretti would have won four or five races if his engine was pre-set to not put a lot of strain on his powerplant.
So today we will see artificially inflated speeds that will tantalize us for Saturday and Sunday. W will probably see speeds around the 234 range, but Arie Luyendyk’s one-lap qualifying record of 237.498 mph, and his four-lap record of 236.986 mph from 1996 will be safe for another year.
I hate to be Debbie Downer, but I’m not a fan of turning up the boost for qualifying and turning it down in the race, but what do I know?
Anyway, it’s prediction time. Who will be on the pole and the front-row. The pole winner will not be a Cinderella like last year when Robert Shwartzman surprised everyone. Alex Palou will put his DHL Honda on the pole, while Conor Daly will sit alongside for his first career front-row start. Starting third will be Scott Dixon for his eighth career front-row start.
As you are reading this, Susan and I are headed back to Indianapolis this morning. I’d like to say we will be there when practice starts at Noon EDT, but given the week I’ve had..it may be a little later.
George Phillips
