Oilpressure

When we awoke this morning, it was warm and in the 70s. That was the high temperature of the day. By the time we got to the track for the delayed practice, the temperature had dropped to 56°. when the rains came to end the two hour practice with a little more than five minutes to go, my phone said it was 55°.

The thing is, we had migrated up to B Penthouse to watch practice. The advantage of that is that you get a great view from up there.

The disadvantage is that today, the wind was coming straight out of the north. That high up, the wind made it feel like it was 35°. I haven’t been this cold at IMS since Race Day 1992. It seemed especially cold since it was almost 90° just five days ago.

The goal was to get in at least one hour of practice. Since they got in about an hour and fifty-five minutes – you have to consider the day a success. There were a few errant spins exiting the pits, but there were no mishaps in today’s practice. That’s a good thing. No team wants to spend tonight and/or tomorrow repairing a wadded up car and putting it untested on Sunday’s grid.

Pole-sitter Scott Dixon led the final practice, with a fast lap of 228.323 mph. Simon Pagenaud was second quick with a full mile per hour slower at 227.157. Josef Newgarden, Conor Daly and Marco Andretti filled out the Top-Five. The No-Tow list had Rinus VeeKay fastest at 219.557 mph. Stafan Wilson was second and Ed Carpenter was third. Conor Daly had the best trap speed in Turn Three at 232.174 mph.

What can we learn from this? Not a thing. I’m sure the teams can analyze data and either feel better about their chances on Sunday or worse. We on the outside can look at all of this and not deduce anything logical – except that the pole-sitter turned the fastest lap today.

As I type, the track is getting pounded with rain. I have just now warmed up and am not looking forward to getting back out in this. We are going to go meet my brother and his wife at Dawson’s. Here are some photos that Susan took today, with the last one being a photo of the two of us together in Turn One today. It’s good to have her back here for Race Weekend. It’s been a rough road for her for the last eleven months, but she appears to be on the road to recovery. This photo means a lot to me. Thanks for taking it, Paul Dalbey.

Sometime tomorrow, she will have a post up here tomorrow. Please take time to check it out.

That will do it for us on this abbreviated and frigid Carb Day. Please check in tomorrow and then – Race Morning on Sunday.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 28, 2021 at 3:51 pm and is filed under Indianapolis 500. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.