The merry month of May! Indianapolis Motor Speedway consumes the whole month for the Indy Racing League. The track is the keystone for the league which carries its name and the Indy 500 race is the most important event of each Indycar season.
In following the news reports from the practices leading up to the qualifying time trials, which by the way were initially rained out, it appears that the new aero configuration on the cars this season aren't adapting too well to the flat 2.5 mile track. There may very well be a bad moon rising.
There have been a multitude of crashes in practice, much more than usual, and some have been quite severe. The defending champion, Buddy Rice, was injured in an unexplained wreck just 16 minutes into the practice session. There was no mechanical failure; the car just broke loose entering a corner slamming the Panoz/Honda into the wall that has been softened by the SAFER barrier system. Without the barrier, it may have been curtains for Rice, who has suffered a concussion and a bruised back. It has been reported that he will not be medically cleared to drive in time to qualify for the pole position, meaning that the best starting position he can possible have is 23rd, if he is the top qualifier among the second round. That remains to be seen. The fact that the initial time trials were rained out may allow him to qualify if the doctors clear him in time.
Darrin Manning, Sam Hornish, and rookie Paul Dana were also involved in crashes during pre-qualifying practice sessions. Dana's car broke loose heading into a corner just as Rice's car did, and Hornish hit the debris which flipped him bottom side up careening down the track. Dana suffered a spinal fracture and a concussion, although Hornish walked away after safety workers righted his car and got him out.
Manning also lost control of his car in turn two, and walked away from the crash. Not a lot has been said about the cause of the crashes, no one associated with the IRL wants to lay blame on the new aero changes which were initiated this season by the league to help impede the high speeds that the cars have graduated to. It certainly doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the engines are smaller than they were last year so you can't blame it on power; the only other explanation has to be the changes made to the spoiler systems. The reason can't really be blamed on any one model either, as Rice drives a Honda and Dana and Hornish drive Toyotas.
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