Field Set for 85th Indy 500

As night fell on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today, probably the happiest man in Indiana was Billy Boat. For a tense few hours, this veteran driver sat "on the bubble", a prime target for anyone wanting to try and bump him from the 33 car field. As the hours clicked down to minutes and the minutes to seconds, hopes rose that he would survive, and finally the clock struck 6 p.m. and Billy Boat could relax. This was a big difference from the 1998 race, when Boat sat on the pole at the 500, but fortunes have changed since leaving A.J. Foyt's team, and now it was an effort to qualify.

In all, 12 attempts were made to bump Boat from the field, and all failed. While Boat survived, several other drivers did not as "Bump Day" saw Eliseo Salazar, Donnie Beechler, Airton Dare, Cory Witherill and Stephan Gregoire all bump their way onto the starting grid, replacing Roberto Guerrero, Tyce Carlson, Didier Andre, Shigeaki Hattori and Felipe Giaffone. All-in-all it was one of the most exciting days of action the speedway has seen for a long time.

Here is the starting grid for the May 27th Indianapolis 500.

Row 1 Scott Sharp, Greg Ray, Robbie Gordon

Row 2 Mark Dismore, Gil de Ferran, Arie Luyendyke

Row 3 Tony Stewart, Jeff Ward, Robbie Buhl

Row 4 Buddy Lazier, Helio Castroneves, Jimmy Vassar

Row 5 Sam Hornish Jr., Robbie McGehee, Sarah Fisher

Row 6 Scott Goodyear, Jaques Lazier, John Herb

Row 7 Al Unser Jr., Bruno Junqueira, Michael Andretti

Row 8 Nicolas Minassian, Jeret Schroeder, Buzz Calkins

Row 9 Eddie Cheever Jr., Davey Hamilton, Donnie Beechler

Row 10 Eliseo Salazar, Stephan Gregoire, Airton Daré

Row 11 Raul Boesel, Cory Witherill, Billy Boat

Congratulations to the 33 fastest drivers in the world. Average speed for qualifying this year was 223.303 mph. I'll be back next week with coverage of the 85th Indianapolis 500.

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