Sat May 17 18:25:30 2008

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Indy 500 grid filled - bumping next

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Indianapolis, IN (Sports Network) - The 33-car field for next Sunday's 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 has been filled and beginning tomorrow, bumping of the slowest cars will begin.

Last weekend, Target Chip Ganassi driver Scott Dixon captured the pole for the 2008 Indianapolis 500 with teammate Dan Wheldon taking second. Dixon's No.9 Dallara Honda circled the 2.5-mile speedway four times at an average speed of 226.366 m.p.h.

The pole victory was Dixon's first at Indianapolis. It was Dixon's third pole win of the season and 11th of his IndyCar career.

"This is unbelievable, what a day," said Dixon. "We had a pretty good plan all morning and as a team, Target, we dominated. "I have to give a lot of thanks to the guys at the work shop."

Only the first 11 positions were locked in last Saturday. Sunday's session was rained out, setting up a rush for positions when the green flag dropped at 12 p.m. (et) today.

Townsend Bell led today's session with a four-lap average of 222.539 m.p.h. He completed row four and will start 12th overall. Twenty other drivers had qualified before 4 p.m. leaving just one more spot to fill before bumping.

Then in a practice lap, Phil Giebler spun and slammed the wall to bring out a caution flag. He was carefully pulled from the car and taken to a medical care center. Meanwhile, the crews went about repairing the SAFER barrier so that practice and qualifying could continue.

They repaired the wall and drivers went out to test, but it wasn't until 5:48 that a driver made a qualifying attempt. A.J. Foyt IV took to the track with 12 minutes remaining in the session, made his out lap and was in his warmup lap when he pulled back down into the pits with a mechanical problem.

That gave the opportunity to Marty Roth and he put himself into the field, at least temporarily, with a four-lap speed 215.506 m.p.h.

Roth will begin tomorrow on the bubble.