(The Indianapolis 500 PEAK Performance Front Row. Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)
The field is set, Carb Day is over, the parade has been held and now all eyes are on the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500, the 95th running of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. Last weekend, Alex Tagliani, Scott Dixon, and Oriol Servia earned their way onto the PEAK Performance Front Row, while PEAK Performance athlete Danica Patrick was center stage for one of the most dramatic Bump Days at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in recent memory. The face of the IZOD IndyCar Series made the field after weather delays and tech issues in P26.
In final practice on Friday, Dixon and Tagliani flip-flopped their positions, with the 2008 event winner leading with a fast lap 225.474 mph and the Canadian-born Tagliani coming in second with a lap of 224.739 mph. With the clock ticking down to the drop of the green flag Sunday, Tagliani reflected on his week.
“Yeah, it was an amazing week that we had last week,” the Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver said. “We're really fortunate that we rolled the car off the trailer fast. The team has done a great job to fine-tune it. Every day we were out there, and we were strong. So it's been a pleasure for me to drive a very competitive car.
“(Friday) it was nice to be back on track. Obviously, we have a very different car that we're going to drive in the race. And I feel the car is very racey. I love it in traffic. It got some consistency out of the car on the older tires. So I don't know. It seems to me to be unreal and too good to be true sometimes. But I want to think that we deserve it. We did everything better than everyone else, and hopefully it will continue.”
Tagliani made no effort to hide his nerves when he talked to the assembled media Friday in regards to his feelings of being P1 when the 95th running of the Indianapolis 500 kicks off. “(I’ll have) a very high heart rate,” he said. “I've been very appreciative of what's happened to me as a driver. But what we don't want to forget is that we have the chance to participate in a historical event. And to just have the chance to qualify in it is already a big thing. Leading the field, I think it's going to be something I'll remember for the rest of my life."
For her part, Patrick said Friday’s practice, while shorter than she would have liked, was a positive session and that her Andretti Autosport team is going to race strong Sunday. “I really feel like the practice hour was good for the GoDaddy car. I wish we could have got some more laps in, but I was happy. I think it was a productive session. I feel confident in myself and the crew to have a strong finish on race day."
The 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series season continues with the 100th Anniversary Indianapolis 500 on May 29 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where PEAK Performance Pole Award winner Alex Tagliani will lead the field of 33 to the green flag. The race will be telecast live in High Definition at Noon (ET) by ABC. The race will air live on the IMS Radio Network, SiriusXM channel 94 and IndyCar.com. For more information on the event and for tickets, visit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the Web at IndianapolisMotorSpeedway.com.
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