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The temperatures were high early in the morning, which set the tone for the rest of the day. The morning practice did not feature any Andretti Autosport cars, because the track conditions were not close to what they would be during qualifying. Tony Kanaan was the first car out, and posted a lap over 225 mph, getting the fans on their feet. Unfortunately, his car was 1.5 pounds too light, and he was forced to qualify again later.

Sebastian Saavedra was the first Andretti car out to qualify, but his engine blew on his warm up lap. He went back to the garage, visibly upset. The first incident we saw came when Sarah Fisher’s rookie driver Bryan Clauson spun exiting turn one. The back end came around and he was sent into the wall. The crew quickly began preparing Josef Newgarden’s back up car for Clauson.

After visiting the SFH garage area, I noticed something on Clauson’s right hand. I was able later to confirm that he had suffered a sprained wrist, but he would be fine to drive on Sunday.

Oriol Servia had a rough Fast Friday, and things didn’t get much better on Pole Day. He lost control of his car in turn four, and spun towards the pit entrance. In a crash that looked eerily similar to Kevin Cogan’s crash in the 1989 race, Servia made contact with the end of the pit entrance wall, spinning him violently out of control.

The final accident of the day came when Ed Carpenter lost control of his car in turn two. He spun backwards, went into the SAFER barrier and his car lifted off the ground. Looking at the replay, it appeared that Ed’s helmet was close to scraping the wall. He struggled on his first qualifying attempt, and may have pushed too much. He is fine, and will attempt to qualify tomorrow.

James Hinchcliffe brought the crowd to their feet with his blistering qualifying run that was the fastest of the five-hour qualifying session. He was part of a dominating Andretti bunch that clearly has to be the favorite for the race next weekend.

Chevrolet seemed to have the upper hand yet again, as they held eight of the nine spots in the Firestone Fast 9. Josef Newgarden was the only non-Chevy, in his Honda powered machine.

The Fast 9 featured three Penske cars, three Andretti cars, two from KV Racing, and Newgarden.

It was a bad day for Honda, especially the once-dominant Chip Ganassi. Of his four cars in the race, Graham Rahal had the best qualifying spot, which was 12th position. Charlie Kimball qualified 14th, and Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti will start 15th and 16th on race day.

The Fast 9 shootout was really a six-car duel between Penske and Andretti. Viso, Kanaan, and Newgarden didn’t make a run for the pole.

Ryan Briscoe won the pole for the 96th running of the Indianapolis 500 by .003 mph over Hinchcliffe. Hunter-Reay will start on the outside of row one. The second row consists of Andretti, Power, and Castroneves. Newgarden, Kanaan, and Viso make up row three.

KV Racing has all three cars in the top ten, as Rubens Barrichello will roll off in tenth. The pole winner from last year, Alex Tagliani, will start in 11th, and Rahal in 12th.

Positions 13 through 24 look like this: Beatriz, Kimball, Dixon, Franchitti, Jakes, Hildebrand, Sato, Bell, Wilson, Jourdain, Pagenaud, and Saavedra.

The remaining nine positions for the field of 33 will be set on Sunday afternoon.

This was Roger Penske’s 17th pole at Indianapolis. Of the last 39 poles here, Penske has won 25 of them. It also keeps their undefeated streak alive for the 2012 season. The team has now won every pole so far (five).

For Briscoe, it’s quite a turnaround from his 2011 month of May. After a crash in early morning practice on Pole Day last year, Briscoe was forced to start in 26th position, and ended up finishing 27th after an accident with Townsend Bell.

It was also a great turnaround for Andretti Autosport. Last year they struggled to get their cars qualified, and actually had to put Hunter-Reay in another car. This year, Ryan will start from the front row. The Andretti stable has clearly been the dominant team throughout the month.

Obviously the favorites for the race this year will be the Penske and Andretti cars. We must remember though, this is the Indianapolis 500, and anything can happen.

Since the very beginning in 1911, every car has been required to qualify for the race. That first year, the grid was determined by the order in which the race entries were received in the mail (Lewis Strang was given the Pole). In order to participate though, drivers had to average 75 mph along a one-mile section of the track.

The following year in 1912, every car was required to complete one timed lap, even though the grid was still set by when the entries were received in the mail. The competitors that came from overseas complained their entries were always arrive last.

From 1920 to 1931, the grid was set by 4-lap qualifying runs. They did 10-lap time trials from 1932 to 1938, but then reverted back to the 4-lap runs. Since 1939, the starting grid for the Indianapolis 500 has been determined by 4-lap qualifications.

Today, a $100,000 award and championship points are given to the Indy 500 Pole winner. The money is nice, but the real reward is being out front going into the first turn of the race.

There have been 17 drivers that have won the Pole multiple times. Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Tom Sneva, and Arie Luyendyk each won it three times. Rex Mays, AJ Foyt, and Helio Castroneves all have four poles to their name. Rick Mears is the only driver to win it more than four times, holding the record with six Poles.

There have been nine instances in which a driver has won the Pole two years in a row. No driver has ever won it three consecutive times.

It’s true that winning the Pole doesn’t necessarily win you the race, but don’t tell Rick Mears that. Three of Rick’s four Indy 500 wins came when he started on the Pole. Johnny Rutherford won in 1976 and 1980 after starting the race in first. In fact, from 1979 to 1981, every driver that won the Pole ended up winning the race.

In all, 18 drivers have won the Indianapolis 500 from the Pole.

Since 2004, starting on the inside of row one seems to be good luck. Since then, four drivers have gone on to win the race after starting from that spot. Buddy Rice did it in 2004, Sam Hornish in 2006, Scott Dixon in 2008, and Helio Castroneves was the last to do it in 2009.

Pole Day for the 2012 Indianapolis 500 is tomorrow. Qualifying officially begins at 11 am.

I arrived early this morning on Fast Friday to see if the activity in Gasoline Alley had picked up. There were noticeably more people working, and the owners were in much earlier today. The question as to how much more speed we would see was answered quickly.

The first few cars rolled out just after noon and put in their install laps. Marco Andretti had other ideas. JR Hildebrand put up the first big number of 223.9 mph, but Andretti outid him. On his sixth lap of the day, Marco clocked a lap at 225.905 mph, by himself. He wasn’t done, as he posted the fastest lap of the month on his 28th lap of the day.

Marco got a tow from teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay and put down a lap at 227.540 mph.

It was another dominating day for Andretti Autosport, and Chevrolet. Of the top 12 cars today, only two (Dixon 5th, Franchitti 9th) belonged to Honda. Lotus continued to struggle, Alesi running 213, and Simona at 212 mph.

Legge completed her rookie orientation, and Bourdais finished up his refresher course.

The boost did it’s job, as 27 cars were over 221 mph on the day. Things weren’t all rainbows and lollipops for RLL Racing though. Michel Jourdain lost his engine, less than an hour into practice. Graham Rahal lost his engine earlier in the week, now his dad loses one for his team.

The top five drivers on the speed chart on Fast Friday were Andretti, Briscoe, Castroneves, Hunter-Reay, and Dixon.

Next up is Pole Day, as qualifying begins at 11am tomorrow after a short practice session.

Bourdais turned 28 laps in 90 minutes, with his best lap at 209.680 mph. Legge began her rookie orientation and had the track to herself until 1 pm. She consistently turned laps around 202 mph and complained of severe understeer. She will also have the track to herself from 6:00 to 6:40 tonight after practice.

Scott Dixon was fastest today, turning his best lap with 20 minutes remaining in practice. The 2008 Indy 500 winner posted a speed of 223.088 mph. Newgarden, Rahal, Power, and Wilson round out the fastest five from Thursday’s practice.

The two Lotus machines were still considerably behind the others. Alesi’s best lap was 207.489 while Simona’s was just 205.690 mph. It was a quiet day for the Andretti cars, as engineers spent the afternoon working on qualifying setups. Bourdais took his number 7 car out for 21 laps, reaching a best of 214.715 mph on lap 15

It was another busy Happy Hour as we saw many cars on track, most likely putting a cap on race setups. Tomorrow’s practice will feature the extra turbo boost, so teams will be working on qualifying setups. It should be interesting to see how much track time each car gets, and if they can avoid getting a tow. It is the final practice before Pole Day on Saturday.

Practice for Fast Friday runs from noon until 6 pm, with the Qualification Draw taking place at 6:15 at the Coke Stage behind the Pagoda.

The damage could have been much worse for the rookie, and he said that he was “counting his blessings” after he climbed out of the wrecked car. While his last lap was forgetable, his 45th lap of the day was the best among all drivers, at 222.785 mph. Marco Andretti was the only other driver to hit the 222 mph barrier on Wednesday.

The three full-time Andretti Autosport drivers were all right behind Newgarden on the speed chart, and Dario Franchitti rounded out the top five. Six of the top ten cars were Honda representatives, with the other four going to Chevrolet.

Besides Newgarden, we had a couple of other storylines on the fifth day of practice for the Indy 500. Dragon Racing appears to have things sorted out with Lotus, as they were putting up Chevrolet signs in their garage and pit stalls. Katherine Legge is supposedly going to get her Rookie Orientation started on Thursday. The Chevrolet engines were fired up inside the Dragon garage, so it appears the dust has finally settled on this one.

An announcement came today from IMS about their plans to honor Dan Wheldon at this years race. His 2011 winning car was restored and was put in the IMS Museum next to Ray Harroun’s Wasp. The plan is to have Bryan Herta drive the car around for a parade lap before the start of the race. Also, every car in the field will carry a special Dan Wheldon sticker. The emotions are sure to be high, as Holly and Susie Wheldon will be in attendance as we celebrate Dan’s life.

While exploring the garage area trying to figure out the Dragon Racing situation this afternoon, I came across a familiar face in Gasoline Alley. Vitor Meira was here, although he did not wish to comment on why, or his future plans for that matter.

Both of the Lotus cars made significant laps today, although they were both still noticeably slow. Alesi ran 46 laps with a best of 205.389 mph, while Simona put in 57 laps with a best of 205.009 mph. They were easily the slowest of the 30 cars on Wednesday, still 10 mph slower than everyone else. It should be noted that the Corvette Z71 pace car can also reach the 205 mph mark.

It was a very busy day of practice, with all of the announcements, breaking news, and first yellow for something other than debris/track inspection. Thursday’s practice should once again be filled with sunshine and warmer temperatures. Practice will run from noon to 6 pm.

Today, big boys took their place.

The drivers for Penske, Ganassi, and Andretti put on quite a show on Tuesday at IMS. The Andretti stable was out early, then put on a great show around 3:30 pm. Hunter-Reay, Andretti, Hinchcliffe, and Saavedra all went out together, and ran in a pack for about twenty minutes. They swapped positions multiple times, including some risky moves that were made going into turn one.

The Penske boys put on their own three-car show about an hour later, just before the furious Happy Hour began. Castroneves reached the 222 mph barrier with about thirty minutes remaning in practice. Happy Hour was quite busy, as we saw 14 cars on track at one point.

In the final minutes of Happy Hour, Marco Andretti put his name at the top of the speed chart. He did so with a lap of 223.676 mph, the fastest of the month. Over 1,600 laps were turned today, and by the end of practice, Andretti Autosport had three of the top five cars, with the other two spots going to Castroneves and Rahal.

As Tuesday’s practice concluded, the top ten was made up of three Andretti cars, four Ganassi cars, two Penske cars, and Takuma Sato.

Sebastien Bourdais was present today, and the signs for Dragon Racing were going up in the late afternoon hours. Pippa Mann and Jay Howard were both here too, anxiously waiting for something to open up. Simona de Silvestro gained some speed, as she posted a speed of 210 mph on her third lap. Unfortunately, she is still a good six miles per hour behind the next group of cars.

We have now had four full days of practice, and it doesn’t look like we will get any rain all the way through the weekend. Obviously teams are considering how much they want to run, given they only have a limited number of tires and engine miles to use. Wednesday’s practice could see the coolest temperatures of the month, but it should still be in the 70′s. Practice runs from noon until 6 pm.

On the day, 29 cars turned 1,199 laps on track and we were incident-free yet again. The only hiccup we saw was when Graham Rahal’s engine went up in smoke in turn four. The engine was near the threshold anyway, so it was no surprise when it expired. Most of the times on the day were courtesy of a tow, but the idea now is to work on race setup, not qualifying.

Teams will have an added boost beginning on Friday, and during qualifications, so it doesn’t make sense to prepare the car for qualifying trim right now.

American drivers held the top three spots on the chart, and 24 drivers were within one second of Newgarden’s time. Jean Alesi finally completed his Rookie Orientation in his number 64 Lotus machine. The other Lotus (Simona de Silvestro) did not turn any laps on Monday.

Newgarden, Hunter-Reay, Andretti, and Dixon were all over 221 mph, and six other drivers reached the 220 mph barrier. James Jakes turned the most laps (76) Monday, Alex Tagliani (17) the fewest.

While the focus had been on Honda this weekend, only six of them were represented in the top 15 today. The other nine were all Chevrolet-powered.

In the first three days of practice, we have run a total of 3,030 laps. The weather forecast looks sunny and warm all the way through Bump Day, so teams may consider cutting down some of their track time throughout the week to preserve tires and engine miles.

Tuesday’s practice will run from noon until 6 pm.

Bryan Clauson and Josef Newgarden also hit the 221 mph barrier on the day. They were the two fastest drivers on Opening Day as well. Scott Dixon, Justin Wilson, and Ryan Hunter-Reay were all three above 220 mph on Sunday.

Six of the top ten, including four of the top five, were Honda-powered entries. In all, 31 cars turned laps on Sunday, with the two Dragon cars still nowhere to be found.

Wade Cunningham (58) put in the most laps, with Clauson (57) Takuma Sato (56) Ed Carpenter (55) and Wilson (55) just behind him.

Another practice, another bad day for Lotus. Simona and Alesi were at the bottom of the speed chart for the second day in a row. Alesi just made it over 205 mph, while Simona barely cracked 202 mph. When I arrived at the track this morning around 9 am, the Corvette Z71 pace car was turning laps that looked quicker.

Jay Howard and Pippa Mann were both on hand for today’s practice session. Howard was talking to some Lotus people outside of the empty Dragon garages. Pippa and I were watching lap times in the IndyCar timing and scoring booth. She said she couldn’t afford to not be here, because of the possibility of a team needing a substitution driver.

Tomorrow should be another action-packed day on the track. Practice is scheduled from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm here at the Racing Capital of the World.

I arrived early in the morning, and making my way around the garage area, I noticed Dragon Racing was nowhere to be found. Their garages look bare, not even a sign. Also, as you would expect, Panther and DRR are neighbors.

It was easy to notice when the 10:00 hour hit, because the crowd began to grow immensely. By 11:00 the garages were flooded with people, and the engines were being fired up. The tech line began to get longer, as many cars were headed to pit lane around 11:30.

The first cars on pit lane were the three Penske machines. All three drivers hit the track the second the green flag was waived for practice. They all did one installation lap (three wide across the bricks) and headed back to the garage. I noticed that Will Power seemed rather relaxed in the new car. His crew was talking about him being the “man to beat” but Will responded with “I haven’t even won a 500 yet, or even a Championship, I haven’t even done a bloody thing on an oval.”

Within the first hour, Josef Newgarden put down the fastest lap of the day, just over 219 mph. That time stood until the final hour of practice, when he became the first to break the 220 mph barrier. His 220.250 lap was followed closely by Panther’s JR Hildebrand who put down a 219.693 lap.

I noticed that many of the fans were discussing how hard it was to read the numbers on the rear wheel guards. This was something I pointed out during the April 4 test here at IMS, although only a few of them had numbers at the time.

Tony Kanaan was coaching most of the day, spending his afternoon in Rubens’ ear. Tony took his own (T) car out for 20 laps, recording his best lap at 217.741 mph. All three KV Racing cars looked fairly good on Saturday. As we feared, things didn’t look good for Lotus, as Simona de Silvestro and Jean Alesi were the two slowest cars on track. Alesi’s best time was only 209.188 while Silvestro clocked her best lap at just 200.203 mph.

There wasn’t much action for the Andretti stable, with Marco Andretti shaking down Saavedra’s car, then his own. Mike Conway struggled to find speed as AJ Foyt’s team fought with software issues throughout most of the day. Last year’s Pole winner Alex Tagliani finally got his first taste of the track around 5:20 pm. His Bryan Herta Autosport machine looked much quicker with that new Honda engine.

The entire practice session saw warm temperatures, in the mid to upper 70′s. The sun was out in full force until around 3 pm when the clouds moved in. There is a slight chance for rain tomorrow, but there should be plenty of action on the track. For updates throughout every practice session this year, be sure to follow @IndyCarChad on Twitter.

Over 600 laps were turned by 27 cars on Saturday. Of today’s top four drivers, they have a combined one start in the Indianapolis 500 mile race.