Bumping Is Back on Crown Royal Armed Forces Day Qualifying Weekend
May 18, 2018 | By Paul Kelly, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis 500 fans, strap in and get ready for a wild ride on Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend – bumping is back.
There are two unique challenges within the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil this year. There's the 500-mile run for racing immortality and a spot on the Borg-Warner Trophy on Sunday, May 27 and the 10-mile dash to earn one of the coveted 33 spots in the starting field on Bump Day, Saturday, May 19.
You read that right: Bump Day is on Saturday, with Pole Day on Sunday. That’s the reverse sequence of the decades-long qualifying format at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the drama will be just as thrilling and intense as ever at the 2.5-mile oval.
Drivers will fall in and out of the field during Bump Day qualifying for the first time since 2011, with two drivers going home Saturday night without a spot in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
“There are two kinds of races, Pole Day and the Indy 500,” three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves said. “It is four laps; it feels sometimes like 500 miles. It's so difficult to go out there. It's so difficult to be right at the limit.
“It's becoming even more of a challenge with the new format of qualifying. So it's very, very tough. It's very difficult. That's what separates the boys from the men.”
Here’s a look at how Crown Royal Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend will unfold:
SATURDAY, May 19 – Bump Day
View Bump Day Results
Qualifications will take place from 11 a.m.-5:50 p.m., establishing the 33 drivers who will comprise the starting field, but not the exact order in which they will start. That comes Sunday.
Since 35 drivers are assigned to cars this year, two drivers will be left without a spot in a 33-seat game of musical chairs at speeds of 230 mph when Bump Day qualifying ends at 5:50 p.m.
All entries are guaranteed one qualification attempt, and multiple attempts are allowed with or without withdrawing a previous time. But there is a risk-reward scenario for withdrawing a time and trying to requalify since two qualifying lanes will exist on pit lane Saturday.
The Fast Lane will be filled by cars that have not qualified, have withdrawn previous qualifying times or been bumped from the field by a faster-qualifying car. The withdrawal of the previous qualifying time takes effect when the car reaches the head of the line.
Lane 2 will be filled by cars that have posted a qualifying time, do not wish to withdraw it but wish to qualify again. If a car making an attempt from this lane does not improve its qualifying time, the original qualifying time remains as its official attempt.
Cars in the Fast Lane always will have priority to enter the track over cars in Lane 2. But jumping in the Fast Lane comes with the risk of losing a faster qualifying time just to have quicker access to the track.
The 33 drivers with the fastest four-lap average speeds at the end of Bump Day will earn a spot in the starting field and return Sunday to re-qualify. The nine fastest drivers Saturday will compete in the Fast Nine Shootout to fill the first three rows of the starting grid. The remaining 24 drivers will re-qualify to fill spots 10 through 33.
Remember: Any attempt by a car that has left pit lane when the gun is fired at 5:50 p.m. Saturday will count – the driver does not have to take the green flag to start the attempt by that time.
SUNDAY, May 20 – Pole Day
Qualifications will take place from 2:45-5:45 p.m., with just the 33 fastest drivers from Bump Day. All qualifying times from Bump Day are erased, but they are used to determine the qualifying order on Pole Day.
Each of the 33 fastest cars from Saturday will make one four-lap qualifying attempt in two groups, Group 1 from 2:45-4:45 p.m. and the Fast Nine Shootout from 5-5:45 p.m. The qualifying order in both groups will be based on slowest to fastest from May 19 qualifying times. Thirty-third will be first on track and 10th will be last in Group 1; ninth will go first and first will enter the track last in the Fast Nine Shootout.
There’s no bumping on Pole Day. Each car makes one run, and the starting grid order in both groups will be based on that one 10-mile trip around the Speedway for each car. The fastest in Group 1 will start 10th, with the slowest starting 33rd. The fastest in the Fast Nine Shootout will earn the Verizon P1 Award and the coveted No. 1 starting spot, while the slowest will start on the outside of the third row in ninth.
“Trust me, everybody is hanging it out,” Graham Rahal said. “This isn’t easy. I don't think by any stretch of the imagination that it's been easy before, but I do think this year it is going to be really close across the board. I think there's going to be a lot of people on a very tight window.”
ABC will televise qualifying live from 4-6 p.m. (ET) Saturday and Sunday. The Advance Auto Parts INDYCAR Radio Network will provide coverage from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and 2-6 p.m. Sunday.
Visit IMS.com to purchase tickets for the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on Sunday, May 27 and for more information on the complete Month or May schedule at IMS.