INDIANAPOLIS — IndyCar team co-owner Dennis Reinbold walked from pit row to the garage, rubbing his aching head after the first weekend of Indianapolis 500 qualifying.
No wonder, after this washout.
Reinbold came to Indy with four drivers, but just one has qualified — in the last of 22 spots claimed so far — another wound up in the hospital and a third had a dangerously close call.
So instead of spending this week tuning up for race day, the Dreyer &Reinbold team will go back to work repairing cars, revising schedules and figuring out solutions.
“It’s not a scramble, but we had some other things we’d rather be working on,” Reinbold said Sunday night.
This was supposed to be a breakout month for Reinbold’s team, which he co-owns with former series driver Robbie Buhl.
After competing in the shadows of big-name owners like A.J. Foyt, Roger Penske, Chip Ganassi and Michael Andretti for the past nine years, Reinbold finally came to the historic 2.5-mile oval with a full stable of cars, familiar names, plenty of publicity and a hopeful attitude.
He forged a partnership with seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty to put John Andretti in the cockpit, found enough sponsorship to add the popular Milka Duno and sentimental favorite Davey Hamilton to his lineup and still managed to keep his full-time driver, 25-year-old rookie Mike Conway.
But with only one of his four cars claiming a spot among the top 22, which were filled Saturday and Sunday, Reinbold’s team has real problems.
It has to rebuild the damaged No. 24 car of England’s Conway, who crashed hard into the wall just minutes into Sunday morning’s practice. Conway was taken to a local hospital with bruised lungs and a mild concussion. He was released from the hospital Monday but won’t be cleared to drive before Friday. That could force the team to consider finding a replacement.
The team must also repair Andretti’s No. 43 car after he spun in the first turn, crashed hard into the SAFER barrier and then slid down the track and almost into the path of the oncoming Graham Rahal during the afternoon. Rahal avoided contact by diving hard inside, spinning his own No. 02 car before rolling safely to a stop with 75 minutes left in the session.
“In practice, the car was a little too loose and we were making adjustments,” Andretti said. “I was going pretty hot into turn one, which is always a tough corner, and I lost the back end. It was a rough day for our Window World team.”
Twenty-seven minutes later, Panther Racing’s Scott Sharp bumped Andretti out of the 22nd starting spot with his second qualifying attempt.
Duno had similar problems.
Never comfortable in her car, the Venezuelan driver posted a four-lap qualifying average of 219.072 mph, the slowest speed among the first 22 qualifiers. She also got bumped out of the field.
Now the team must figure out what went wrong.
“It puts more pressure on us because we have to put three cars in next weekend,” Reinbold said. “We almost have Mike’s car back together, but you hate having to do it this way.”
The lone bright spot for Dreyer &Reinbold was Hamilton, an Indy regular from 1996-2001 before sustaining serious leg and foot injuries in a June 2001 crash at Texas.
The personable, 46-year-old driver qualified 22nd, the inside of Row 8, with an average of 221.956.
Still, he’s the slowest qualifier of the first weekend, meaning his starting spot is anything but secure. He could still get bumped next weekend, something nobody on this team wants to ponder.
Especially Hamilton, who will do some race testing, though it may be more difficult this week because his teammates must focus on earning three of the 11 remaining open spots in the 33-car field.
“Basically, I’m on my own for the race setups,” Hamilton said. “I guess what we’ll have to do is go find some one-car teams that want to have some friends.”
And hope for better results next weekend.
“We tore two cars up when we were trying to stretch and find extra speed,” Reinbold said. “We spent a lot of money, and I don’t think that should have been necessary. But this is a tough place, a place you have to respect and even when you do, it can still bite you.”
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