 Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney - IRL The
qualifying itself turned out to be somewhat anticlimactic as McCune, who was an
extremely strong midget racer in the late 90s, was the first car on the
track. It didn't take long for her
sponsors and Sam Schmidt motorsports to see that they had made the right
decision by getting her into an IPS car.
She took the number 8 Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry out and turned in a
blistering speed of 187.795. The rest of
the field fell by the wayside as entrant after entrant tried to match her time,
but ultimately failed.
Of
the effort, McCune said, "The car was sliding a little bit. I had a bit of understeer, so I didn't know
how good my time was going to be, but I'm excited that it held."
McCune
was followed in the qualifying order by Jay Drake who posted a strong speed of
185.913 and then by Jeff Simmons who turned in a speed of 184.969 to ultimately
qualify seventh. Scott Mayer was the
next in line, but did not qualify because of pain in his neck. It is unclear whether Mayer, racing for ABC
Building Supply in a chassis formerly run by Nick Bussell with JL West
Motorsports, will compete in the race tomorrow.
Marty
Roth was next on the track with a qualifying speed of 184.216. The next real threat to McCune came from her
teammate Jaime Camara as he took to the track.
However, Camara could not find the speed necessary to unseat McCune with
a mark of 185.081 MPH. Chris Festa then
posted a speed of 184.603 to ultimately qualify 8th.
Series
points leader Wade Cunningham was the next credible threat to McCune. Wade had the second fastest time in combined
practice (188.789 MPH) and looked as if he could take the pole here at Chicago
-- something he has not done all year.
However, track conditions obviously changed and the best Cunningham
could muster was a 185.187 MPH (which places him in 5th for tomorrow's start).
Vision
Racing drivers Jon Herb and Nick Bussell also tried but failed to best Sarah's
speed with Bussell qualifying fourth (185.2 MPH) and Herb qualifying ninth
(184.296 MPH). Of his effort, Bussell
said, "It was good really. I was
happy with my car… I think our cars will race pretty well... I'm not sure what we could have done
differently, but I think we'll be pretty good for the race."
Travis
Gregg then took to the track, and as the last IPS driver to take the pole
position on his first *oval* race in the series (Marco Andretti took the pole
on his first road course race in the IPS), the crowd seemed to think that he
had the best chance to eclipse the strong time posted by McCune. Indeed, Travis turned in a strong first lap
of 186.770 MPH which placed him in second.
However, on his second lap, he could not improve that time and ended up
keeping his first lap time to take the second qualifying position.
New
Brian Stewart Racing driver and former Formula Ford Champion Bobby Wilson was
the last car to attempt qualification and will start in the 11th position with
a speed of 184.152 MPH.
When
asked about how she thinks her short track experience will contribute to her
performance in the Pro Series, McCune said, "Short track drivers are not
very easily intimidated. When you can go
running Eldora one weekend, the next weekend Winchester, the next weekend Salem
and then Indianapolis Raceway Park ( IRP), going to a racetrack that you've never seen before isn't nearly as
intimidating as it is to other people who have grown up racing on one or two
tracks for their whole career. I think
that definitely helps. I think driving
on dirt definitely helped me in qualifying today. The track was really slick, and my car was
sliding, but I was able to control that because of having driven on dirt."
Whether
it came from racing on dirt, or from genetics, today Sarah McCune's talent and
ability were clear.
Additionally,
those words, along with Sarah's strong performance, have to be heartening to
Geoff Dodge, top rookie finisher at the Knoxville Nationals who will be testing
in a Pro car with Brian Stewart Racing on Monday.
Along
with a strong performance this year from Travis Gregg, Sarah's effort may be
helping to demonstrate that short-track sprint and midget drivers *can* make
the transition to the world of rear-engine Indy-style cars.
Of
course, qualifying well is one thing -- winning the race is
another. We might want to look at history to find out
what happened to the last IPS driver to place a car onan oval
trackl pole in their first
IPS appearance. His name was Travis
Gregg, the race was at 1.5 mile Kentucky oval, and the result was
that… he finished 5th, not having had experience driving a Pro car at
185+ mph in traffic, dirty air and drafting. We'll see
tomorrow. There are always drivers who rewrite history, and Sarah
has already started.
Here
is the final qualification order from Chicago:
1.
(8) Sarah McCune, Dallara-Infiniti, 187.795 2. (7) Travis Gregg,
Dallara-Infiniti, 186.770 3. (20) Jay Drake, Dallara-Infiniti, 185.913 4. (9)
Nick Bussell, Dallara-Infiniti, 185.321 5. (33) Wade Cunningham,
Dallara-Infiniti, 185.187 6. (1) Jaime Camara, Dallara-Infiniti, 185.081 7.
(24) Jeff Simmons, Dallara-Infiniti, 184.969 8. (19) Chris Festa,
Dallara-Infiniti, 184.603 9. (6) Jon Herb, Dallara-Infiniti, 184.296 10. (4)
Marty Roth, Dallara-Infiniti, 184.216 11. (3) Bobby Wilson, Dallara-Infiniti, 184.152
12. (11) Scott Mayer, Dallara-Infiniti, no speed
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