Bumping on each of the three qualifying days
source:
irl.racing-live.com
Tuesday's official announcement by Newman/Haas Racing
that it would enter two cars in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 has returned to Indy
the likelihood of some entries being unable to make it into the 33 car field.
For the past two years, teams and engine companies had to make last minute
agreements on the second weekend of qualifications in order to fill the field
for the Indianapolis 500. The last bumping occurred in 2002 when the Zali Racing
entry driven by Billy Roe was bumped twice from the field. Roe was bumped once
by George Mack and then a second time when Michael Andretti withdrew his
qualified car, temporarily putting Roe back in the field until Andretti
qualified his back-up car and bumped Roe again. Roe became only the second
driver to be bumped from the Indy 500 field twice in the same car.
The last year with serious drama on bump day for the Indianapolis 500 was 2001
when six cars were bumped during the day and in the last hour of qualifications
there were 12 unsuccessful attempts to bump Billy Boat from the race line-up.
The two car entry by Newman/Haas Racing for Sebastien Bourdais, an Indy 500
rookie, and Bruno Junqueira, a former Indy 500 pole winner, brings the total
number of identified car/driver combinations for the 2005 Indy 500 to 33. The
final entry list remains to be announced, although the entry deadline has
officially passed.