Under mostly cloudy skies, Buddy Rice and Sarah Fisher, qualified for the Honda Indy 200 which will be contested on Sunday afternoon at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Rice qualified with a speed of 119.991 miles per hour good enough for ninth while Fisher qualified with a speed of 114.394 mph good enough for 17th of the 18 cars competing in tomorrow’s race.
We are really disappointed that we qualified so far down,” said team co-owner, Dennis Reinbold. “We expected to be in the Top 6 today with Buddy. The track conditions had to have played a big role in that. We have a better car than a ninth place car. Hopefully we can move up tomorrow and compete for the win. With Sarah, she has continued to improve and is making steady gains.”
The DRR duo took to the track for the first time on Friday afternoon and returned Saturday morning in preparation for Saturday qualifications. Fisher was the busiest driver on the track along with Ryan Hunter-Reay (who replaced Jeff Simmons at Rahal Letterman Racing), both turning 73 laps over two days. Fisher’s speed continued to improve with a best speed of 114.120 mph and a best time of 1:11.2305. Her teammate, 2004 Indianapolis 500 winner, Rice, turned 61 laps with a best speed of 119.991 mph and a best time of 1:11.2305 good enough for seventh on the speed charts. Sam Hornish, Jr. was the quickest during practice with a speed of 121.631 mph.
Rice will start on the inside of Row 5 next to Ryan Hunter-Reay while Fisher will start on the inside of Row 9 alongside Panther Racing’s Vitor Meira.
“It’s really disappointing,” said Rice, whose best start at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is fifth and came in 1998 while competing in the Champ Car Atlantic Series. “It’s no question, we hurt ourselves yesterday. That’s probably why we took the extra shot today for qualifying to get in the fast six and we didn’t do it. We’ll start ninth tomorrow. It’s hard to pass here but our car is fine in race trim we just tried to go for a little bit more. It had a little too much push so we freed it up a bit and just went over the top.”
“We qualified worse than what we put our time line at,” said Fisher, who is making her first appearance at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. “I thought I was hustling it a little bit better so I thought it could have been better. We did a little bit better this morning in practice but by the time we got back on track there was more rubber on it from the other cars. At the end of the day, it’s all about seat time and I have none. So, basically, we’re just learning as much as we can and trying to get faster and faster every time we hit the track. Back when I started driving these cars in 1999, everything happened so quickly but as you get use to it, you start to understand the cars and things start to slow down and you start to pick up more. I’m at that stage again now on the road courses. I’m starting to pick up things on the road courses that I didn’t pick up before so with that said, there is a lot more to learn still. I’m just thankful to have the opportunity to be in it.”
Penske Racing’s Helio Castroneves claimed the pole position with a speed of 121.620 mph besting his best practice speed of 120.733 mph. He will be joined on the front row by Andretti Green Racing’s Danica Patrick who clocked a speed of 121.098 mph.
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