Joie Chitwood (President And Chief Operating Officer, Indianapolis Motor Speedway):
“I’d say I’d be pleased any day the sun is shining and the temperature is about 78 to 82 degrees. I think we pulled some weather numbers for the last eight years during qualifications; we were either wet or below 70 (degrees), so the fact that we had great weather really felt good and I think Brian and I—it’s typical that we’d be doing this press conference at 3 on a Saturday saying what the format is for Sunday after it had rained out. But it was nice to see it in action. I think our goal was to come up with a process that provided more activity on each day of qualifications, and I think the numbers bore out.
I think we had 44 attempts, 11 bumps, two wave-offs, four weren’t fast enough and five withdrew. So, we’re really pleased that it did what it was supposed to and that was not only to provide a run for the pole, a run for the top 11 and then, today, a run for the next set of 11. And it was nice to actually see it in progress, but also to actually see the result because many times when Brian and I sit down and talk about these things, we hope it’s going to play out the way it does; we plan for everything and all-in-all I was pleased. I couldn’t be more happy. I thought the energy was there yesterday, from the plaza area to the garage area, it seemed like there was a great atmosphere and a lot of people seemed to be enjoying the day.
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