The Last Chance Qualifying session for the Indianapolis 500 took place Sunday afternoon, and it was Graham Rahal that was eliminated from contention in the most dramatic moment of the Month of May so far.
There were four drivers that were in the elimination zone entering the day, and they had to fight to keep their chances of running in the Indy 500 alive.
One hour was set aside for the brawl for the final row, and drivers were able to make as many attempts as time allowed.
READ MORE: IndyCar Indy 500 – Full Qualifying Results
There was always one driver that would be disappointed after the day, as 34 drivers were competing for 33 positions on the grid.
All four drivers made their first four-lap runs, and right away Jack Harvey was the slowest of the bunch and was in the drop spot.
Only one driver made multiple attempts in the final hour of running, because a majority of them were safe if their first runs held as they were.
Harvey made three runs in total, but was never able to move forward until his last and final run as the time window expired.
He even ran multiple times in the final 10 minutes, the team choosing to not give his Honda engine proper time to cool down on pit lane.
But a late suggestion from his team to try different settings on his onboard adjustments seemed to make the difference, and he was able to leapfrog his team-mate Graham Rahal at the last second.
Harvey’s final set of laps was competed at an average of 229.166 MPH, just fractionally ahead of Rahal’s 229.159 MPH average.
It was a gut punch for Rahal, and he was forced to cut interviews short as tears prevented him from putting his thoughts together knowing that he would not be participating in the Indy 500 for the first time in 15 years.
There were three Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing drivers out of the four in the bump zone, so it was likely that one of them was going to miss the cut.
It’s the first time a RLL car has missed the cutoff for the Indianapolis since 2013, when Michel Jourdain Jr. failed to get himself into the top 33 positions.
Along with Jack Harvey, fellow RLL driver Christian Lundgaard and Dale Coyne Racing rookie Sting Ray Robb cemented their positions in the race, albeit on the final row.
Discussion about this post