It's "Gettin' Serious" Time

The rapidly approaching weekend means one thing and one thing only to me.  Gone are concerns for the condition of my lawn or the tidyness of my backyard from kids' toys or the amount of items crossed of my 'to do' list at home... it's qualifying weekend at Indy.


Now I DO have some unmovable commitments (not scheduled by me) for Saturday that involve driving (the family to visit some longtime friends over an hour away). This is just such an occasion that reminds me why I have satellite radio. I will command the programming be Indy Pole day coverage unless *gasp* it is rained out (perish the thought).


Having said that, I will now make my qualifying predictions, in order, as I did a year ago. I can guarantee you one thing; this list will be wrong, but such is the life of a 'seer of sooth, sayer of all'.


The PEAK Performance Polesitter: I'm going against the prohibitive favorite Penske stable this year and pick a Target Car for the pole... Dario Franchitti.
Pole Speed: 228.683


The Top 11 (plus 1): 
Row 1 - Franchitti, Castroneves, Dixon, 
Row 2 - Briscoe, M. Andretti, Power,
Row 3 - Tagliani, Rahal, Patrick,
Row 4 - Kanaan, Meira, Carpenter,


Mid-table Obscurity (15):
Row 5 - Rice, Hunter-Reay, Hildebrand, 
Row 6 - Servia, Wilson, Scheckter,
Row 7 - Conway, Junquiera, Tracy,
Row 8 - Matos, Bell, Sato, 
Row 9 - Hamilton, Tung, J. Andretti, 


Danger Drives (6):
Row 10 - Viso, DeSilvestro, Kimball,
Row 11 - Speed, Wheldon, Baguette


____________ Bump Line _______________
Just missing out on this year's fun will be...
James Jakes, Alex Lloyd, Ana Beatriz,
Seb Saavedra, Pippa Mann, Jay Howard,
James Hinchliffe


The lone chassis without a driver is the the 57 of Sarah Fisher Racing. I doubt this will see any action whatsoever.


I make these predicitons with just minutes before practice on Thursday, May 19. As always my caveat for predictions is that any mid-table or lower driver forced into a backup car (due to practice crash or what-have-you, will likely move them down a group. In the immortal words of 80s rockers Asia, only time will tell...