Next Stop, Firestone Freedom 100
photo: Chris Jones
Today was a beautiful day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I hope that this weather stretches on into race day Sunday. I had the pleasure of meeting a few IRLblog.com readers as well as Jeff from MyNameIsIRL. Jeff is a great individual and if you don’t already read his site you should head over there and check it out.
Today was a day dedicated to the Firestone Indy Lights. They were given a morning practice session and then went out on the track one by one for their qualifying session at 3 p.m. 22 drivers took to the track to qualify for the Firestone Freedom 100.
You know what they say, records were meant to be broken. Sebastian Saavedra broke the track qualifying record with a two lap average speed of 190.023. His record holding run proved to be short lived when Wade Cunningham of Sam Schmidt Motorsports qualified with an average two lap speed of 190.177 mph. Cunningham stated:
(The pole) is a byproduct of the track conditions and the new engine package. I’ll take the track record, but the pole is what I’m interested in.”
Wade Cunningham was the Firestone Indy Lights champion in 2005 and won the Firestone Freedom 100 in 2006 where he won from pole. He is going to be a tough one to get by tomorrow. He needs to hold off 21 other drivers for 40 laps. With a field of drivers that we have this season that will be no easy task.
Junior Strous who won both races on the Streets of St. Petersburg will be starting 14th (186.942 mph).
The Firestone Freedom 100 is tomorrow with Versus network broadcasting live at 11 a.m. followed by the pit stop challenge
May 21st, 2009 at 21:43
Brendon,
Thanks again for your Indy Lights coverage. I’m looking forward to your race coverage this weekend. Have fun in Indianapolis.