IRL: Indy 500: Treadway Racing pole day notes

Treadway qualifies 17th; Luyendyk waives off.

Indianapolis: Rookie Rick Treadway qualified 17th for his first Indianapolis 500 in his #5 Airlink Enterprises/Spade Motorsports G-Force/Chevrolet/Firestone entry for Treadway-Hubbard Racing. Luyendyk waived off 2 runs and came in before taking the green on his third attempt after encountering a reading indicating a tire pressure problem in the right front tire in his #55 Meijer G-Force/Chevrolet/Firestone entry. It turned out to be a faulty tire pressure sensor.

"All month we were focused on qualifying today, so we're pretty happy," said Treadway. "The car was comfortable. I was a little squirrelly on the first lap with the temperatures and wind and we lost power on the last lap, but we still had a solid run. I'm looking forward to my first Indy 500. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I've been sitting here on the sidelines all these years watching Arie, and I can't believe I'm in the Indy 500. Part of my dream came true today. Now I need to focus on my other dream; winning the Indy 500. Arie and the crew and engineers Steve Erickson and Tim Wardrop probably deserve 95% of the credit for this. With all their experience over the years, they shared all their information with us. I've always known I could do it and now I have; I've qualified for the Indy 500."

Two-time Indy 500 winner Arie Luyendyk encountered a number of problems during the day and waived off two qualifying attempts.

"It was one of those days where nothing went right for us," said Luyendyk. "The car actually had a pretty good balance in (Saturday morning) practice. When the guys got the car back to the garage, they found an oil leak, and had to change engines. Our only option was at that time was to put in Rick Treadway's backup qualifying engine. We just barely got the car in line to keep our place in the line, so the guys did a good job to make that engine change."

"Basically, I had too much push on my first run, and did not want to accept speeds in the 227 mph range. On my second run, the car got really loose on me and I had to get out the throttle so much in (turn) three that it ruined the run. I had to abort again. We brought the car back to the garage and put it on the set-up pad, and then went back out to practice. We talked about it and decided to try to make our last attempt. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the tire pressure sensor and I got a reading that my right-front tire was low. The tire pressure sensor apparently had failed and did not give me a correct reading. The crew made the right choice not to take the green and, basically, eliminate this car, because they thought the right-front tire was not up to pressure. As it turned out, it was, but we got caught out by a faulty tire pressure sensor."

The track re-opens for practice Wednesday May 15th and qualifying resumes Sunday May 19th.

-tr-