Despite a valiant effort by his family owned team, Buddy Lazier failed to qualify for the 99th Indianapolis 500.
Along with Lazier, KVSH-Jonathan Byrd Racing’s Bryan Clauson, A.J. Foyt Racing’s Jack Hawksworth and KV Racing’s Stefano Coletti found themselves mired in positions 30-34 after their own individual struggles.
Hawksworth and teammate Takuma Sato did not have the correct gear setup in the cars following the mandated boost reduction earlier in the day while the KV teammates of Clauson and Coletti both simply lacked the speed to put four laps together.
Lazier, on the other hand, was not in position when it was his turn to qualify earlier in the day as a driveshaft broke late in final practice which damaged the right rear suspension.
Once the track went green, Clauson managed a 221.358 mph average while Coletti and Hawksworth clocked 221.001 and 223.738 averages, respectively.
Lazier made his first attempt after them to feel the car out and logged a four lap average in the 219 mph range. The crew changed the rear wing angle to an unheard of negative angle in order to squeeze that extra little bit out of the car while Clauson lined up in the pre-qualified lane.
Lazier made it to the qualifying line just in time as the clock ticked down and took to the track to try to bump his way in. The first lap was in the 220 mph range but the speeds never picked up and Lazier failed to qualify.
Clauson will start from the 32nd position in his second 500 and his second from the last row, he qualified 31st in his last start in 2012.
