2008 Indianapolis 500

Entry list

Practice (week 1)

Sunday May 4 - Rookie Orientation and Veteran Refreshers

• Weather: Sunny, blue skies,
• Practice summary: Indianapolis Star Opening Day presents the Unsers started on-track activities for the month. The first day of rookie orientation opened with thirteen drivers eligible to participate. Each first-time starter must pass a four-phase rookie test before being allowed to practice with veterans and qualify. Graham Rahal, Oriol Servià, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alex Lloyd, Hideki Mutoh, Will Power, Justin Wilson, Jaime Camara, E. J. Viso, and Jay Howard passed all four phases of the rookie test. Veteran Max Papis took part in a refresher test. Enrique Bernoldi completed 3 phases of his rookie test and Mario Moraes took to the track at the end of the day to shake his car down. The thirteen drivers turned 661 laps without incident.

Monday May 5 - Rookie Orientation and Veteran Refreshers

• Weather: Sunny,
• Practice summary: The second day of orientation saw more cars on track and a significant increase in speeds. Enrique Bernoldi completed the fourth and final phase of his rookie test, bringing the total to 11 drivers who have done so. Davey Hamilton and Bruno Junqueira returned to the cockpit for a refresher session. Around 1 p.m., Jamie Camara did a half spin and crashed in turn one. Mario Domínguez and Mario Moraes completed the first three phases of their rookie tests and will be allowed to complete the fourth phase during open practice. Alex Lloyd set the fastest lap of the day late in the session at just over, a speed that would put him tenth in the 2007 field in only his second day of practice. The sixteen cars on the track turned 655 laps.

Tuesday May 6 - Practice

• Weather: Mostly cloudy,
• Practice summary: The first day of veteran practice saw 33 car/driver combinations take to the Speedway. AGR teammates Marco Andretti and Tony Kanaan led the speed charts, with Ganassi and Penske entries also filling out the top ten. 2004 winner Buddy Rice put the Dreyer & Reinbold team back near the top of the speed chart for the first time in several years. No major incidents occurred. Early in the afternoon, Graham Rahal slid loose in the southchute, but maintained control and did not hit the wall. With rain in the forecast over the next two days, the participants logged 1,385 laps. Senator Hillary Clinton, in the Indianapolis area campaigning for the Indiana primary, visited the track as a guest of Sarah Fisher. Fisher went on to take her first laps on the track in the final hour of the session.

Wednesday May 7 - Practice

• Weather: Rain, windy,
• Practice summary: Practice was scheduled to begin at 12:00 p.m., but rain delayed the start. Twice the track was nearly dry and preparing to open, but both times rain returned. At 3:20 p.m., the track was closed for the day.

Thursday May 8 - Practice

• Weather: Rain, windy,
• Practice summary: The rain from the previous day continued through the night and the day's on-track activities were canceled at approximately 1:45 p.m., when it was clear that the rain would not cease and the track could not be dried.

Friday May 9 - Fast Friday practice

• Weather: Cloudy, windy,
• Practice summary: After two days of rainouts practice resumed. Despite cool temperatures, the final day of practice before pole qualifying saw intense action. About 90 minutes into the session, Mario Domínguez spun exiting the pits, and hit the inside wall, suffering suspension damage. At 1:40 p.m., Alex Lloyd crashed hard in turn one, spinning and hitting the wall again in turn two. Around 2:00 p.m. in the pit area, Danica Patrick's car struck a member from Mario Moraes' pit crew, Chuck Buckman, who suffered a concussion. At 3:15 p.m., the session was halted by rain, with Scott Dixon posting the fastest lap of the day to that point. At 4:00 p.m., the track was officially closed for the day.

Time trials (weekend 1)

Saturday May 10 - Pole Day

• Weather: Sunny, Blue skies,
• Practice summary
• '''Qualifications summary'''

Sunday May 11 - Second Day

• Weather: Rain,
• Qualifications summary: Rain cancelled all track activity for the day. Around 12:25 p.m., with continuing rain in the forecast, the track was officially closed. Starting positions 12-33 will be filled during the third day of qualifying, Saturday May 17.

Practice (week 2)

Wednesday May 14 - Practice

• Weather: Fog & mist,
• Practice summary: The start of practice was delayed 4 hours, 56 minutes due to persistent misty drizzle at the track following overnight rainstorms. In the short session, 29 drivers turned 390 laps, led by Scott Dixon at who turned 17 laps while working with full fuel tanks on his race setup. Jeff Simmons and Roger Yasukawa turned their first laps of the month, making 16 and 15 circuits respectively. John Andretti turned the fastest lap among drivers not yet in the field with a speed of.

Thursday May 15 - Practice

• Weather: Cloudy,
• Practice summary: With rain in the forecast for most of the afternoon, 35 cars took to the track anxiously, completing 2,628 laps, the most of any single practice day all month. The rain, however, held off nearly all day, and began falling only 18 minutes before the track was scheduled to close. Most cars concentrated on race set-ups, while some of the non-qualified entries simulated time trial runs. No incidents were reported. Among drivers who had not yet qualified, the fastest lap was driven by Will Power, at.

Friday May 16 - Practice

• Weather: Partly cloudy,
• Practice summary: The final full day of practice saw heavy action. Pole winner Scott Dixon led the overall speed chart for the second time in two days. Of the non-qualified cars Will Power was the quickest. 1996 winner Buddy Lazier took his first laps of the month, while another second-week driver, Phil Giebler, was unable to make an on-track appearance. Three crashes, involving Ryan Briscoe, Will Power, and a less-serious one by E. J. Viso, brought the total of practice crashes to six for the month. Briscoe's crash occurred in his back-up car, while Power's must be repaired before qualifying. A total of 37 drivers and 40 cars took practice laps to date during the month.

Time trials (weekend 2)

Saturday May 17 - Third Day

• Weather: tba
• Practice summary
• '''Qualifications summary'''

Sunday May 18 - Bump Day

• Weather: tba
• Practice summary
• '''Qualifications summary'''

Carb Day

Practice - Friday May 23

• Weather: Rain, 60°
• Practice summary: Practice was cancelled after only eleven minutes due to a drenching rain. 32 drivers had taken practice laps, with Dan Wheldon fastest at. Ryan Briscoe was the only car not to take any laps, and seven drivers managed only warm-up laps. The 32nd annual McDonald's Pit Stop Challenge was to follow the final practice. However, due to the rain, the event was cancelled for the first time ever. The Firestone Freedom 100 was rescheduled for Saturday, while the Stone Temple Pilots concert went on as planned.

Starting grid

• ' = Former Indianapolis 500 winner
• ' = Indianapolis 500 rookie

	Driver	Team	Reason
44	Race summary Start At 1:03 p.m., Mari Hulman George gave the command to start engines. All cars except Sarah Fisher pulled away, but Fisher quickly caught up to the field. Emerson Fittipaldi was booed during the parade laps due to his incident where he drank orange juice instead of milk after winning in 1993. He pulled the pace car off the track after the third pace lap, and a well-aligned field took the green flag. Polesitter Scott Dixon took the lead into turn one, and led the first two laps. His teammate Dan Wheldon took the lead on lap three. On the 8th lap, Bruno Junqueira lost a mirror, and the first of many caution periods slowed the field. First half Nearly the entire field pitted on the first caution, with Buddy Rice staying out to lead. Sarah Fisher also stayed out, and moved to third. Moments later, she spun in the north chute while warming her tires, and lost 3 laps. When the green resumed, Dan Wheldon quickly regained the lead. He held it until lap 36, when Dixon passed him. At the same time, rookie Graham Rahal drifted high and hit the wall exiting turn four. Marty Roth and Jaime Camara each brought out the yellow in the first half, suffering single-car crashes. Wheldon and Dixon continued to trade the lead. On lap 94, Tony Kanaan charged into the lead. He set a new all-time record by leading a lap in seven consecutive Indy 500 races. He broke Rick Mears' record of six straight races led. His continuing bad luck at Indy returned however 11 laps later. Scott Dixon took the lead back on lap 105. Marco Andretti, Kanaan's AGR teammate, dove low in turn three to overtake, which was followed by Kanaan going high and into the marbles. Kanaan lost control of his car, brushing the wall, then collecting the lapped car of Sarah Fisher. Both cars were heavily damaged. The caution was then extended when Jeff Simmons car suddenly veered and hit the inside wall on the frontstretch. Second half gained the lead on lap 122. Dixon ran second, while Wheldon began to slip deep in the standings with handling problems. Justin Wilson brought out the yellow in turn 2 on lap 133 with yet another single-car crash. His crash was followed 20 laps later by Alex Lloyd, who brushed the wall in turn 4, and spun wildly into the pit area. Tomas Scheckter, who had been running amongst the leaders all afternoon, dropped out with a broken driveshaft. On the lap 159 restart, Vítor Meira went three-wide and stormed into the lead. With Dixon second and Andretti third, the stage was set to decide the race between those three drivers. Other contenders, Hélio Castroneves, Ed Carpenter, Danica Patrick, Ryan Briscoe, Oriol Servia and rookie Ryan Hunter-Reay, were battling for the balance of the top ten. On lap 169, Milka Duno dove below Buddy Lazier in turn three. The two cars touched slightly, and Duno spun to the warm-up lane. She suffered a flat tire, but was able to continue. The leaders all headed to the pits on lap 171 for what would be the final sequence of pit stops. At pit exit, Ryan Briscoe swung wide and clipped the right rear of Danica Patrick's car. Patrick spun around, and Briscoe hit the pit wall. Both cars were eliminated. Patrick climbed out of the car, and started walking down towards the Team Penske pits, presumably to confront Briscoe. A security guard intervened, and she later walked back to her pit stall. Patrick and Briscoe were called to the Indycar hauler after the race. Patrick and Briscoe were fined $100,000 and were placed on probation until the end of the 2008 season for an aggressive pit incident. Finish While most of the attention in the moment was focused on the Briscoe/Patrick incident, Scott Dixon took over the lead. His crew completed a 7-second pit stop, and beat Vitor Meira out of the pits. With 24 laps to go, the green came out with Dixon first, Meira second, and Marco Andretti third. The race went green the remainder of the distance, and Dixon held on by 1.7498 seconds to win his first Indianapolis 500. He became the 19th pole winner to win the race, and the first winner from New Zealand. Box score ' Former Indianapolis 500 winner ' Indianapolis 500 Rookie All entrants utilized Firestone tires. Broadcasting Television The race was televised in high definition in the United States on ABC, the 44th consecutive year on that network. Time trials were shown live in high definition on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 at various timeslots and was available via broadband at MediaZone.com. 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner Eddie Cheever joined the announcing crew for the first time. For the first time, two hours of pre-race was aired, one hour on ESPN2, followed by one hour on ABC. For the third year in a row, the telecast utilized the Side-by-Side format for commercial breaks. Booth Announcers Pit/garage reporters Host: Brent Musburger Announcer: Marty Reid Color: Scott Goodyear Color: Eddie Cheever Jack Arute Vince Welch Brienne Pedigo Jamie Little Radio The race was broadcast on radio by the IMS Radio Network for the 56th consecutive year. Mike King served as anchor. For the second year in a row, Davey Hamilton offered live in-car reporting during caution periods. Chris Economaki offered pre-race and post-race commentary for the final time. This was also the last time that former 'voice' of the 500 Bob Jenkins served as a turn announcer. For the fourth year in a row, Kevin Olson conducted his annual pre-race interview with David Letterman. Booth Announcers Turn Reporters Pit/garage reporters Chief Announcer: Mike King Driver expert: Johnny Parsons Color: Dave Wilson Historian: Donald Davidson Live in-car reports: Davey Hamilton Commentary: Chris Economaki Turn 1: Jerry Baker Turn 2: Bob Jenkins Turn 3: Mark Jaynes Turn 4: Chris Denari Jake Query Kevin Olson Dave Argabright Kevin Lee