Bump day closed Sunday with the expected flurry of activity, a sparkling ride by Buddy Lazier and a crash.
But in the end, just one change was made to the provisional field that had been set earlier for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.
The winner in the shuffling was A.J. Foyt IV, grandson of the four-time Indy winner, who put himself in shortly after noon and later suffered a scare during practice when the top to his fuel tank came off and his car caught on fire. He escaped with minor burns on his neck.
He ultimately replaced Roger Yasukawa, who had qualified Saturday, but that wasn’t settled until the very end. Lazier, who had been bumped earlier, went out with 13 minutes left and turned his four laps at an average speed of 219.015 m.p.h., his best effort of the month and good enough to bump Yasukawa.
“It was a hairy run, no doubt,” Lazier said.
That passed the bubble to Marty Roth, whom Yasukawa then tried and failed to beat. And that brought out Mario Dominguez, the last driver of the day. His first lap was faster than Roth’s average speed, but then, coming out of Turn 1, he spun, crashed and brought the day to a close.
— Skip Myslenski