Durant Moves Fast At Indy Trails

Things happen fast at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, on the track and off.

Paul Durant was feeling a little sorry for himself Sunday and thinking about getting on an airplane and heading home to California. Thirty minutes later, he was preparing to qualify one of A.J. Foyt’s cars.

Fifty-two minutes after that, he was in the lineup for Sunday’s Indianapolis 500.

“Those couple of hours seem like a whirlwind,” said Durant, who was approached by Foyt about 11:30 a.m. Sunday.

Durant, 32nd as an Indy rookie last year, first stepped into Foyt’s G Force-Aurora at 12:17 p.m. He practiced for 12 laps on the 2-mile oval, then made his 10-mile qualifying effort, finishing at 1:09 p.m. with an average speed of 209.149 mph.

That was good enough to earn the 33rd starting spot in what later became a 35-car field when race officials decided to add the bumped cars of Lyn St. James and Johnny Unser to the rear of the lineup.

Under a rule that reserves up to 25 starting positions for Indy Racing League regulars qualifying above a minimum speed of 203 mph, there would have been seven starters slower than the nonexempt cars of St. James and Unser.

But Durant wasn’t interested in the politics of the situation. He was just elated to be in the big race, especially considering his predicament only hours earlier.

“It’s hard to believe what’s happening,” he said. “I’m just trying to soak it in. Racing has the highest highs and the lowest lows, and I went through both of them in a matter of 2 hours.”

The qualifying run by Durant was the latest in a series of ups and downs for the Conseco-Foyt team.

First, Scott Sharp, the defending IRL co-champion, crashed May 7 in practice at the Speedway, bruising his knee.

Two days later, Sharp crashed again, this time much harder. He came away with a concussion and remains out of action while recovering from a lingering brain contusion.

Davey Hamilton, Foyt’s other full-time driver, perked up the team on the first day of qualifying by running at 214.484.