Bryan Clauson, Ed Carpenter and Oriol Servia were back in the qualification line less than 24 hours after aspirations of reaching the top-nine shootout were scattered across the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Their crews put in multiple hours rebuilding their cars and, in Carpenter’s case, preparing the backup after crashes on Pole Day. Servia’s No. 22 Panther/Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car was quickest (223.752 mph) of the nine non-qualified cars in the morning practice session, while Carpenter tested the No. 20 Fuzzy’s Ultra Premium Vodka car after the track opened for time trials.

Click it: INDIANAPOLIS 500 QUALIFYING GRID || May 20 practice results

Servia, the fourth to make a qualifying attempt on Bump Day, recorded a four-lap average speed of 222.393 mph. Clauson’s No. 39 Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing car posted an average of 214.455 mph, while Carpenter was the final qualifier at 2 p.m. and turned a 222.324 mph average.

All three allowed themselves a few moments to decompress before returning to the 2.5-mile oval to apply their race set-ups on a humid afternoon that is forecast to be matched on Race Day May 27.

“This Fuzzy’s team did a great job getting this 20T car together,” Carpenter said. “We went a little consecutive with the qualifying run, just so we can get in the show.  The whole crew just put their heads down began preparing the back up at around 4 p.m. Saturday.  No complaining; just a bunch of professional guys. 

“We found some things that were hampering us.  The whole month just didn’t go as we had scripted it.  I think I have been lucky for the last few years here with first-day qualifying.  I guess this year it was our tough one.”

Sebastien Bourdais, who was bumped from the top 24 set on Pole Day, was the fastest qualifier on Bump Day with a four-lap average time of 223.760 mph. He’ll be joined on Row 9 by Indy 500 rookie Wade Cunningham (223.258) and Servia (222.393).

Carpenter is on the inside of Row 10, alongside Mike Conway (222.319) and Katherine Legge (221.624). On Row 11 are Clauson (214.455), Simona de Silvestro (213.393) and Indy 500 rookie Jean Alesi (210.094). The field average speed is 222.835 mph.

“It’s definitely a massive relief after the week or two that we’ve had,” said Legge, didn’t complete the Rookie Orientation Program until May 18 after the Dragon Racing team was allowed to switch engines manufacturers.  “We basically qualified our race car.  We haven’t had time on track to work on qualifying set-up or anything like that, so we needed to find a car that was easy to drive at this stage.  

“I am a rookie and the team did a good job of giving me a very solid, very stable race car.  I’m pretty sure that it’s very close to the car we will race.”