Even after James Hinchcliffe was bumped from the field for the 2018 Indy 500, IndyCar does not need to change the Bump Day qualifying procedure moving forward.
With the entry list for the 2019 Indianapolis 500 already containing 27 drivers and several cars without confirmed drivers and with the possibility existing of several more cars and drivers being put on it in the next few months, it looks like Bump Day qualifying may mean something again.
Bump Day for the 2018 Indy 500 was the first Bump Day since Bump Day for the 2011 Indy 500 to feature at least two drivers left on the outside looking in, as 35 drivers attempted to qualify for this past May’s edition of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana.
For the first time since Ryan Hunter-Reay was bumped out of the field for the 2011 Indy 500, a race for which 40 drivers attempted to qualify, in the Bump Day qualifying session for it, a full-time IndyCar driver was bumped out of the field for the 102nd running of the race in 2018.
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ James Hinchcliffe failed to qualify for the 2018 Indy 500, and unlike Hunter-Reay did in 2011, he did not end up replacing another driver in the race.
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Instead, the driver of the #5 Honda had to be a spectator for the race for the second time in the last four years, as he also missed the 99th running of the race in 2015 after sustaining near-fatal injuries in a crash during practice for it.
The fact that Hinchcliffe, who sat in fifth place in the championship standings with a lowest finish of ninth through the 2018 season’s first five races heading into the Indy 500, was bumped out of the field for the race effectively eliminated him from championship contention even though the race was only the sixth of 17 races on the 2018 schedule, as the Indy 500 is a double-points paying race.
This prompted many fans to call for a change to the Bump Day qualifying procedure that would guarantee the sport’s full-time drivers a position on the starting grid for the race.
However, the Bump Day qualifying procedure does not need to change.
In the NASCAR Cup Series, teams with charters are guaranteed spots in each race regardless of where they qualify. While IndyCar fans are generally against NASCAR-related changes to the sport, they have cited this as something that IndyCar should consider for the Indy 500 since there are so many part-time drivers and one-off drivers who attempt to qualify for the race.
But this is not needed.
What makes Bump Day Bump Day is the fact that surprises can occur and the drivers who hardly anybody if anybody at all expects to be bumped from the field get bumped from the field, including full-time drivers.
If part-time drivers and/or one-off drivers can bump out full-time drivers for positions on the 33-car Indy 500 grid, more power to them. Don’t penalize them simply because they don’t compete in IndyCar on a full-time basis by leaving them out of the field when they were among the fastest 33 qualifiers.
There are 33 spots up for grabs on the grid for the race, and anyone can claim those 33 spots, which is just as it should be. There is no need for that to change, and expanding the traditional 33-car field should not even be brought up as even a remote possibility.
Many fans were excited by the fact that 35 drivers were entered into the 2018 Indy 500 and that Bump Day would mean something again. However, the fact that fan-favorite Hinchcliffe was one of the two drivers who was bumped out of the field had many fans reconsidering this excitement.
There is simply no need to reconsider it; Bump Day did exactly what it was supposed to do. These fans simply didn’t like the result of it, a result that everyone knew was possible but no one truly believed would happen, especially since it wasn’t like there were 40 or 50 drivers trying to qualify for the race.
Whether or not Bump Day belongs on the Saturday or the Sunday before the Indy 500 is a whole other debate that I won’t get into, at least not in December with more than four and a half months to go until 2019 Bump Day.
But with the entry list growing for the 2019 Indy 500 and the field already nearly full, what needs to be said is that what definitely does not need to change about Bump Day is the fact that full-time drivers are not guaranteed to get into the field for the race simply because they show up. They need to continue to earn their positions on the grid for the race like everybody else.
Does IndyCar need to guarantee the full-time drivers spots on the Indianapolis 500 grid, or should the full-time drivers have to qualify in the top 33 like the part-time drivers and the one-off drivers do to secure their positions in the field of 33?