Seven Cars Needed to Finish the Field

Seven starting positions remain to be filled for the Indy 500 on May 26, and 14 cars were named Friday to try for them when time trials resume today.

Cars driven by Brad Murphey and Billy Boat were the only ones able to surpass the minimum speed of 220 mph as temperatures in the 80s heated the track and held speeds down. Murphey was fastest of the nonqualifiers with a lap at 228.548 mph.

Boat, the U.S. Auto Club’s western regional midget champion from Phoenix, passed his final rookie orientation and is expected to make a bid in Pagan Racing’s Reynard-Ford Cosworth. Boat ran 223.425.

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Dale Schnelker, Ning Wu, I-Fu Shih and Ed Rothrock received the 30th Schwitzer Award for design of the Racing EyeCue. The EyeCue, an optical display that is attached to the driver’s helmet, eliminates having to look at the dashboard.

“It takes roughly nine-tenths of a second to look down at a dashboard and a car would travel about 315 feet during that time,” said Steve Roby, who made the award. “With the EyeCue he need not look down.”