By Andrew Cutler
May 18 2009

Well now; here is one of those little "wrinkles" in the Indy 500 qualifying system that I personally can't remember being used since back in 1992. Conquest Racing is going to pull Bruno Junqueria out of his car - which he qualified on "Bump Day" - and replace him with Alex Tagliani, who's car was the knocked out of the show in the final moments yesterday.

The rules allow a team to make a switch in drivers, with the "penalty" for doing so being that the car will now start last on the grid. This was a rule that, back in the late '70s & early '80s, Mario Andretti took advantage of on a couple of occasions to run at Indy while still fulfilling his commitments to F1.

Conquest Racing cited their relationship with Tagilani and his sponsors, who have commited to (at this point) four races with the squad, as the reason for the change. For his part, Junqueria has accepted the squad's position. "I really enjoyed working with Conquest Racing, they gave me a really good car and hopefully I can work with them again the future. It's a shame that Alex got bumped out of the field at the end. I knew coming into this that Alex is Conquest's primary driver and that if something happened to the first car that I would likely give him my place and I completely understand it." 

Junqueria Out, Tagliani In

Discussion started by Indy Racing League , 18/05/2009 12:56

Indy Racing League
18/05/2009 12:56

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sessions
18/05/2009 17:41

Well, that's different ! I'm shocked Jungueria has taken it as well as he seems to have. You hate to see anyone cut from what motivates them the most in life.

sessions

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IndyAndy
19/05/2009 05:00

I'm thinking that maybe Bruno's finally learned his lesson. Remember Sonoma last year, when he threw Dale Coyne under the bus in a live TV interview (he said that the team was clearly favoring Moraes over him)? I'm sure that that incident has alot to do with why nobody picked him up for a full season this year.

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sessions
19/05/2009 06:31

Yeah, you are most likely right. What goes around comes around. Maybe he will reap later benefits because of accepting his fate with a gentleman's demeanour this time.

sessions

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