No bumping: Indy 500 field hits 33 on the nose

On an otherwise ho-hum Sunday of qualifying, nine cars made the field on their first attempts, ending any potential last-minute drama and assuring this Sunday’s race would start with a full field of 33 cars for the 64th consecutive year.

Things went almost as smoothly as race officials could have expected.

“We’re happy to see it,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Jeff Belskus said. “There was very little doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t (have a full field). To put it another way, I was confident we would end up with 33 cars.”

The script could have been better.

For the first time since 2004, there were no bump attempts – taking away the intrigue of last year’s enthralling finish when Marco Andretti bumped his way into the race by knocking out teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay on the final four-lap qualifying attempt of the month.

The three slowest qualifiers, all of whom qualified at less than 215 mph, didn’t have to sweat at all. It will be the first time the 11th row is filled with cars under 215 since 2004.

Despite getting a rude welcome to the Brickyard’s 2½-mile oval, former Formula One driver Jean Alesi made the race. The Frenchman will start 33rd after finishing with a four-lap average of 210.094 mph – the slowest speed of any Indy starter since the late Fermin Velez went 206.512 in 1997.

Simona de Silvestro and Alesi will be the only drivers using the lumbering Lotus engines in the race. They’ll start 32nd and 33rd. De Silvestro had the second-slowest qualification speed at 214.393.

Alesi has already said he feels “unsafe” on the track with faster cars trying to pass him and worries he’ll become an impediment to other drivers. He was almost 16½ mph slower than Saturday’s pole winner, Australia’s Ryan Briscoe, who went 226.484.

“The speed difference is too great,” points leader Will Power said Friday. “Simona is one of the best drivers in the series, so it has nothing to do with her, it has to do with the situation she’s in, and it’s a pity if it comes to her not racing. But it is bloody dangerous, honestly.”

IndyCar has a rule requiring cars to perform within speeds at least 105 percent of the leader and demonstrate consistency with control, placement and interaction with other cars on the track. Cars that don’t meet the requirements can be black-flagged.

Fans of the 500 have seen how dangerous the slower cars can be at Indy.

When Ryan Hunter-Reay ran out of gas on the final lap in the 2010 race, hard-charging Mike Conway couldn’t avoid him and wound up going airborne into the catch fence. Conway broke his leg, sustained a compression fracture in his back and missed the rest of the season.

Last year, with only Charlie Kimball’s lapped car between JR Hildebrand and the finish line, Hildebrand tried to pass on the high side and wound up in the fourth-turn wall. Hildebrand walked away from the collision but finished second.

After qualifying, IndyCar levied $275,000 in fines to 13 teams, including Briscoe. The fines covered 18 different infractions discovered in Saturday’s pre-qualifying inspection.

■ NATIONWIDE – At Newton, Iowa, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led for 209 of 250 laps and won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway, his third straight win on the short oval.

Stenhouse, who won both races in Iowa in 2011, picked up his third victory of the season and extended his lead in the points chase to 28 over Elliott Sadler, who was second.

Michael McDowell was third, followed by rookie Austin Dillon and Kurt Busch.

The Sprint Cup event in Charlotte on Saturday kept all Cup regulars except for Busch out of the field. Busch briefly took the lead after starting in the back and saved a top-five finish after being bumped by McDowell on the last lap.

Danica Patrick failed to finish for just the second time this season. Travis Pastrana’s third career Nationwide race ended roughly 50 laps from the finish because of an electrical issue.

■ NHRA – At Topeka, Kan., Jack Beckman raced to his first Funny Car victory of the season, beating Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps in the NHRA Summernationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

Beckman used a quicker reaction time to edge Capps in the final round, finishing in 4.158 seconds at 303.09 mph in a Dodge Charger. Capps had a run of 4.107 at 304.39.

David Grubnic (Top Fuel) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) won their respective divisions.