Gregg Doyel

gregg.doyel@indystar.com

Josef Newgarden was supposed to be talking to the media, not watching television. But he had to see if the poor sap on the speedway was struggling as much as he’d struggled a few minutes earlier on this deceptively beautiful spring Saturday. Temperature around 72 degrees. Blue skies. White puffy clouds.

Miserable day out there. Just miserable.

“It’s so hard,” Newgarden was saying in the IMS interview room as he kept his eyes on the nearby TV screen, at Scott Dixon’s qualifying attempt. “I can’t really express to you how difficult it’s been. … Today seems like all hell broke loose.”

There was another question coming, but on the TV screen Dixon was coming out of a turn and now his car was wiggling and –

“Look at that,” Newgarden said softly. “Scott’s loose. He’s super loose.”

Dixon held it together, avoiding the qualifying crash that felled Max Chilton and Pippa Mann earlier Saturday, but he finished the two qualifying sessions in 13th, outside the Fast Nine Shootout that will be held Sunday. A few minutes later Dixon came into the media room.

“Pretty miserable out there,” he said.

Pippa Mann spins into Turn 2, crashes

One after another these drivers, some of the best in the world, climbed out of their cars and told how brutal it was on the track. After Graham Rahal came into the media room and laid it on as thick as anyone, I followed him into the hall and got him alone.

Rahal had said this: “You’re trying to muscle this thing into the corner at 230 mph, and it is not fun.”

In the hall I told him that most drivers were complaining about the conditions, and I asked him a serious question:

“Who do I rip for this?”

Rahal smiled.

“Mother Nature,” he said.

But the temperature, I said. The blue skies. The cotton-candy clouds. How is it her fault?

“The wind,” he said, and indeed American flags attached to cars in the infield were whipping violently. IMS measured the wind at 10 mph, but it looked worse – and anyway, these race cars are configured in a way that a comfortable breeze can become a dangerous force of nature.

It’s the domed skids, see. Forgive the brief venture into aerodynamical gobbledygook, but for the first time since 2011 IndyCar has mandated domed skids for the super-speedways. The domed skids – bulging, water ski-shaped devices – are attached to the car’s underside for safety reasons. If a car loses control and starts to spin, the domed skids slow the spin, reducing the car’s chances of going airborne. This was a reaction to three scary practice wrecks before the 2015 Indy 500, when Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter went airborne.

The domed skids lift the car a handful of millimeters, imperceptible to the naked eye but a game-changing amount for lightweight cars moving 230 mph. The higher the car, the higher its center of gravity – and the harder it is to control, especially on a warm and windy day that made a mess of the south end of IMS on Saturday.

That’s why driver after driver described his car like a rodeo cowboy might describe a bad-tempered bull.

“You’re holding on the whole time,” Will Power said.

“I had my hands full,” said Oriol Servia.

“We struggled to hold it together,” Dixon said.

“Your heart is up here like this,” said Carlos Munoz, pinching his neck.

“It’s not enjoyable to be out there today,” Newgarden said. “I was white-knuckling it.”

At last moment, Andretti tumbles out of Top 9

Rain delayed Saturday’s two qualifying sessions by more than two hours, and the first session was the brutal one. It was warmer earlier, warm and windy, and warm track surfaces are more slippery than cold ones.

Between the two sessions drivers had predicted the second session would be faster – “From 6 (p.m.) to 7 the track’s going to get really, really fast,” said Simon Pagenaud – and they were right.

Six drivers in the second session hurried their way into the Fast Nine Shootout on Sunday, and I do mean hurried. As the track temperature dropped and the first few drivers in the later session began peppering the 230-mph mark – and threatening 231 mph – drivers raced just to get in line before the track closed at 7.

Lane 2 was for drivers who were keeping their earlier time, but wanted a shot at improving it. Lane 1 was for drivers willing to scrap their first time, risking catastrophe should they crash, and go all-in on their final run. Lane 1 drivers skipped everyone in Lane 2. And 7 p.m. was approaching.

Four drivers qualified for the Fast Nine Shootout the hard way, in the final minutes of qualifying through Lane 1, including Saturday’s three fastest: James Hinchcliffe, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Will Power. Mikhail Aleshin chose Lane 1 for the day's last run and stands seventh.

Hinchcliffe takes another step in return from life-threatening injury

Newgarden didn’t have to go back out in the afternoon to make the Fast Nine field, his second-fastest time in the first session holding onto No. 6 at day’s end, and he’ll be honest with you: He didn’t want to go back out there. Not unless he had to.

He lamented that non-drivers would have no idea how difficult conditions were – “I wish it looked more spectacular,” he said, “because it was really hard out there" – and tried to make us understand.

“This is what we do,” he said. “We’re good at this because we’re talented at driving cars. We’re relaxed in the car. But a day like today, I’m white-knuckling the thing. I’m as tensed up as I can be. You’re clenching, hoping the thing’s not going to go away from you and hit the wall.”

That’s the bad news. The good news is the Fast Nine Shootout is always a blast, and it’s here on Sunday. Oh, wait. Maybe that’s not such good news. The weather calls for warmer temperatures on Sunday, warmer and windier. Less grip. More wiggle.

“Tomorrow,” Newgarden said, “is going to be even tougher.”

Buckle up.

Mikhail Aleshin reaches top 9 with a second to spare

Find Star columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at@GreggDoyelStar or atwww.facebook.com/gregg.doyel