IndyCar Series rookie Phil Giebler has praised the entire Playa Del Racing operation after making the field for this weekend's Indianapolis 500 at the second attempt.
The seasoned Indy Pro Series graduate crashed on his first attempt to make the 33-car grid in Saturday's third and final qualifying session, but took his rebuilt Panoz-Honda to a time good enough to oust 500 veteran Jimmy Kite on the traditional Bump Day.
Giebler joined Richie Hearn in adding their names to the 33, and followed the experienced pilot on track after seeing Hearn take his #91 Hemelgarn/Racing Professionals entry to a four-lap average of 219.860mph to complete the field. Returning to the track less than 24 hours after crashing on his initial qualifying effort, Giebler managed an average speed of 219.637mph to not only squeeze out Kite - who had the slowest time in the field at that point - but also gave him the honour of being the fastest rookie on the grid, bettering Milka Duno's earlier effort, even though the Venezuelan will start further up the grid by dint of making the cut on Saturday.
Giebler's effort also put Roberto Moreno on the bubble, but the Brazilian survived through to next Sunday's main event, although he will start behind the American rookie's #31 Ethos Fuel Reformulator car.
"I can't say enough about this team and what we're accomplishing out here with the limited track time we're getting," Giebler said of the part-time Playa Del operation, "It's really amazing what we're able to do, with me being a rookie and the team just getting the car up and running. We only had maybe a half-day of real running in this whole two weeks. It's been a real frustrating couple of days, but we're showing great pace."
Asked to explain the incident which prevented him from being able to qualify on Saturday, forcing the Bump Day heroics from all concerned, Giebler admitted that inexperience may have played a part.
![Phil Giebler - Playa Del Racing [pic credit: IRL/Jones]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/320078.jpg)
