INDIANAPOLIS – So it’s 3:06 p.m. here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and I’ve gone looking for the Drama and Tension of Bump Day, which I’ve been assured are around if I just know where to look.

I thought I saw it once when Milka Duno pulled her qualifying time and then went out and beat it, knocking Milka Duno off the bubble. I thought I saw it again when Nelson Philippe did the same thing, prompting him to declare that he’d bumped himself.

“Has that ever been done before?” he wondered.

Beats me. I’m still looking for Drama and Tension.

Hey, look. Here it is.

Inside garage C-24 in Gasoline Alley, John Andretti stands with his arms folded across his chest, looking straight ahead. The clock on the wall behind him reads 3:10. I don’t want to say Andretti seems less than thrilled, but you could break a chisel on his scowl.

And here, suddenly, is the Drama and Tension of Bump Day – not to mention the Fear and Loathing, judging from Andretti’s body language and the way he’s watching his crew, which is doing something intensive and possibly Dramatic to the back end of his race car.

A couple of hours before, Bruno Junqueira had bumped Andretti from the field. Fifteen minutes from now, Ryan Hunter-Reay will bump him again by pulling his time (which puts Andretti back in) and sticking a faster time (which takes Andretti back out).

It’s the first of four times that will happen to him this day, which makes six times in all he’s been bumped this month, and now you’re starting to feel for the man, because so much is riding on this.

That is Richard Petty’s No. 43 he’s carrying, after all. That is the Petty blue on the car, and that Andretti is wearing head-to-toe.

Now 5 o’clock comes and then 5:30, and all the King’s entry has managed is to do is break the world record for Most Times Bumped. At 5:40, Andretti goes out again, puts up a fast-enough first lap (220.619) – and then turns three successively slower ones.

A few turns of the wrench later, he’s taking his last shot at 5:52.

Lap one is 221.571, better than a mile per hour faster than he needs.

Lap two is just a tick slower.

Two laps later, eight more left turns, and he’s in the field at 221.316.

“It’s trying, for sure,” Andretti says from behind a dazzling smile. “I’m glad I’m not 20 years old and looking to do this for many more years.”

This was after he grinned at us and said, “You know what? When it’s five minutes to go, who cares if you hit somethin’? I mean, what are they gonna do, fire ya?”

It was after he grinned again and said, “I haven’t spoke with the King, and you can understand why. I haven’t had much to talk to him about.”

It was after he grinned, one more time, and said, “They’re so supportive, the whole team. They gave up track time to help make sure that I got in the race. (Mike) Conway’s car’s in bits back there because half of it’s on mine.”

Someone asked about the numbers that pop up on the car’s readout, and what you do if they’re not what you hoped to see.

“You just vomit in your mouth a little bit,” Andretti replied.

And what says Drama and Tension better than that?