Previewing the 107th Indianapolis 500
It’s May and that means one thing. The 107th Indianapolis 500’a practice and qualifying take place this week with the Greatest Spectacle in Racing set for Sunday, May 28th, weather permitting.
This year there will be bumping for spots in the 33-car field as Abel Motorsports is a last-minute entry for RC Enerson, who attempted to make the field in 2022. And there’s a woman on the entry list, as Briton Katherine Legge returns to Indy for her third race, driving a fourth Honda-powered car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Legge, a regular on IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTD class in an Acura NSX last raced at the Speedway in 2013.
There are nine former winners in this field and seven NTT INDYCAR SERIES champions are present and accounted-for. Leading this grouping, of course, is Meyer Shank Racing’s Helio Castroneves, who earned his fourth Indianapolis 500 win in 2021 after trying to tie A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser since taking his third victory in 2009. It was a long wait but one the Brazilian relished.
Takuma Sato, driving a fourth Chip Ganassi Racing car – on ovals only – in 2023, has two victories in this race, while Scott Dixon, Marcus Ericsson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Tony Kanaan (making his final INDYCAR start with Arrow McLaren Racing), Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Alexander Rossi each have a single win. Rossi, who won the 100th running at Indy was a rookie in the race and is the most recent rookie winner.
When looking at NTT INDYCAR SERIES champions in this field, start with the 2022 Indy 500 pole sitter, Scott Dixon, who is a six-time titleholder in the series. Racing nearly his entire career with Chip Ganassi Racing, Dixon still has achievements ahead of him. Two-time and reigning titleholder Will Power of Team Penske has, like Dixon, a single victory at Indy but his win there cemented the Aussie’s love for oval racing.
Tennessean Josef Newgarden has two championships with Team Penske and is hankering to earn at least one Indy 500 appearance on the BorgWarner trophy. Tony Kanaan, making his final series start this May won the 2004 title by finishing every lap of every race – something Dixon has done twice, as has Power.
Ryan Hunter-Reay has a single, 2012 championship to go with his single Indy 500 victory. In 2019 Simon Pagenaud swept the month of May while driving with Team Penske: he won the GMR Grand Prix, pole position for the 500 and the race itself. Now with Meyer Shank Racing, the Frenchman is hankering to win the 500 again. Alex Palou locked in the 2021 INDYCAR title for Chip Ganassi Racing in his first year with the team. The 2023 GMR Grand Prix victor is looking for his first Indy 500 win.
There are four rookies in the field: Argentinian Agustin Canapino, driving as Juncos Hollinger (Chevrolet) teammate to Callum Ilott, Enerson, who didn’t make the field in his first attempt, Benjamin Pedersen of A.J. Foyt Racing and INDY NXT graduate Sting Ray Robb, with Dale Coyne Racing with RWR.
The field is evenly split among Chevrolet and Honda racers, with 17 cars for each engine maker. Honda has won Indy 15 times, second only to Offenhauser’s 27 victories, while Chevrolet owns 11 wins.
With their first practice session on Tuesday, May 16th rained out, the 34 combatants will have Wednesday and Thursday to work on both qualifying and race setups, prior to Fast Friday, when boost is increased for qualifying. The rationale for this increase is to see if anyone can top Arie Luyendyk’s 1996 one- and four-lap averages of 37.895/237.498 and 2 minutes 31.9078-sec/236.986 mph, respectively. Will that happen? Not likely this year but you never know.
With the possibility of precipitation on Fast Friday, Luyendyk’s record looks to stand yet another year, but there should be excitement for both Saturday and Sunday’s qualifying sessions. Positions 13-30 are set on Saturday, while the top 12 that will shoot it out on Sunday for pole and the final three competitors – of 34 available – will have their fates determined on Sunday. Pole position gets added funding and bragging rights for a week before the Greatest Spectacle in Racing takes the green flags on Sunday, May 28th at 12:45PM EDT.
By Anne Proffit