Morning Warm-Up: 97th Indianapolis 500

It's finally here. It is that day of the year where everything stands still and all eyes focus on 16th & Georgetown. The politics don't matter. The CEO doesn't matter. All that matters is 500 miles. It is the most important 500 miles of the year for 33 drivers. The winner is more than just another winner. They are forever to be remembered as one of the best to ever sit behind the wheel of a race car.

For two men, a chance to enter the penthouse suite awaits. Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti could join AJ Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears as four-time winners of the Indianapolis 500 mile race. Scott Dixon and Buddy Lazier look to win their second Indianapolis 500. But twenty-nine drivers look to become the 68th different winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Ed Carpenter is on pole and looks to become the first Hoosier to win since Wilbur Shaw in 1940. Carpenter is the most recent winner of an IndyCar oval race, , 2012 season finale, a 500 miler at Fontana. The fastest rookie, Carlos Muñoz starts second, the same position fellow Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya started when he won the 2000 Indianapolis 500. Marco Andretti completes the first row as he looks to join his grandfather Mario as a Indianapolis 500 winner.

EJ Viso is a sleeper on the inside of row two with Penske Racing's AJ Allmendinger starting fifth in his first Indianapolis 500 start and Will Power starting sixth.

Defending IndyCar champions Ryan Hunter-Reay starts seventh with three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves starting eight and Canadian James Hinchcliffe starting on the outside of row three. Hinchcliffe won the most recent IndyCar race on the streets of São Paulo.

Inside of row four is 2011 Indianapolis 500 runner-up JR Hildebrand with 2011 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Alex Tagliani starting in the middle and fan favorite Tony Kanaan starting on the outside. This is Kanaan's twelfth start in the Indianapolis 500.

Oriol Serviá starts thirteenth in what could be a do-or-die day for him and Dreyer and Reinbold Racing as the team is facing financial difficulties for the remainder of the 2013 Izod IndyCar season. Justin Wilson starts fourteenth. The Brit has finished seventh two of the last three years. Sébastien Bourdais starts fifteenth. The four-time ChampCar champion started fifteenth in his rookie start in 2005, where the Frenchman was running in the top ten most of the day before having an accident end his day with two laps to go.

Three potential winners start on row six. 2008 Indianapolis 500 winner Scott Dixon starts on the inside with defending Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti in the middle and the current Izod IndyCar Series points leader Takuma Sato on the outside driving for AJ Foyt.

Charlie Kimball is on the inside of row seven. Kimball missed the public driver's meeting and parade Saturday due to an illness. Let's see if Kimball will be able to make it through the race. James Jakes starts twentieth, the highest of the Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing entries. Simon Pagenaud starts on the outside of row seven. Pagenaud was the fastest on Carb Day.

Townsend Bell starts twenty-second in what looks to be his only IndyCar race of the 2013 season. Next to him is another driver possibly in his only IndyCar race of 2013, 2012 Indianapolis 500 pole-sitter Ryan Briscoe. Simona de Silvestro will roll off the grid from the twenty-fourth position.

Josef Newgarden starts twenty-fifth in his second Indianapolis 500 start. Graham Rahal will start next to Newgarden in twenty-sixth with Sebastián Saavedra starting twenty-seventh.

Row ten features rookie Tristan Vautier and the two Dale Coyne Racing entries of Ana Beatriz and Pippa Mann. This is Mann's first IndyCar race since being injured in the 15-car accident that led to the abandonment of the 2011 IndyCar season finale in Las Vegas.

And on the final row will be American rookie Conor Daly, son of former Indianapolis 500 starter Derek Daly, ahead of 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier with Katherine Legge starting in the thirty-third and final position.

For what it is worth, more 32 year olds (10) have won the Indianapolis 500 than any other age. 32 year olds in this year's race: Ed Carpenter, Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Scott Dixon and Katherine Legge.

Chance of rain remains at 30% with a high of 70 degrees Fahrenheit.