The end of May is always a sentimental part of the year. It is beautiful outside, but we have cleared a milestone for the year. The Indianapolis 500 is over. A few other major events remain and basically every championship is undecided, but it is sad when Indianapolis is behind you. We have to wait another 11 months before we are back again.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the home for all that was good this May, and this Best of the Month celebrates some key, but possibly overlooked moments at the corner of 16th and Georgetown.
Power's Poles
William Steven Power took one step closer to IndyCar history earlier this month with his pole position in the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Power now has 64 pole positions, three shy of tying Mario Andretti's record. Last year, Power only won one pole position and he is 41 years old, so the record is not inevitably going to be his, but the odds are still considerably in his favor.
We lose vision of what Power is approaching. These aren't race victories, but pole positions are not much easier to win. It requires the car being setup close to perfection and then nailing the lap, hitting the limit and never going over it. It is a matter of timing, taking to the track at the right point on a road/street course, and making sure to have the best track conditions for your flyer. There is also timing when you start a lap to make sure no other competitor can top your run.
With the current road/street course qualifying format, it is three rounds of facing those challenges. You need to be great just to advance from round one and you are still a round away from getting a shot at topping the grid.
Power regularly has pulled out time from nowhere. There have been plenty of qualifying session where Power appears to be set to get knocked out in round two, only for him to scratch through by a fraction of a second and then smack one out of the park and leave the field stunned in the final round.
There is no one close to matching Power's ability in IndyCar, and arguably there is no one else in the world of motorsport in his zip code.
With Power flirting with a record, we need perspective on where he stands compared to the rest of the field.
Power has 64 pole positions from 258 opportunities. Remember, he won pole position for a race he didn't even start back at St. Petersburg in 2016, hence more opportunities than starts. His batting average is 0.248. Hélio Castroneves and Scott Dixon have both made more starts than Power, around a hundred more starts for each. Castroneves has 50 pole positions in 363 opportunities and Dixon has 29 in 358 opportunities (remember qualifying for infamous 2001 Texas CART race remained in the record book). They are batting 0.137 and 0.081 respectively.
Neither Castroneves nor Dixon are going to contend for the record, but what about a younger driver? Is there anyone who could possibly chase down Power 15 or 20 years from now or is at least matching Power's pace?
Among active drivers born since 1990, Josef Newgarden leads the way with 15 pole positions, but Newgarden has made 170 starts. That is an average of 0.088, basically in Dixon's range. For Newgarden to reach 68 pole positions at his current rate, he would need to make 762 starts! Mario Andretti's record for most starts is 407.
Even if Newgarden won every pole position for the rest of the season, his average would only get up to 0.1436, slightly better than Castroneves. He would have 26 pole positions from 181 starts, and even at the rate of a pole position every seventh race, it would still take Newgarden until about his 473 starts to get to 68 pole positions.
Colton Herta already has eight pole positions, and he is only 22 years old. Time is on Herta's side but eight pole positions in 54 starts has his average at 0.14814 starts. At that rate, Herta would reach 68 pole positions around his 459th start, 52 starts more than Andretti's record. If Herta remains in IndyCar and if he makes an average of 17 starts a season, he would reach his 459th start late in the 2045 season! He would only be 45 years old, just shy of 46. Tony Kanaan and Hélio Castroneves are both 47 years old and still competing in IndyCar.
It is not impossible for Herta, but still unlikely. Let's see how the 2030s go before we start taking this seriously.
As for other drivers, no one is worth mentioning.
Patricio O'Ward has four pole positions in 44 starts (0.0909), Alexander Rossi has six pole positions in 103 starts (0.0582), and Rinus VeeKay has two in 35 starts (0.0571).
If the record does become Power's, he will be able to put his feet up and relax. Nobody will be touching him for quite some time.
Speed Draws
The qualifying speeds weren't the only thing up at Indianapolis this year. The interest in qualifying was as well.
Viewership for Sunday's Indianapolis 500 qualifying session on NBC was up over 40% from NBC's 2021 Indianapolis 500 qualifying coverage. Some of that could be because of Jimmie Johnson. Johnson made the Fast 12 and had a shot at pole position. I am not sure how many percentage points Johnson is adding to a broadcast rating, but it is not 40%, especially for qualifying.
I think with the buzz of practice week and Saturday's qualifying session, people were expecting big times, and Scott Dixon's pole position run of 234.046 mph was the second fastest qualifying run in the history of the event. Everyone got what they came for.
And viewers didn't just show up in front of their television screen, they were at the track. The Sunday crowd was good compared to previous qualifying days.
For too damn long, IndyCar was in the mid-220s, flirting with the high 220s, and that was seen as acceptable. Laps of 220 mph are quick, no bones about it, but when you have seen 230 mph and felt that rush, you are shorting everyone accepting slower times.
We have finally got back into the 230-range and are now running some of the fastest times ever. It has been a long wait to see these kind of qualifying runs again, but this is what gets people's attention. These are bonkers runs. Only the best drivers can pull these off, and better yet we are pushing the boundaries again.
Arie Luyendyk's four-lap record of 236.986 mph was an aberration in 1996, a misdirection of where IndyCar was in the 1990s when the split occurred. Everyone was creeping to the 233-mph territory and Luyendyk leaped to another galaxy with his record run.
We haven't even explored the 234-range and now we are there. We are going to see if anyone can get back there in 2023, and if they can how far can they climb? The track record is still safe, but we are in the neighborhood. We are seeing the bar raised, and when you consider from 2019 to 2020 over two miles per hour was found and from 2021 to 2022 nearly 2.5 miles per hour were found, I think it is healthy to wonder if a new track record will be possible soon.
We are not going to see a sellout on pole day like it is the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s, but if a track record is possible, people are going to show up. We are approaching 30 years since it was set. People will want to be there to see it fall. IndyCar has to realize what it is approaching and not be afraid to push that boundary.
Should Johnny Aitken Be Nervous?
Speaking of records, for the first time in my life I am considering Johnny Aitken's record of 15 Indianapolis Motor Speedway victories in jeopardy. And it is all because of Alex Quinn.
Quinn showed up to the U.S. F2000 weekend during the Grand Prix of Indianapolis weekend and swept all three races on his debut weekend. Three starts, three victories.
With the increase of competitions at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I think Aitken's 15 victories is reachable.
Quinn has three victories. If a driver starts at the bottom of the Road to Indy, competes in all three series, and works his or her way to IndyCar, he or she will make at least eight starts at IMS before even driving an IndyCar and IndyCar currently has three races at the speedway.
Let's take into consideration Kyle Kirkwood won all seven starts he made at Mid-Ohio in his Road to Indy career. Why couldn't that happen for a driver on the IMS road course? A driver could be about halfway to the record in junior series competition alone. Then that driver could get to IndyCar and have a 15-year IndyCar career and could possibly make 45 starts at the track between the Indianapolis 500 and the road course races.
Will Power is one of seven drivers with at least six IMS victories, all in an IndyCar, and five of those are on the road course. If a kid is lights out in the Road to Indy and then replicates Will Power's career, 16 victories is possible.
Will we see it? We will have to wait, just as we will have to wait to see if anyone can catch Power if Power sets the pole position record. Next year will be the tenth edition of the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Road to Indy has supported it the entire time. In next ten years, we could see someone challenging that record.
Colton Herta won twice in Indy Lights on the road course, the Freedom 100 once and he just won his first Grand Prix of Indianapolis. Patricio O'Ward won twice at IMS in Indy Pro 2000. Someone is going to reach ten IMS victories eventually, and then we will have a deeper discussion about the record, but we should keep it in mind.
June Preview
This June sees the return of last year's breakout series. The Superstar Racing Experience is back!
SRX will have another six-race championship running on a selection of short tracks around the United States of both the paved and dirt variety.
What is different this year?
There are four new tracks starting with the season opener on June 18 at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida. On June 25, the series visits South Boston Speedway in Virginia for the first time.
The middle third of the season are the two returning tracks. Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut hosts round three on July 2 ahead of the Nashville Fairgrounds on July 9.
The final two races of the season are the dirt races. I-55 Raceway in Missouri hosts the penultimate round on July 16 before Sharon Speedway in Ohio hosts the season finale on July 23.
Who is driving?
There will be more drivers this season, but fewer full-time drivers, as only eight are signed up for the full season.
Tony Stewart will be back to defend his championship while race winner Marco Andretti returns as well. Bobby Labonte, Paul Tracy and Michael Waltrip are all back as full-timers.
There are three new full-timers. Greg Biffle made two SRX starts last year and was runner-up in the Stafford season opener. Biffle will run the full season. Ryan Hunter-Reay joins the series after spending the previous 15 seasons in IndyCar. Ryan Newman joins the SRX after stepping away from NASCAR Cup Series competition.
For the rest of the grid, it will be easier to go round-by-round to see who is signed up, as we may see the largest grid in SRX history at one event this season.
Five Flags: Tony Kanaan, Bill Elliott, Ernie Francis, Jr., Bubba Pollard
Kanaan will run five of six events in 2022, while Elliott and Francis, Jr. were full-time in 2021, but each will only run two races in 2022. Francis, Jr. is full-time in Indy Lights this year. Pollard, a highly successful super late model driver, will be the guest driver.
South Boston: Kanaan, Francis, Jr., Hélio Castroneves, Peyton Sellers
Castroneves was fifth in the SRX championship last year, and he will run three races in 2022. Sellers is a six-time South Boston Speedway track champion and a two-time NASCAR Weekly Series champion.
Stafford: Castroneves, Elliott, Hailie Deegan, Matt Hirschman
Deegan was part-time in 2021 and she will run twice in 2022 combined with her NASCAR Truck Series responsibilities. Hirschman won the Spring Sizzler modified race at Stafford in April to earn this guest driver spot.
Nashville: Kanaan, Castroneves, Josef Newgarden, Matt Kenseth, Cole Williams
The first SRX race with 13 drivers entered on paper. Newgarden makes his lone appearance in his hometown race, while Kenseth makes his first of three SRX appearances. Williams is a regular competitor at the Nashville Fairgrounds and won a fan vote to receive the guest driver spot.
I-55: Kanaan, Deegan, Kenseth, Ken Schrader
Schrader makes his SRX debut after being one of the test drivers for the series in 2021. I-55 Raceway is Schrader's home track and Schrader is a co-owner of the track.
Sharon: Kanaan, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Dave Blaney
The SRX finale sees the 2021 Nashville finale winner Elliott return while the Blaneys will have a home race as the family owns part of Sharon Speedway.
Twenty-three drivers are signed up to compete in at least one SRX event this year. Nineteen drivers competed in the entire 2021 season.
One subtle note ahead of the 2022 SRX season is Ray Evernham is no longer involved with the series after being one of the co-founders and designing the car.
Other Notable Events in June:
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is back in June!
IndyCar has two races, Belle Isle and Road America, before a mini-summer break.
NASCAR visits Gateway for the first time with the Cup Series and has Sonoma before its one off-week midseason.
Formula One will go from Azerbaijan to Canada because that is sensible schedule.
MotoGP has races in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.
The 69th Safari Rally takes place.
Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters visits Imola for the first time.
IMSA closes the month with the 6 Hours of the Glen.
