Track Walk: 97th Indianapolis 500

That time of the year has finally come again. The cold days of winter are far behind us with the brisk mornings of early spring slowly fading away. It is late May and thirty-three drivers are preparing for 500 miles.

Will Chevrolet Show Up On Race Day?
For the second consecutive year, we enter Memorial Day weekend with Chevrolet clearly faster than Honda. But if last year taught us anything, Honda will be there race day. What about Chevrolet? The bow-tie brigade took the top ten spots on the grid and thirteen of the top fifteen but after dominating qualifying last year, the Chevrolet teams fell flat on their face. Andretti Autosport and Penske Racing have brought their A-game with each team having 100% participation in the Fast Nine on pole day and Andretti Autosport spent most of their week of practice working on race setup. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I don't think Chevrolet will get caught with their pants down again.

Can Ed Carpenter Keep Up His Dream Month of May?
One of the nicest guys in IndyCar has a chance to become the most known IndyCar driver on Sunday. The Hoosier is on pole and looking to become the first Hoosier to win since Wilbur Shaw in 1939. It really has been a dream month for Carpenter. Winning pole as an owner-driver over the stalwarts of Andretti Autosport and Penske Racing was a great moment for Carpenter but as I said after pole day, no one dreams of winning pole for the Indianapolis 500. Carpenter knows winning Sunday is all that matters. Carpenter has a top-five finish and two top-ten finishes in the Indianapolis 500 and won the inaugural Freedom 100 in 2003. He is the most recent winner in a oval race and is one of the top contenders on Sunday.

Honda
The Ganassi drivers of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti and Takuma Sato carried Honda last year. This year the Alex Tagliani and Justin Wilson were the top Honda qualifiers. The Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan team had a rough month with one car failing to qualify and neither James Jakes or Graham Rahal have struggled with speed all month. Ryan Briscoe is the star one-off this year but starts twenty-third. Josef Newgarden was bumped to a second day qualifier but has shown good pace in traffic and is confident. The Ganassi drivers, whether it be Dixon or Franchitti, even Briscoe and Charlie Kimball have a shot and I'd say Sato has the best shot to extend Honda's streak of consecutive Indianapolis 500 victories to ten.

Weekend Schedule
For Carb Day, IndyCar practice will be at 11 a.m. ET with the Firestone Freedom 100 taking place at 12:30 p.m and the Pit Stop Competition at 1:30 p.m. ET. All of Carb Day's activities can be found on NBC Sports Network starting at 11 a.m. ET and ending at 4:00 p.m. ET. ABC's coverage of the 97th Indianapolis 500 begins at 11 a.m. ET with driver introductions at 11:33 a.m. ET and green flag scheduled for 12:12 p.m. ET.

Weekend Forecast
Carb Day calls for sunny conditions with a high of 67 degrees Fahrenheit and zero chance of precipitation. Saturday may be mostly cloudy with a high of 64 degrees Fahrenheit and a 10% chance of precipitation. Race day could be touchy. A few showers are forecasted with a high of 69 degrees Fahrenheit and a 30% chance of precipitation. Hopefully all rain can hold off until after the race Sunday.

Some Facts
While many think Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti can repeat their run to the front, history is against them. On only two occasions has winners come from worse than row five in back-to-back years (1926 and 1927 when Frank Lockhart came from 20th and George Sounders came from 22nd. 1935 and 1936 when Kelly Petillo won from 22nd and Louis Meyer tied Ray Harroun as the farthest Indianapolis 500 winner from 28th). Dixon and Franchitti both start on row six.

Row three has not won the Indianapolis 500 in this Millennium. Kenny Bräck is the last winner from row three in 1999. Ryan Hunter-Reay is starting seventh. Seventh place hasn't won since AJ Foyt's first Indianapolis 500 win in 1961. The thing on Hunter-Reay's side is both he and Super Tex were born in Texas. Hunter-Reay was born in Dallas.

The most starts by a driver before winning the Indianapolis 500 is 13 (Sam Hanks 1957). Of the twenty-nine drivers yet to win the Indianapolis 500, Kanaan has made the most starts at 12.

Prediction
Chevrolet will win. Honda will have a good day and have at least three cars in the top ten. I am pulling for Oriol Serviá and Dreyer and Reinbold because they need a great day and a win just as bad if not worse than anyone else on the grid. Of course, I am pulling for Tony Kanaan. Picking one to win is tough in this day in age. I'll take (in no particular order), Ed Carpenter, Marco Andretti, James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay and I will give you the rest of the field. AJ Allmendinger will be the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of The Year. Carlos Muñoz will have a good day but I think he will fade towards the middle of the field. The Ganassi cars will be fine. Sleepers: Townsend Bell, Sébastien Bourdais and Josef Newgarden.

Which Driver Winning Would Be Best For The Indianapolis 500?

Whoever wins the Indianapolis 500 deserves it. To be the first to complete 500 miles (as long as it goes the full distance) deserves the milk, the wreath around the shoulders and their face on the BorgWarner Trophy.

But... there are some drivers who would be covered better by the media than others if they were to win on Sunday. Best example being 2011. Had Bertrand Baguette held on for three more laps, I would have been happy for the Belgian because he was a really good driver in Europe (won the Formula Renault title) but could not keep up with the money needed to make it to Formula One and choose IndyCar and was one of the best drivers to come from Europe to IndyCar in a long time. However, the media wouldn't have given Bertrand Baguette the time of day. If anything they would have made more jokes about his last name being a type of bread than acknowledge he won the Indianapolis 500.

Same thing this year. There are drivers who if they were to win on Sunday would be better for IndyCar than others.

Would it be good if Helio Castroneves or Dario Franchitti won their fourth Indianapolis 500? While it would be a historic feat, the backlash from some fans trying to diminish their four wins wouldn't be good. Yes each driver won an Indianapolis 500 during the split, some still don't think Castroneves won in 2002, Franchitti won a rain shortened race, all of Franchitti's wins were under yellow flag conditions. Those are some of the comments you will hear if either of those two drivers won and none of those comments are false. I'd like to see history happen but I'm sure the arguments from some trying to put either of these two driver's possible four Indianapolis 500 in the back seat compared to Foyt, Unser and Mears would get old. It would have it's positives but would have it's draw backs as well.

What about an American Winning?
Wouldn't be a bad thing. I am sure Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal winning would draw more eyes than if Buddy Lazier were to win his second (Nothing against Lazier. His win in 1996 with broken back was impressive and if he were to win Sunday, it would probably be the biggest upset in racing history, let alone Indianapolis 500 history). Andretti and Rahal have the names to turn heads. Ryan Hunter-Reay is the defending series champion and what is a better way to prove you are the best than winning the Indianapolis 500? Josef Newgarden is a young kid who is energetic and I think that can draw a younger audience and he is confident though starting 25th. AJ Allmendinger has the sponsor (Izod) behind him to promote like crazy if he were to win. JR Hildebrand would be a great win for the National Guard and because the 2011 finish is still fresh. Conor Daly is a young and upcoming star. Ed Carpenter is the Hoosier-native looking to make history. Townsend Bell has the best thing to happen to IndyCar in a long-time, Turbo, as a sponsor. Charlie Kimball's story as a diabetic is interesting and has a good sponsor in Novo Nordisk.

I say any American winning is a plus. My worry is if Conor Daly were to win or Buddy Lazier were to win (much easier said than done), it would get people saying "oh, Daly won. He's only in GP3. Imagine if a Formula One driver came to Indianapolis." Or "Lazier won after never racing the DW12 and being out of racing for four years? How hard can IndyCar be?" It's bad enough those within NASCAR think the top twenty in NASCAR could walk in and would finish 1-20th in the Indianapolis 500. We don't need the F1 guys thinking that.

Any Female Winning Would Be Good. 
If Simona de Silvestro, Ana Beatriz, Pippa Mann or Katherine Legge were to win it'd be a plus but they'd be compared to you-know-who and some from outside of racing may try to exploit them.

What Would-Be First Time Winners Not Yet Mention?
All the Americans and women would be first timers. Tony Kanaan winning may tear down the Speedway with the amount of joy people would feel for him. Sébastien Bourdais winning would be a positive for his legacy but he isn't as well known. Ryan Briscoe would be cool as a one-off and his wife, Nicole, who works for ESPN is in the best position to get him mentioned.

Who Has The Sponsor That Would Best Promote a Winner?
James Hinchcliffe. If he were to win, you'd think GoDaddy would be featuring Hinchcliffe more often. Bell winning with Turbo on the car would be great for the movie. Will Power has Verizon who could make it known Power won. I already mentioned Allmendinger and Izod.

Who'd Be The Best Sentimental Story?
Tony Kanaan would be it but Oriol Serviá and Dreyer & Reinbold would be a close second. Winning the Indianapolis 500 probably saves Serviá and D&R from closing it's doors for the near future. Who is not pulling for the team to save the rest of their 2013 season?

Who Would Not Be The Ideal Winner For the Indianapolis 500?
Someone with a small following. I hate to say it but Carlos Muñoz and Tristan Vautier are nobodies to average fans. Though Muñoz has been spot on all month, most wouldn't give a damn if he were to win.  James Jakes hasn't had a great month and is an unknown. Same for Sebastián Saavedra. Nothing against any of these drivers. I think all have potential going forward but aren't established enough to turn heads.

It isn't fair that winning the Indianapolis 500 isn't enough to get average fans to appreciate a driver but sadly it's the world we live in and the current state of IndyCar. Some would be better than others but whoever wins deserves it and the win cannot be taken away from them.

The Social Media Impact of the 97th Indianapolis 500

Social media has a presence in society today and it cannot be ignored. Prior to last year's Indianapolis 500 I took a look at the Twitter accounts of the 33 drivers competing in the race and decided to take a look at if winning the race would profoundly increase the amount of followers and if it did, how large would the increase be? It's been nearly a year since Dario Franchitti won his third Indianapolis 500 and since that day, Dario Franchitti has seen an increase in Twitter followers from 61,372 to 95,190. Now a lot has happened since the last Indianapolis 500 and hopefully this year I will be able to see post a report a week after the race.

A few things about Twitter: 1. It seems really hard for someone NOT to gain followers. You have to do something really wrong to lose followers. So while you'll see every driver from 2012 gained followers, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
2. Gaining Twitter followers doesn't dictate who is the best or who is a good or bad person. As a diehard fan, it doesn't matter who wins the Indianapolis 500 or how many Twitter followers they have. Whoever wins the race deserves the recognition as a winner, the bottle of milk and their face of the BorgWarner Trophy.
3. However, if the winner of this year's Indianapolis 500 sees a huge jump in followers, it may be a sign people a.) are watching the race. b.) have interest in a driver or drivers and c.) could be interested enough to watch Belle Isle the following week and hopefully keep them interested through Texas.

Here is the list of drivers and the change in Twitter followers from prior to last year's Indianapolis 500 (all current Twitter follower totals are from the night of May 20th):
1. Ed Carpenter- 15,534 (+4948 from 10,586 in 2012)
2. Carlos Muñoz- 2,194 (2013 rookie)
3. Marco Andretti- 56,853 (+12362 from 44,491 in 2012)
4. EJ Viso- 56,114 (+37293 from 18,821 in 2012)
5. AJ Allmendinger- 105,507 (2013 rookie)
6. Will Power- 38,762 (+10,753 from 28,009 in 2012)
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay- 32,041 (+9911 from 22,130 in 2012)
8. Hello Castroneves- 83,914 (+21704 from 62,210 in 2012)
9. James Hinchcliffe- 32,896 (+15033 from 17,863 in 2012)
10. JR Hildebrand- 18,658 (+5412 from 13,237 in 2012)
11. Alex Tagliani- 71,848 (+12070 from 59,778 in 2012)
12. Tony Kanaan- 595,437 (+90610 from 504,827 in 2012)
13. Oriol Serviá- 16,348 (+4622 from 11,715 in 2012)
14. Justin Wilson- 23,996 (+6035 from 17,961 in 2012)
15. Sébastien Bourdais- 6,240 (Did not have a Twitter account until after Indianapolis 2012)
16. Scott Dixon- 47,568 (+23606 from 23,962 in 2012)
17. Dario Franchitti- 95,190 (+33818 from 61,372 in 2012)
18. Takuma Sato- 23,682 (+11138 from 12,544 in 2012)
19. Charlie Kimball- 10,020 (+3975 from 6,045 in 2012. This information is from using @charliekimball. @racewithinsulin, Kimball's other Twitter account currently has 6,698 followers.)
20. James Jakes- 8,840 (+5327 from 3,513 in 2012)
21. Simon Pagenaud- 11,638 (+5824 from 5,814 in 2012)
22. Townsend Bell- 36,670 (+31950 from 4,720 in 2012)
23. Ryan Briscoe- 30,565 (+6877 from 23,688 in 2012)
24. Simona de Silvestro- 24,716 (+7203 from 17,513 in 2012)
25. Josef Newgarden- 10,823 (+6115 from 4,708 in 2012)
26. Graham Rahal- 46,180 (+19648 from 26,532 in 2012)
27. Sebastián Saavedra- 12,059 (+4356 from 7,703 in 2012)
28. Tristan Vautier- 2,245 (2013 rookie)
29. Ana Beatriz- 36,926 (+6213 from 30,713 in 2012)
30. Pippa Mann- 13,894 (did not race in 2012)
31. Conor Daly- 11,376 (2013 rookie)
32. Buddy Lazier- 151 (Not on Twitter. Using Lazier Racing Partners Twitter account)
33. Katherine Legge- 11,612 (+4597 from 7,015 in 2012)

Some drivers have good following while others may see a giant boost if they were to win this Sunday. Overall, if one driver sees a large increase it could be a big boost for IndyCar as a whole.

Bump Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The field is set for the 97th Indianapolis 500. Americans Josef Newgarden and Graham Rahal qualified for the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth positions on the grid with four lap averages of 225.731 MPH and 225.007 MPH. Sebastián Saavedra rounded out row nine at 224.929 MPH.

Row ten features the lone full-time IndyCar rookie Tristan Vautier and the Dale Coyne teammates Ana Beatriz and Pippa Mann. In 2011, Beatriz and Mann both started on the same row with Mann starting thirty-first and Beatriz starting thirty-second.

The last row party will feature a rookie, a past Indianapolis 500 winner and the last driver added to the entry list. Conor Daly starts thirty-first after a rough first outing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He had an accident on Thursday and had an engine failure on his first qualifying attempt Saturday afternoon. Daly finally put it in the field Sunday with a four lap average of 223.582 MPH. Buddy Lazier qualified for his first Indianapolis 500 since 2008. The 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner will be competing in his seventeenth Indianapolis 500, the most of any driver in the field. Katherine Legge showed up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday and qualified on Sunday for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports at 223.176 MPH. Legge lost her Dragon Racing ride over the winter to Sebastián Saavedra and recently ran the DeltaWing at Laguna Seca in the American Le Mans Series. This will be Legge's second career Indianapolis 500 start. She finished twenty-second last year after starting thirtieth.

Michel Jourdain Jr. failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500. The Mexican driver was trying to make his third career Indianapolis 500 and second consecutive start at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Jourdain stepped out of the car with a little over fifteen minutes remaining after the crew was not able to find the set up to make the field of thirty-three.

This will be the third Indianapolis 500 to feature four women drivers. In 2010, Ana Beatriz, Simona de Silvestro, Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher all qualified while Milka Duno failed to make it. The following year Fisher retired to start a family but Pippa Mann qualified joining Beatriz, de Silvestro and Patrick.

Seventeen Chevrolets and sixteen Hondas will take the green flag next Sunday with thirty-three drivers representing thirteen countries (11 Americans, 4 English, 3 French, 3 Brazilians, 2 Australians, 2 Canadians, 2 Colombians, 1 New Zealander, 1 Scot, 1 Swiss, 1 Spaniard, 1 Japanese and 1 Venezuelan). Four past winners look to add their likeness to the Borg-Warner Trophy one more time and four rookies will make their first start in the Indianapolis 500.

IndyCar Has To Improve Relationships With It's Television Partners

If you follow me on Twitter (@4TheLoveofIndy) you probably saw my critical comments of the situation with NBC Sports Network's Pole Day and Preakness Stakes coverage. Let me first state that NBC Sports Network is a great partner for IndyCar and have tremendous coverage but when things go awry sometimes you have to be critical. It would not be fair of me, a guy who blasted ABC/ESPN last year when the Belle Isle race was moved to ESPNEWS and was not available on WatchESPN or ESPN3.com to let NBC Sports off the hook.

Yesterday was not the ideal situation for NBC Sports, IndyCar and the Preakness. Had mother nature held off we aren't having this conversation. With the history of rain during the month of May at the Speedway, especially during qualifying days, both IndyCar and NBC Sports dropped the ball when it came to a plan B. IndyCar should have made sure that coverage of Pole Day would have been moved to a fellow NBC Universal property. CNBC has been a suitable home for the Stanley Cup playoff when there are multiple game on at one time and other NBC Universal properties including MSNBC and USA Network broadcasted Olympic events last Summer. Yesterday, CNBC was showing a infomercial, MSNBC an episode of Caught on Camera on from 2008 and USA an episode of NCIS from 2009. If there was breaking news or a direr situation, it'd be one thing to not move Pole Day coverage to CNBC or MSNBC but that was not the case yesterday.

IndyCar must have better communication with NBC to make sure another NBC Universal property is available should a situation such as yesterday arise. Either that or make sure the NBC Sports broadcast is available online or on NBC Sports Live Extra app. And that's another bone I have to pick with NBC. The WatchESPN app features events that aren't even on one of ESPN's cable television channel and can only be found on the app or online. For NBC Sports, it's only available on the app or online if it's on television. Is this just another example of NBC's style of old practices of sports coverage such as showing Olympic events taped delayed, hours after they happened and with almost everyone knowing who won? Probably.

My question is what happens next year and I'm not talking about only Pole Day. Today is not only Bump Day but the final day of the English Premier League season which features 10 matches all kicking off at 11 a.m. ET. What happens next year on Bump Day? The NBC-EPL deal starting this August makes it sound like NBC, NBC Sports, CNBC, MSNBC, USA and all other available outlets could feature an EPL match. What will happen to Bump Day coverage? All EPL match should be over around 1 p.m. and if Bump Day coverage were to start at 1:30 p.m. it wouldn't be the end of the world seeing as there would be four and half hours until the final gun. But IndyCar has to improve communication with NBC Sports NOW so IndyCar isn't swept under the rug come 2014. There has to be more dialogue and IndyCar should not settle for television coverage being abandoned. Relocated? Sure, as long as the fans can find it.

Yesterday was really the first time in the NBC Sports/Versus era of IndyCar coverage the ball was seriously dropped. NBC Sports has been a great partner and the Pole Day coverage was fabulous. The inclusion of Will Buxton (who in my opinion is the best pit reporter in racing and maybe the best pit/sideline report in all of sports) and Gil de Ferran benefited the broadcast and they meshed well with the core lineup of Diffey, Beekhuis, Lee, Snider and Miller. The product is fine but both IndyCar and NBC Sports should make sure the coverage of Pole Day 2013 is not repeated.

Pole Day at Indianapolis

Ed Carpenter won the pole (228.762 MPH) for the 97th Indianapolis 500 but he isn't settling. The pole means something to the Hoosier native but look into his eyes and you can tell he wants more. Winning the pole is nice but no one dreams of being the pole-sitter for the Indianapolis 500, they dream of greater success come the final Sunday in May. Carpenter said in the post qualifying press conference he  wants to lead his team by example and remind them of why they are at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.

Will Power was Carpenter's final challenger but he fell to sixth. The Colombian rookie Carlos Muñoz starts second. The last Colombian to start second, Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000. How did that turn out?

Marco Andretti starts on the front row, his first career front row start for the Indianapolis 500. His teammate EJ Viso starts fourth with rookie AJ Allmendinger starting fifth, the best Penske. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top nine.

Those who failed to make the Fast Nine include JR Hildebrand, Alex Tagliani, Tony Kanaan and Oriol Serviá. Justin Wilson and Sébastien Bourdais start fourteenth and fifteenth while Ganassi teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti joining points leader Takuma Sato on row six. Charlie Kimball is on row seven with James Jakes and Simon Pagenaud. Townsend Bell bumped his way back into the top twenty-four late and starts twenty-second, ahead of Ryan Briscoe and Simona de Silvestro.

Those who have to qualify tomorrow are Josef Newgarden, Graham Rahal, Buddy Lazier, Pippa Mann, Ana Beatriz, Michel Jourdain Jr., Conor Daly, Sebastián Saavedra, Tristan Vautier and Katherine Legge, who was confirm to the third Schmidt Peterson entry. The number of the third Schmidt entry has changed from #99 to #81.

Weather forecast for bump day calls for partly cloudy conditions with a high of 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Chance of precipitation is 20%, with winds SSE at 5 to 10 MPH.

Fast Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway

EJ Viso posted the fast average speed on the rain-shortened Fast Friday at 229.537 MPH. He led an Andretti Autosport 1-2-3 for the second consecutive day with Marco Andretti (228.754 MPH) and Carlos Muñoz (228.520 MPH) behind the Venezuelan. Chevrolet continued their dominance with Will, Power (228.401 MPH), JR Hildebrand (227.549 MPH), Oriol Serviá (227.237 MPH), AJ Allmendinger (227.199 MPH) and Townsend Bell (227.160 MPH) taking positions fourth through eighth. Dario Franchitti was the fastest Honda at ninth quickest (227.080 MPH) and Takuma Sato rounded out the top ten (227.038 MPH).

Rain hit about halfway through the practice session. Thirty-two cars took to the track with the lone driver not to take a lap was Conor Daly. Daly had an accident on Thursday. Buddy Lazier made his first official laps of practice and was thirty-first quickest at 222.464 MPH.

Other notables from Fast Friday:
Past Winners: Helio Castroneves eleventh (226.988 MPH), Scott Dixon nineteenth (226.162 MPH).
Rookies: Tristan Vautier twenty-ninth (223.369 MPH).
Others: James Hinchcliffe twelfth (226.983 MPH), Ryan Hunter-Reay thirteenth (226.919 MPH), Tony Kanaan fourteenth (226.822 MPH), Josef Newgarden eighteenth (226.372 MPH), Graham Rahal twentieth (226.152), Ryan Briscoe twenty-fifth (225.265 MPH).

No more news has come out about the #99 Schmidt Honda. The #40 Ed Carpenter Racing entry did draw the first position in line for Pole Day tomorrow however that car has never been a serious contender to actually take laps at the Speedway.

Forecast for Pole Day calls for a high of 80 degrees Fahrenheit with a forty percent chance of precipitation. Winds ESE at 10 MPH.