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| Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar Begin May in a New Way. |
Coverage
TV Channel: ABC
Time: Coverage begins Saturday May 10th at 3:30 p.m. ET. Green flag will be at 3:50 p.m. ET.
Announcers: Allen Bestwick, Scott Goodyear, Eddie Cheever, Rick DeBruhl, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch and Vince Welch.
How Do Testing Times Carry Over?
At last week's test at the IMS road course, Scott Dixon was quickest with a 69.5969. His Ganassi teammate Ryan Briscoe was second at a 69.6558 and Simon Pagenaud was the top Honda in third running a 69.7544. Chevrolet and Honda split the top ten down the middle with all three Penske cars in the top ten (Helio Castroneves 3rd, Will Power 6th and Juan Pablo Montoya 8th). Andretti Autosport put two cars in the top ten (Ryan Hunter-Reay 5th and James Hinchcliffe 8th) with Justin Wilson (7th) and Jack Hawksworth (10th) rounding out Honda's representatives.
One second covered the top nineteen cars in the test. The 25-car field was covered by 2.6242 seconds in the test. Mikhail Aleshin was at the bottom after having a mechanical failure end his day on the first lap of the second session of the test.
How Do The Track Changes Alter the Racing?
The original IMS road course was known for producing races where passing was difficult. Indy Lights ran four races on the original IMS road course layout as a support event to the Formula One United States Grand Prix. In those four races, their were only one lead change. Alex Lloyd passed Graham Rahal on a late restart to get his first career Indy Lights victory in 2006.
Drivers have given the new layout high praises. A handful of drivers competing this weekend competed on the original layout. Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal competed in Indy Lights while Justin Wilson, Takuma Sato, Juan Pablo Montoya and Franck Montagny competed in the United States Grand Prix when it took place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Road to Indy
Full house at IMS with Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000 all running double headers.
Zach Veach and Gabby Chaves split the Barber doubleheader and they have split the first four races of the 2014 Indy Lights season. Veach leads Chaves by 9 points entering this weekend. Luiz Razia and Jack Harvey are 49 points back of Veach.
Spencer Pigot is doing a Marc Márquez as he is 4-for-4 in the Pro Mazda season. He holds a 41-point lead over Kyle Kaiser and defending U.S. F2000 champion Scott Hargrove. Pipo Derani is fourth, 55 points back with Shelby Blackstock rounding out the top five, 61 markers back of Pigot.
R.C. Enerson swept the U.S. F2000 weekend at Barber and leads the championship by 41 points over Jake Eidson and Florian Latorre. Victor Franzoni is 57 points back in fourth. Franzoni split the season opening round at St. Petersburg with Enerson. Daniel Burkett and Adrian Starrantino are tied for fifth, 64 points back of Enerson.
Fun Facts
Helio Castroneves has the chance to become the tenth driver to win an IndyCar race on his birthday. Here are the other IndyCar birthday winners:
Dario Resta: August 19, 1916. Turned thirty-four years old and won at Chicago's Speedway Park.
Joe Boyer: May 30, 1924. Turned thirty-five years old and won the Indianapolis 500, splitting the ride with L.L. Corum.
Lou Moore: September 12, 1931. Turned twenty-seven years old and won at Syracuse.
Tony Bettenhausen: September 12, 1953. Turned thirty-seven years old and won at Syracuse.
Al Unser: May 29, 1971. Turned thirty-two years old and won the Indianapolis 500.
Nigel Mansell: August 8, 1993. Turned forty years old and won at New Hampshire.
Sam Hornish, Jr.: July 2, 2006. Turned twenty-seven years old and won at Kansas Speedway.
Scott Dixon: July 22, 2007. Turned twenty-seven years old and won at Mid-Ohio.
Dan Wheldon: June 22, 2008. Turned thirty years old and won at Iowa.
Castroneves turns 39 on Saturday.
Castroneves is 26 laps led away from joining the 5,000 laps led club. He would join Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Michael Andretti and Al Unser as the only drivers to reach that milestone.
Castroneves, as well as Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden look to join Alex Lloyd as the only drivers with victories on both the IMS road course and oval. Lloyd won the Liberty Challenge in 2006 and Freedom 100 in 2007.
Marco Andretti could become the first driver to win in both Indy Lights and IndyCar on the IMS road course. He won the inaugural Liberty Challenge in 2005.
This is the first IndyCar championship points-paying race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that is not the Indianapolis 500 since September 9, 1916 when Johnny Aitken won the 100-mile Harvest Auto Classic in a Peugeot. Other competitors in that event were 1915 Indianapolis 500 winner Ralph DePalma, eventual Indianapolis 500 winners Howdy Wilcox (1919) and Tommy Milton (1921 and 1923) and eventual Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Eddie Rickenbacker.
This will be Martin Plowman's fourth career start and first since September 4, 2011 when Plowman ran the inaugural Grand Prix of Baltimore.
This will be Franck Montagny's third career start and first since August 23, 2009 when Montagny finished 20th at Sonoma.
Will Power has won the last two inaugural IndyCar races (São Paulo 2010 and Baltimore 2011). Before that, in 2007 Justin Wilson won the inaugural and only race at Assen, Netherlands and Sébastien Bourdais won the inaugural and only race at Zolder, Belgium.
Don't forget the Grand Prix of Indianapolis will be a standing start.
Prediction
To be honest, I don't have a read on this one. Give me Will Power. Andretti Autosport will have a good weekend. Simon Pagenaud will give Will Power a run for his money. Tony Kanaan and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing continue to struggle. Jack Hawksworth is the top finishing rookie. Sébastien Bourdais gets his first top ten of the season. Justin Wilson has a stellar weekend. We will see at least one session in the wet and that includes the race itself. Sleeper: Josef Newgarden.
