Each year, Steve sends out a pre-race synopsis of what he has seen and heard from drivers and their teams during the days leading up to the Indianapolis 500. He's been nice enough to include me in the group he sends his information to. Not everyone's a racing fan, but a few people have commented that they enjoy reading Steve's info and prognostications.
So, without further adieu, here's Steve's 2014 Pre-Indy 500 highlights -
New qualifying procedure: There were a lot of doubts and lack of understanding about the new qualifying format but it turned out to be entertaining on both days even though there were only 33 drivers and no bumping. On Saturday cars could requalifyimg without withdrawing their time but that 'safe' line was quite long. If a team was willing to withdraw their qualifying time they could enter the priority line which allowed them to move to the front of the combined line. This led to over 60 qualifying attempts on Saturday to set the 33 qualifiers and the Fast Nine (eligible to run for the Pole on Sunday). There were 5 different race teams represented in the Fast Nine and surprisingly Ganassi Racing wasn't represented.
On Sunday the 10 through 33 qualifiers made another qualifying run to set their starting position with the qualifying order based upon Saturday's speed in inverse order. With only a couple of exceptions, every car completed their 10 mile qualifying run faster by 1+ mph than on Saturday.
- Fast 9 tight: There was some drama with Ed Carpenter edging out James Hinchcliff and Will Power to win the Pole for the second consecutive year. His speed of 231.067 is the fastest Pole-winning speed in over a decade. The first two rows are separated by only 0.35 of a second over the 10 mile run or less than 0.5 mph average speed. Overall this is the fastest field in 500 history.
- First Indy Grand Prix impressions: The drivers really like the redesigned road course and the race was entertaining once the race got started. Pole Sitter Sebastian Saavedra stalled his car on the standing start and got hit by several cars from the rear of the field. James Hinchcliffe suffered a concussion when a piece of a wreck debris hit his helmet. He was medically cleared in time to qualify for the 500. Attendance was larger than expected so expect this race to return bigger and better next year.
- Kurt Busch: A NASCAR who is attempting the 2-races-in-a-day feat driving for Andretti Racing in the 500 before hopping a jet to Charlotte for the 600 there. He's a racer and has taken to his Indy car very well in spite of a wall banger earlier this week.
One interesting observation from Kurt was that the 500 demands constant concentration compared to NASCAR races. It's a good story but hard to imagine that he can find Victory Circle in his first attempt.
- Monday practice: There were a lot of laps turned - 2,329 - on the Monday after qualifying. This extra practice was added to the schedule since this is the first oval race of the season and the teams and drivers needed the time to fine tune their cars to oval racing plus mileage, tire wear, and driver adjustments to the car as the fuel load (weight) decreases between pit stops. Nine cars logged half a race's worth of laps.
- Handling in open air versus traffic: It's one thing for a driver to be fast when driving by themselves on the track. It's a completely different beast when surrounded by other cars in traffic. The aerodynamics - dirty air - really push the car around. We have all felt the turbulence when closely following a semi so just imagine that buffering magnified probably by a factor of 10 in both frequency (speed) and magnitude. The cars that will compete at the front of the field will be the ones that handle the dirty air the best.
- Tire wear: The Firestones seem to be pretty durable this month. When really pushing for maximum speed the tires do lose some grip in a few laps as illustrated during the 4 lap qualifying runs. The majority of the lap speeds slightly decreased from lap to lap.
- Honda and Chevy Engines: They seem to be very equal this year in power and the resulting speeds. It might be interesting to see how the fuel mileage shakes out for the race. The power and resulting mileage is slightly adjustable during the race and engine tuning is a variable that most fans don't think about. The strategy and decisions on when to pit when cautions occur can have a major impact on who wins the race.
- Carb Day Practice: Lots of fast laps with no incidents: Gianassi drivers Kanaan and Dixon has fast laps over 227 mph along with Townsend Bell who is driving for KV Racing. Most drivers turned 30+ laps with rookie Carlos Huertas completing a high of 65 laps and rookie Sage Karam a low of 19.
- Who's going to win? There are a lot of driver-team combinations that could win - probably half of the field have decent chance. The top drivers and resource-rich teams have the best odds. It's been 5 years since a Penske car won the 500 so at least one writer called the 5 years a drought for the team which has won a record 15 500's (btw, I was assigned to the Penske pit for his first win with Mark Donahue driving). Will Power won the last oval race last year and is leading the points race this year, Elio has won this race 3 times and come close several other times, and Juan Pablo Montoya has a 500 win and is back after 7 years in NASCAR. Even though Gianssi's team underperformed during qualifying, former winners Scott Dixon and Tony Kaanan (replacing Dario Franchitti who had to retire after his bad wreck last year) along with "Mayor" James Hinchcliffe (on the front row with Carpenter and Power) are strong contenders. The top Andretti drivers - Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay are their team's strongest contenders. The top contenders from the smaller (ie, less resources) teams would be Sarah Fisher's Josef Newgarden and owner-driver Ed Carpenter. Both have been very fast this month and Ed Carpenter has won the Pole the last 2 years. That's nine as the top candidates to win the 98th 500.
Other drivers who either have the experience and/or the resources to contend for the win are: A.J. Foyt's Takuma Sato, the other 3 Ganassi drivers - Ryan Briscoe, Charlie Kimball, and Carlos Munoz (he finished 2nd last year), Graham Rahal, and Sebastien Bourdais.
The most promising rookie as far as oval racing goes is Sage Karam who won the Indy Lights title last years. He missed his high school prom to qualify and will miss graduation to run in the 500.
The weather forecast sounds perfect for the race, have a great crowd for Carb Day, and we expect a big crowd for what promises to be a great race.
Let's go racing!
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