Taking a close look at the 103rd Indianapolis 500
Nuts and bolts
WHAT: The 103rd Indianapolis 500 is the sixth of 17 races on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule.
WHEN: 11:45 a.m. Sunday green flag. WHERE: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile rounded rectangular track.
WEATHER FORECAST: high of 79.
BROADCASTS: TV — NBC (Channel 4), beginning at 10 a.m., Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy in the booth and Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Kevin Lee, Jon Beekhuis, Robin Miller and Dillon Wel. Pre- and post-race shows on NBCSN. Radio — IMS Radio Network, including AM-920 in Milwaukee; Sirius channel 219, XM channel 209.
LAST YEAR: Will Power became the first Australian to win the 500 and delivered team owner Roger Penske a recordextending 17th victory. The race started slowly, but a dramatic final 60 laps concluded with Power ahead of Indy-born pole-sitter Ed Carpenter by 3.1589 seconds. Scott Dixon came in third by squeezing 40 laps out of his final tank of fuel, compared to Power’s 29.
SEASON TO DATE: Josef Newgarden comes into the 500 as the series leader for the second straight year. He is one of the five drivers to have won, along with 19-year-old Colton Herta, Indy winners Takuma Sato and Alexander Rossi and Simon Pagenaud, who prevailed two weeks ago on the Indy road course.
Thunderstorms,
About the field
There are seven past winners: Helio Castroneves (2001, 2002, 2009), Scott Dixon (2008), Tony Kanaan (2013), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Rossi (2016) Sato (2017) and Will Power (2018).
Castroneves is the most experienced driver in the field with 18 previous starts.
Six starters are rookies, and two more have raced in previous 500s but were not in the race last year.
Oriol Servia is the oldest starter at 44
and Herta the youngest at 19.
The buzz
INDY IN A NUTSHELL: Although this place is all about speed, the most compelling story out of qualifying involved the back of the field. Kyle Kaiser and Juncos Racing bounced back from a last-second loss of sponsorship for their part-time effort and a devastating crash to crack the lineup. Meanwhile, twotime Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso and McLaren – two of the biggest names in racing around the world – are on the outside looking in. That’s the Indy 500 in all its glory, an exhilarating and equally terrifying emotional roller coaster.
NEW KID ON THE TUBE: Check that channel. ABC’s run of 54 races ended last year. Newcomer NBC has brought in versatile, big-event host Mike Tirico and contributors Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick, in addition to its usual IndyCar race broadcast team, for an oncamera crew of 14 for nine hours of coverage. “NBC’s done a really good job of bringing in people that know what they’re doing as well as this new, fresh talent from behind the camera to in front of the camera that’s going to make it new,” said Patrick, an eight-time starter.
DEFINE “RACY”: Although last year’s race matched the record for leaders, more passing up front would have made for a more entertaining show. A different front tire from Firestone and additional aerodynamic appendages on the cars’ front wings could help that. “Those two combined have made it where it’s much racier,” 2014 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay said.
CLOSE COUNTS: The field from 1-33 is the closest in 500 history, separated by less than 1.9 seconds. It’s not like they’re going to stay that close, but it is a significant fact. “You see a lot more likeliness of small teams having good days,” 2008 winner Scott Dixon said. “That was just never possible before. You just had the dominance from the bigger ones. Right now, there’s just small differences. There’s almost nothing different between the cars.”