Back Home Again In Indiana

Last year's Indy 500 was just weird.  Well, everything about last year was weird, but it really felt that way with the Indy 500 especially.  For starters, it was held in August instead of May.  It was the fact that it was held without spectators that really felt wrong.  No one even knows what the capacity for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is.  We just know it's a lot.  And that quiet was just eerie.

This year, however, Indy is back where it belongs.  On Memorial Day Weekend.  And, while it won't be a full house, they're allowing 135,000 fans, which is more than enough to create an atmosphere.  Most importantly, with the Coca-Cola 600 is back in its normal place on the calendar, too, we once again have 1100 miles of racing on Memorial Day Weekend (Monte Carlo was last week, so no tripleheader).

There's one driver who'll be in Indy instead of Charlotte this year--Jimmie Johnson.  Although, it's as a part of the NBC broadcast crew, not as a driver.  Frankly, I'm a little surprised by that, since he's driving Indy Cars part-time and has indicated in the past that he wanted to be a part of the Greatest Spectacle In Racing.  Maybe that's something to look forward to for next year.

Imagine if he was in the field though!  Another big name in a race that's becoming more and more star-studded by the year!  We've got nine former champions among the 33 starters, nearly a third of the field, and three of them have won the race more than once, including defending champ Takuma Sato.

Sato's looking to become the first back-to-back winner in 20 years, and his would, of course, be even more unique since those victories would be just nine months apart.  A second straight win would also move Sato into that exclusive group of three-time winners, a group that has included Helio Castroneves since 2009.  Helio has been synonymous with Indy since his debut in 2001, and this year he's got his best starting position since 2018.  He'll be a contender.  He always is.  But it'd be a stretch to call him a favorite.

The favorite mantle I've gotta give to Scott Dixon.  He dominated most of the race last year until Sato passed him in the end, and he's dominated the entire month.  Dixon's starting on the pole for the fourth time in his career, and his Indy win in 2008 also came from the pole.  I'm not saying a win is guaranteed.  Far from it.  Any number of things can happen to screw you up during a 500-mile auto race.  But if Dixon can carry the form he's shown all month into race day, he'll be very tough to beat.

While I'd consider Dixon the favorite, there are plenty of other former winners who have a chance to claim the checkered flag.  Anytime Tony Kanaan is in the field, you've gotta know where he is.  Especially when he's starting in the middle of Row 2.  This is the first time he's been one of the Fast Nine qualifiers since 2017, when he finished fifth.

And, for some reason, I've got a good feeling about Simon Pagenaud.  I don't really know why.  He's starting 26th and hasn't really shown the same type of form as Dixon.  Pagenuad drives for Roger Penske, though.  And Penske literally owns the place!  None of his drivers qualified well, but they always show up on race day.

I'm also curious to see how Pagenaud's Penske teammate Will Power fares.  The 2018 champ had a terrible run in qualifying and almost missed the field.  He did make it, though, in the 32nd starting spot.  And now that he's in the race, anything can happen.  Charging from the back row into contention isn't easy, but it's been done before.  And if anyone in the field can do it, Will Power can.

Joining him in the back row is Simona de Silvestro.  It's her first time racing in the Indy 500 since 2015, and she's the first woman in the field period since Pippa Mann in 2019.  The coolest part about de Silvestro's Indy return, though, is the fact that she's driving for Paretta Autosport, Indy's only female-owned and run team.  Simona's chances of winning aren't that great, but her story is.

If there's gonna be a first-time champ, there are four guys I'm looking at.  The first is Colton Herta, who's just 21 and would be the first Indy 500 winner born in the 2000s.  He's been nearly as fast as Dixon all month and will be starting right next to him.  Ed Jones, meanwhile, is back after skipping last year's race.  He's starting 11th, the same starting position he had in his 2017 Indy 500 debut, when he finished third.

Josef Newgarden's another Penske guy.  This will be his 10th Indy 500, and he's finished in the top 10 in five of the last six years.  He's another one of those drivers who's proven he'll stay in contention the whole way, and if things break in his favor, who knows?  James Hinchcliffe is perhaps best known for his off-the-track stuff, but he's also a hell of a race car driver!  Hinch was seventh last year when he was driving part-time for Andretti.  Now he's with Andretti full-time, which can only be a good thing for him.

Still, I like Scott Dixon to win.  His consistency has been remarkable.  He was the fastest in practice, in qualifying and on Carb Day.  That race car is clearly set up perfectly for the 500.  So, unless something quirky happens, I don't see anybody beating Dixon.

Whether it's Dixon or one of the 32 other drivers, it'll just be great to see the winner of the Indy 500 once again kissing the bricks on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend.  When everything was getting shut down last year, the Indy 500 was the event I had earmarked as the one where things might begin to seem normal again.  What I didn't realize at the time was that I was talking about the 2021 Indy 500.  It's back where it belongs!