Back Home Again In Indiana

For the first time since, we'll have a "normal" Indy 500 this year.  It won't be delayed until September.  It won't be held in front of a limited crowd.  Nope, we'll have all the traditional pageantry and 100,000-plus people cramming into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day Weekend for the Greatest Spectacle In Racing.  And the weather in the Indianapolis area is supposed to be beautiful, too!

Not that last year's scaled-down event wasn't history-making.  Helio Castroneves finally joined A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears on the Indy 500 Mount Rushmore with his fourth win, 12 years after his third and 20 years after his first.  Helio's first two were back-to-back.  If he does it again (20 years apart), he'll become the first-ever five-time Indy 500 champion.

Helio's one of eight former champions in the field, and those former champs are littered all over the starting grid.  Scott Dixon's on the pole and Tony Kanaan's on the outside of Row 2, while two-time champ Takuma Sato and Will Power are in Row 4.  Then there's Simon Pagenuad (Row 6) and Alex Rossi (Row 7) in the middle of the field, while Helio (Row 9) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Row 10) are in the back.

Those former champions don't even include a guy who's technically a rookie, but has won at the Brickyard four times.  That's right, seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson is making his Indy 500 debut.  And he's starting alongside two Indy 500 winners (Takuma Sato and Will Power) in Row 4.  So, while I don't think he'll win, it wouldn't shock me to see the number 48 car near the front at the end.

I'm not at all surprised to see Jimmie Johnson doing well in Indy Car.  You knew he wouldn't have made the switch if he didn't feel he could compete.  And his being in the race only adds to the intrigue.  Because of timing, it's impossible to try and do the 1100 miles of racing in one day at both Indy and Charlotte that Tony Stewart did a few times anymore.  But Johnson had been indicating for a while that he wanted to race the Indy 500 at least once in his career.  Now he'll get his chance.

While Johnson is the rookie most likely to sip the milk, he's far from the only driver capable of winning his first Indy 500 title.  In fact, there's a handful of drivers who've come awfully close in the past and have set themselves up well to have this year be the year.

That list starts with Alex Palou, the 2021 Indy Car Series champion who was second last year.  He'll be starting alongside Rinus VeeKay, who'll be making his third career Indy 500 start and has never qualified lower than fourth.  J.R. Hildebrand, meanwhile, famously led around the final turn in 2011 before crashing and finishing second, while Pato O'Ward has finsihed sixth and fourth in his two previous Indy 500 starts.  And Ed Carpenter, the local Indianapolis product, always starts in the front.  Will this be the year he finishes there, too? 

Or will it be one of the legacy drivers?  The Andretti family is Indy Car royalty.  Yet Mario's win in 1969 is still the family's only title.  Marco is back for the 17th consecutive time looking to finally get that second one.  Graham Rahal, meanwhile, seems to alternate top five finishes with DNF's.  He was third in 2020 and 32nd last year.  So that should mean 2022 will be one of his good years.

Stefan Wilson intrigues me, too.  He had trouble with his car on the day of qualifying and wasn't able to make an official attempt.  However, since only 33 cars were entered, he was guaranteed a spot in the race and will start at the back of the field.  But we have no idea how fast his car actually is!  Will he have a really good one and surge to the front or will he be in the back the whole time?

Speaking of qualifying, it was fast.  And I mean fast!  So fast, in fact, that pole-sitter Scott Dixon had the second-fastest qualifying run in Indy 500 history, and this is the fastest front row ever.  In fact, the first eight cars had qualifying speeds greater than 232 mph (and Romain Grosjean qualified ninth at 231.999).

Will the fast qualifying speeds translate into fast speeds on race day?  Not necessarily.  But I think the weather and track conditions mean it's definitely possible.  Beyond that, though, you've got a lot of drivers who know their cars are fast, so if they make the right decisions and things break their way, their hopes of winning are very realistic.

Knowing how fast qualifying was has me really excited for the race itself!  Qualifying speeds are obviously faster than what we'll see in the actual race.  But I think there's a chance we'll see at least one more record fall.  Whether it's the fastest individual lap or the fastest race (last year's was done in just over two and a half hours), something special's gonna happen at the Brickyard.  How could it not when it'll be a full house for the first time in three years?!

So, who's the favorite?  Well, I'm not usually one to just go with the chalk, but in this case I think that's the safest bet.  Because Scott Dixon didn't just set a record with his 234.046 mph qualifying average, he's had the best car all month long.  It's his fifth career Indy pole and second straight (after starting second in 2020).  Last year, he ended up finishing 17th, so you know that will motivate him too.

It's more than that, though.  It's how impressive Dixon has been while dominating the Brickyard this month.  This reminds me of 2008, when he started on the pole, led 115 laps and won by almost two seconds.  Do I think his race performance will be as dominant as the one 14 years ago?  Probably not.  But he's absolutely the one to beat.