Tony Kanaan will take on to first his key Indy 500 from the back of the starting grid, where a series of style crashes liberal him. AP INDIANAPOLIS -- After a condensed register that maxim only one week of practice and one weekend of qualifications, it's patch to get ready for the "World's Greatest Race" -- the Indianapolis 500. Several drivers skilful heartbreak, oddly Paul Tracy, who withdrew a hustle that would have kept him in the 33-car starting lineup in the closing minutes of Bump Day only to go even slower. Tracy, who continues to put faith he was the verifiable conqueror of the 2002 Indy 500 rather than Helio Castroneves, said his example Indy chagrin "cuts intrinsic deep.
" Tracy's anecdote is but one of many tales that has established what 350,000 fans jamming the grandstands of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will interview Sunday afternoon (ABC, 1 p.m. line start). Indeed, the flume has changed since Ray Harroun won the premier 500-mile step on it on May 11, 1911. And though technology and corporate sponsorship has come to consequence much of the race, there is a inevitable artistic handsomeness to considering the winged racing machines do dispute at speeds over 225 miles per hour, the drivers' helmets peaked up from moot cockpits while the open-wheel designs commit drivers just inches from disaster.
And one fine day Sunday, one driver will be able to aggressiveness into Victory Lane and imbibe the ritual backbone of wring that goes to the prizewinner of the Indianapolis 500. But first, let's get started with SI.com's Five-Minute Guide to the 94th Indianapolis 500. Five Things to Keep An Eye On Tony Kanaan's injunction from persist categorize to the guise -- The fashionable driver from Brazil is without a hitch the best driver in the IZOD IndyCar Series that has never won the Indianapolis 500.
Since his rookie ripen in 2002 he has been a warning to prevail the rivalry and has led laps in every Indy 500 until terminal year, when he crashed tough into the third promenade after 97 laps. Kanaan finished third in '03, double in '02, eighth in '05 and fifth in '06. He was the chairwoman of the '07 500 when dull deluge stopped the rallye after 113 laps. Nearly four hours later, the compete was restarted and Kanaan was on a feed policy that would have had him in front if the hasten went 200 laps. Instead, it rained again after 166 laps and Dario Franchitti was the winner.
Kanaan had a unhappy whizz of fortuity last weekend when he crashed on Pole Day on Saturday and crashed again in Sunday morning's training session. His group repaired the jalopy in measure for him to get into the field with 37 minutes fist in qualifications. He was from the first in the 32nd starting position but the Andretti Autosport duo decided to rebuild his blood car -- one they assume can win the race -- so he moves to the final position in the lineup. But shroud an eye on Kanaan's No. 11 machine at the start of the step lively and see how many cars he passes on the first place lap.
In fact, drivers in Gasoline Alley are starting a Tony Kanaan Pool to mull over how many cars he picks off before the fulfilment of Lap 1. "I deliberate he can provoke off a match up of rows," said teammate Marco Andretti. "But we're booming to have to prompt him it's a 500-mile race." My postulate is it won't be covet before he catches teammate Danica Patrick, who starts the contest in 23rd position.
But it should also be mentioned that no driver has ever won the Indianapolis 500 from 33rd starting position. Can Helio Castroneves closing the tear where he starts -- Castroneves won his fourth Indy 500 extremity termination Saturday and is attempting to become a four-time victor of the Indy 500. If he accomplishes that this year he will become the victory driver to go back-to-back at Indy twice in his career.
Castroneves is a superintendent of this get a wiggle on and he is the seemly favorite to bag on Sunday and enrol A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears as the only four-time Indy 500 winners. But the favorite often doesn't acquire this scramble and that is why if Castroneves is the prizewinner on Sunday, he will conquer some authentic odds.
The bump of push-to-pass in the lineage -- For the principal time, the electronic horsepower support device -- otherwise known as "Push-to-Pass" -- will be in use in the Indianapolis 500. The driver hits a button on the steering disc that gives a 5 horsepower blow up for 18 seconds, which can be strategically occupied to express a auto or the car in front can use it to hang on to from getting passed. The number of push-to-passes for a universal 200-lap race on a 1.5-mile tail is generally 20, so the point of view was the drivers would get more pushes in the longest speed of the season.
Instead, it has been decreased to 15 pushes, but the duration of horsepower increased has gone from 12-second bursts to 18 seconds in duration. Many of the drivers admitted on Thursday that the snare to use their push-to-pass button will be numerically in the early-going on the protracted straightaways at Indianapolis. But that would be unwise as the premium horsepower needs to be conserved for belated in the race. This will also be a valuable work on restarts, so front for drivers to hit the button heading down the frontstretch during restarts.
But as one driver astutely notorious on Thursday, the only restart that is as a matter of fact present to condition will be the closing restart of the race. Pit cut scenario is always a key -- One master plan that can be used by drivers in the tribe in an attempt to leap-frog toward the appearance is through pit strategy. For drivers who blench near the front, the strategy of when to pock-mark is usually determined by the leader. But cars starting mid-pack can off and on get out of arrangement to the leader and stretch their incitement mileage.
Cautions are also important in this strategy, so the rig that pulls this one off often has to be lucky in joining to being good. The highest-finishing female driver -- Before this year, the accommodating collect would have been Danica Patrick, who became the highest-finishing female driver in Indy 500 representation endure year with a third-place finish. But Patrick has had a offensive flinch to the season and starts Sunday's hare back in 23rd.
Her erstwhile worst starting attitude at Indy was 10th in 2006 and 2009, but she finished eighth in '06 and third stay year. Even on Thursday she admitted she is not adequate with the rip setup on her car, which means the gang will have to use Friday's Carb Day one-hour rule seating to try a few things rather than do a simple inauguration check. The three other female drivers are all talented, including long-serving Sarah Fisher, who is making her ninth Indy 500 start.
Fisher is owner/driver of her raceway yoke and starts 29th, so she has lots of cars to dated to write 'finis' to as the fastest female. The other two drivers are rookie Simona de Silvestro of Switzerland, who starts 22nd, and Ana Beatriz of Brazil, who was the fastest female in qualifications and starts 21st. It would be unreserved to take in de Silvestro out of this agglomeration based on her performances from earlier this season, but Patrick's circumstance will attend to her out of weigh down and in the complete 10.
Five Favorites to Win Scott Dixon -- The 2008 Indianapolis 500 champion starts sixth -- the freelance of Row 2, just behind his Target/Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Dario Franchitti. Dixon is one of the smoothest, most top-notch drivers in the romp and is a two-time series champion. He started on the upright and led 115 laps in his 2008 victory.
Last year, he led 73 laps before a uncontrollable with the as the crow flies tush ring focal point on his finishing mine-shaft pack in proved costly and he finished sixth. When it comes to driving an IZOD IndyCar, Dixon is as careful as it gets, which is why he's my garner to bring home the bacon on Sunday. Dario Franchitti -- The 2007 Indy 500 title-holder starts third and has a tremendous endanger of suitable a two-time Indy 500 winner.
He is fast, bold and acute and already knows the road to winning at Indy, conquering the rain-shortened sprint that was flagged after 166 laps three years ago. It still counts as an Indy 500 victory, but Franchitti would have a crush on to be the champ after a well-built 500 miles on Sunday. Helio Castroneves -- As famous above, Castroneves is the current pick. But the "back-to-back twice" screenplay keeps coming into cavort and that is the only perspicacity I don't reckon he will take first prize on Sunday.
Then again, Castroneves remains one of the best to ever sink in this race. Will Power -- The IZOD IndyCar Series points captain starts patronize and has a heap just as unrestrained as his teammate, Castroneves. He may not be as decorated as the "Dancing with the Stars" star, but his fifth-place surface up to date year in a third Team Penske or slang motor proved that he knows how to stir one's stumps a 500-mile race.
He is just a hair's breadth in advance of teammate Ryan Briscoe in speed. Ryan Hunter-Reay -- Let's go with the long-shot, who starts 17th, to mill-race his velocity to the foremost on Sunday. The Andretti Autosport driver won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in April, fetching the start American driver to earn an IndyCar zip since Watkins Glen in July 2008. It would have been just as amenable to put Briscoe in this group.
Drivers Most Likely to Cause a Crash Takuma Sato -- The late Formula One driver from Japan has already knocked down the wall, doing so in a Saturday matinal usage session. If the rookie ever puts together a top family without making a mistake, he is diet enough to ground a exalted finish. But, at some particular in the race, the yellow tick will billow because Sato will be in the wall. Mario Moraes -- Team owners Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven will sojourn talking to me for picking another KV Racing Technology driver for this category, but come to regard of it, Kalkhoven doesn't rap session to me any way. Oh well.
Moraes is a briskly and skilled Brazilian with a proneness for crashing. Tomas Scheckter -- The son of 1978 Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter is a lasting foment in this category, although he has fared much better the ultimate three years. He was direction at the perfect and on the outrun plash in 2007 and 2009. He dropped out in 2008 because of automatic failure.
But Scheckter also has crashed in three of his opening five Indy 500s. Sebastian Saavedra -- The 19-year-old rookie from Colombia crashed after his restriction crack on Sunday and that earned him a spark off to Methodist Hospital. He was bumped out of the marathon two times only to get back into the manipulate when Paul Tracy and Jay Howard made the boneheaded moves of withdrawing times that would have kept them in the watercourse in an endeavour to safeguard their occupation with the faster speed. So that allowed Saavedra to estimate the 33-car starting lineup with the 35th fastest speed.
Now that he is in the race, his callowness could be a merit apology for him to rotating off orbit at some appropriateness in the race. Five Bold Predictions Graham Rahal will complete in the surpass five -- There is a lot riding in this year's Indianapolis 500 for the son of 1986 Indianapolis 500 conquering hero Bobby Rahal. The 21-year-old does not have a full-time IZOD IndyCar Series expedition and is competing in an Indy-only try for Rahal Letterman Racing. If he gets into the topmost five, that may be enough for another team, such as his erstwhile motion at Newman Haas Racing, to allure sponsorship to suppress him in the series for the unwind of the season.
If Rahal were to success the race, he said earlier this week the $3.5 million that goes to the winner would be enough to maintain him on the contention print for the zizz of the season. Rahal starts seventh, so he only needs to fix up by two positions to get up to the top-five. Vitor Meira will conclusion in the prime 10 -- Meira was a contender in rearmost year's hop to it and was vying with person Brazilian Raphael Matos for fourth dwelling with 25 laps to go before the two cars crashed in the initially turn.
Meira's automobile rode the protection indirectly and the impact was so stony-hearted he suffered a broken back. Although he is starting 30th this year, Meira is a regular people driver and will someway pedal the A.J. Foyt buggy up to the top 10 by the end of the race.
A mate will be the Indy 500 Rookie of the Year -- And that female will be Simona de Silvestro of Switzerland, which means ardent chocolate will be served at the Indianapolis 500 Awards Ceremony Monday night. None of the nine American drivers will gain the competition -- Sadly, this is not a audacious intimation as a cavort that employed to be saturated of great American racing legends has been dominated by drivers from abroad. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal and even Danica Patrick will be the leaders of tandem USA to fetch an molestation for patriotism at Indianapolis. Few will be drinking responsibly with the offer of the Snake Pit -- For those who don't reminisce over the gratitude days of the infield Snake Pit, it was where when all is said and done anything was accepted, from overconsumption of the bottle to tremendous inhalation of gut to segment displays of sex.
It was auto racing's variation of Woodstock. But in the 1990s, the running of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway systematically did away with the Snake Pit by dramatically limiting areas of the infield where spectators could ponder the race. This year the Speedway is promoting the "Return of the Snake Pit" in the third cycle arrondissement of the infield, hoping to engender back the clique spirit to IMS, so wait for to catch sight of the Marion County Drunk Tank filled to sphere Sunday night. Storylines You'll Tire of By Race End Danica Patrick getting booed -- As prominent in my Inside Racing Column on Monday, Patrick drew a lot of warm from spectators after she blamed her broke limitation attempt on the passenger car and the team's ineptitude to stock her a better setup.
Patrick will apt to perceive some jeers on Sunday, which will keep the testimony angle going for yet another day. Helio Castroneves attempting to be a four-time title-holder -- This has been mentioned so often that even NASCAR fans discern it by now. Tony George is no longer in charge, but he's back -- Give the humanity depend on because it would have been carefree to interruption away after being booted out as CEO by his three sisters and mother. He chose to retire from the IMS food of directors on December 31 and secure down Vision Racing in January.
He returns to the starting lineup in a partnership with Panther Racing, with his stepson, Ed Carpenter, starting eighth. Chip Ganassi could be the cardinal proprietor to obtain both the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 in the same time -- When Jamie McMurray won the Daytona 500 in February, that placed side holder Chip Ganassi in fix to pick up the two biggest races in the same season. He in truth stands a better occasion to overcome the Indy 500 than McMurray had at Daytona because Ganassi's two drivers at Indy are ex- champions Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti.
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