Heather Rule's Blog

Just like last year, the Minnesota Timberwolves are playing in the Western Conference Finals, the Minnesota Frost are playing in the PWHL Finals and, as always, the Indianapolis 500 will run its traditional race on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.

Let's just hope this time there's also not a repeat of the thunderstorms and heavy rain that delayed the start of last year's Greatest Spectacle in Racing. 

The 109th running of the Indianapolis 500 will have sold-out grandstands for the first time since the 100th running in 2016. About 350,000 people are expected to attend the event. 

As usual, here are some grid stats: 61% of race winners have started in the first two rows, with 42% of winners starting on the front row. In the history of the race, only seven winners have come out of positions No. 21-33 on the starting grid. From 1937-2023, only one winner came out of those final few rows; Johnny Rutherford won from the 25th position on the inside of row 9 in 1974.

For the first time since 2022, no female drivers attempted or qualified for this year's Indy 500. Last year, Katherine Legge was the lone woman in the field; she started 31st and finished in 29th place. Legge, who's driven in four Indy 500s, is racing within the NASCAR umbrella for a smattering of races this season. 

Only nine women have ever raced in the Indianapolis 500. 

The field of 33: 

Row 1

Robert Shwartzman - No. 83 PREMA Racing car
Hometown: Tel Aviv, Israel
Team: PREMA Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.790 mph

Shwartzman surprised many by becoming the first rookie to take the Indy 500 pole position since Teo Fabi in 1983. The winner has started on the pole 21 times, most recently in 2019 with Simon Pagenaud's victory. 

Takuma Sato - No. 75 AMADA car 
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.478 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2017, 2020

Sato is one of the one-off entries for the Indy 500. Like the overall stats show, starting near the front agrees with Sato. He's won thie race starting from fourth (2017) and third (2020). Now, he'll try to become a three-time winner for the second spot. He finished 14th last season in his 15th Indy 500, a race where he's finished in the top 10 four times.

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 2nd position since 2000 (Juan Pablo Montoya).

Pato O'Ward - No. 5 Arrow McLaren car
Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.098 mph

Could this be Pato's year? He's starting on the front row for his best start in the Indy 500. He has four top-10 finishes in five previous races, including being the runner-up in 2022 and 2024. He nearly had it last year but perhaps made his move for the lead too early at the end and was beaten by Josef Newgarden. 

O'Ward is one of the faces of IndyCar and a very popular driver.

Row 2

Scott Dixon - No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing car 
Hometown: Auckland, New Zealand
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.052 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2008 

The Ice Man and six-time IndyCar Series champion is still hoping for his second Indy 500 victory. Whatever the list is of all-time great drivers who failed to win multiple Indy 500s, Dixon is right up there. The race three years ago, when he started from pole and looked to be in a great spot during the race if not for a pit-lane speed violation, will continue to haunt him if he doesn't drinkt the milk again in his career. 

Besides his victory in 2008, he finished as a runner-up three times in 2007, 2012 and 2020. He also finished third last year after starting 21st. He's been a "biggest mover" in a race already this season, so you can basically never count him out no matter where he starts. He has 14 top-10 finishes in 22 starts for the Indy 500. 

Felix Rosenqvist - No 60 SiriusXM car
Hometown: Värnamo, Sweden
Team: Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.987 mph

He's finished 27th in three of his six 500s, including the last two years. His best finish was fourth in 2022. 

Alex Palou - No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing car 
Hometown: Barcelona, Spain
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.378 mph

Palou is dominating IndyCar. The back-to-back series champion and current championship points leader has won four of the first five races, going on a run that the series hasn't seen since the days of A.J. Foyt in his prime.

But his biggest knock is that he hasn't won an oval race in his IndyCar career. His 15 victories have come on road or street courses. He's finished in the top 10 in four of his five Indy 500s, his best being second in 2021. 

Row 3

David Malukas - No. 4 Clarence Technologies car 
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.599 mph

He missed out on the fun last year after suffering a wrist injury while mountain biking. It kept ihm out of racing for a while, but he's back and starting in a good spot.

Christian Lundgaard - No. 7 Arrow McLaren car 
Hometown: Hedensted, Denmark
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.360 mph

He'll start from his best spot in eighth, well better than 31st, 30th or 28th, his previous starting positions. His best finish was 13th, in 2024.

Marcus Ericsson - No. 28 Allegra car 
Hometown: Kumla, Sweden
Team: Andretti Global
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.014 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2022

Ericsson is back for his seventh Indy 500, hoping to run the race this time after he crashed on lap one last year. He nearly won back-to-back Indy 500s in 2023 but finished as the runner-up. Only one winner has started this race in ninth position outside row 3: Emerson Fittipaldi in 1993. 

Row 4

Scott McLaughlin - No. 3 Penzoil Team Penske car
Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 233.013 mph

Perhaps a crash in practice before the second day of qualifying kept him out of the back row like his Penske teammates. He was the polesitter last year and finished sixth, his best in four starts.

Conor Daly - No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing car 
Hometown: Noblesville, Indiana 
Team: Juncos Hollinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.725 mph

A hometown, senitmental favorite, Daly will start in his 11th Indy 500. He's finished in the top 10 this past three years. Starting 11th ties his best starting position; he finished 10th in 2019 when he started there.

Alexander Rossi - No. 20 ECR Java House car 
Hometown: Nevada City, California
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.701 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2016

His shining moment came as a rookie when he won the race in 2016. He has seven top-10 finishes in nine career indy 500 starts. 

Row 5

Kyffin Simpson - No. 8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassic Racing car 
Hometown: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.641 mph

The 20-year-old is back for his second year. He finished 21st as a rookie in 2024.

Ed Carpenter - No. 33 ECR Splenda Stevia car 
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.633 mph

The team owner and Indy native always gives himself a ride in the race, and why not? The 44-year-old will make his 22nd start in the race. He hasn't finished better than 17th since 2021.

Santino Ferucci - No. 14 Homes For Our Troops car 
Hometown: Woodbury, Connecticut
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.593 mph

Running at Indy agrees with him. He's 6-for-6 in top-10 finishes, with his best being third in 2023. 

Row 6

Devlin DeFrancesco - No. 30 Dogecoin car 
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.575 mph

The last winner from this spot was Dario Franchitti in 2012.

Sting Ray Robb - No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing car 
Hometown: Payette, Idaho
Team: Juncos Hollinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.461 mph

Sting Ray "that's his real name" Robb is back for his third Indy 500. He finished 16th last year and 31st the year before after contact ended his day after 90 laps.

Christian Rasmussen - No. 21 ECR Splenda car 
Hometown: Copenhagen, Denmark
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.438 mph

The 2023 INDY NXT Series champion is back again after finishing 12th as a rookie last year. 

Row 7

Kyle Larson - No. 17 HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren car 
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.326 mph

Stormy delays to last year's 500 kept Larson from running the "double" of the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will try to pull off the doubleheader again this year. 

Louis Foster - No. 45 Desnuda Tequila car
Hometown: Odiham, England
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.058 mph

The 21-year-old is a rookie in this year's Indy 500. He won the 2024 INDY NXT championship.

Callum Ilott - No. 90 PREMA Racing car 
Hometown: Cambridge, England
Team: PREMA Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 230.993 mph

He'll make his fourth Indy 500 start. His best finish was last year, in 11th place.

Row 8

Helio Castroneves - No. 06 Cliffs car 
Hometown: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Team: Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 230.978 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2001, 2002, 2009, 2021

This will be his 25th Indy 500. He'll try again to become the only driver to win five Indy 500s. He's 50 years old, still the oldest driver on the grid. He'd be the oldest winner should he finish first this year. Al Unser Sr. was 47 years old when he won his fourth Indy 500 in 1987, still standing as the oldest winner. 

Kyle Kirkwood - No. 27 Siemens car 
Hometown: Jupiter, Florida
Team: Andretti Global
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 230.917 mph

He finished seventh in last year's race, his third Indy 500. 

Kirkwood won Long Beach this season, the only race not won by Palou.

Nolan Siegel - No. 6 Arrow McLaren car 
Hometown: Palo Alto, California
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 230.571 mph

Siegel was bumped from the field last year, after crashing in his final qualifying run. He'll be a rookie in this year's Indy 500.

Row 9

Ryan Hunter-Reay - No. 23 DRR CUSICK WEDBUSH SECURITIES car
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Team: DRR-Cusick Motorsports
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 230.363 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2014

A one-off entry, the road got harder for Hunter-Reay after a fire in his car during Carb Day on Friday. He'll have a back-up car on race day. He's made 16 career starts in the Indy 500, with six top-10 finishes. 

Jack Harvey - No. 24 DRR CUSICK INVST car 
Hometown: Bassingham, England
Team: DRR-Cusick Motorsports
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 230.348 mph

Harvey spent most of this season so far as a pit reporter for the IndyCar broadcasts. He was bumped from the Indy 500 field last year by then-Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing teammate Graham Rahal. 

Colton Herta - No. 26 Gainbridge car 
Hometown: Valencia, California
Team: Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 230.192 mph

Herta's team got a car ready for qualifying after he crashed in practice. He's finished three of his six Indy 500s, finishing eighth in 2020 for his best finish. 

Row 10

Graham Rahal - No. 15 United Rentals car 
Hometown: New Albany, Ohio
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 229.863 mph

Qualifying struggles have become an annual occurence for Rahal, unfortunately. This year, at least he made it into the show on Saturday and didn't have to fight it out in the Last Row Shootout as in the past two years. 

Last year, he started in the 33rd and final position but worked his way up to a 15th-place finish. His best finish in 17 Indy 500 starts is third (2011, 2020). He has four top-10 finishes and three top-5s in his career. 

Bobby Rahal, his father and team owner, is the 1986 Indy 500 champion. 

Marco Andretti - No. 98 MAPEI / Curb car 
Hometown: Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Team: Andretti Herta w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 229.741 mph

A veteran of this race, Marco will suit up for his 20th Indy 500. He's no longer a series regular, for the fifth year in a row. His grandfather Mario Andretti won the race in 1969, the only time an Andretti has won the race despite many starts, laps led and heartbreak for drivers in the family. 

Marco nearly won the race as a rookie in 2006, but Sam Hornish Jr. beat him at the line for one of the closest finishes in race history. 

This marks his worst starting spot on the grid. He has eight top-10 finishes with five in the top-5 in the Indy 500. 

Marcus Armstong - No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance car 
Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand
Team: Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 229.091 mph

Armstrong had mechanical issues as a rookie in last year's race, finishing 30th. 

Row 11

Rinus VeeKay - No. 18 askROI car 
Hometown: Hoofddorp, Netherlands
Team: Dale Coyne Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 226.913 mph

He didn't have the speed in qualifying this year, unlike his previous attempts at Indy. He bumped a teammate this year out of the field in the Last Row Shootout. His best finishin in the race is eighth in 2021. 

Josef Newgarden - No. 2 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Team Penske car 
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 233.004 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2023, 2024 

He'll look to accomplish two things that have never been done in Indy 500 history: Win three 500s in a row, and win the race starting from the last row. 

Coming into qualifying, Newgarden and Team Penske were a favorite, per usual. But a cheating scandal involving the Penske cars pushed Newgarden and teammate Will Power to the back of the field. 

Newgarden has five top-5 finishes in 14 career Indy 500s.

Will Power - No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car 
Hometown: Toowoomba, Australia
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.144 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2018

Starting last is not ideal after the cheating scandal. But can Will power his way to the front for his second Indy 500 victory? No one has done it before from spot No. 33.

Just as we all expected in Minnesota in late May, we have multiple professional sports teams making playoff runs. Pretty standard, right? The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years, and the PWHL Minnesota women's hockey team came through with clutch performances to advance to the Finals in the inaugural season. 

This is May? Who would have thought that the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 would not be the only sporting event I'm concerned about this Memorial Day weekend (even if it is the one I'll have the chance to attend)? It's kind of crazy, but bring on the sports! 

Still, the traditions of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway run deep. In no particular order, there's Christmas morning, the Minnesota boys' high school state hockey tournament and the Indy 500. It's tough to top those three days in a calendar year. So, let me dive into the starting grid for this year's race.

All Penske up front
The big news out of the front row is that it was a clean sweep for Team Penske for the second time in Indy 500 history. The 1988 front row was Rick Mears, Danny Sullivan and Al Unser Sr. All three of those Penske drivers in the front row were already Indy 500 champions at the time. Mears and Unser Sr. are part of the elite four-time-winners club, and Sullivan won in 1985. This year, two of the three Penske drivers are past Indy 500 champs. 

The last Indy 500 winner to come out of the front row was Takuma Sato in 2020. But in 2018 and 2019, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud won the race for Team Penske.

With Tony Kanaan in retirement, the field has eight (not nine) former Indy 500 winners on the starting grid. Helio Castroneves is trying to win a record fifth time after winning in 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2021. Castroneves would be the oldest winner ever at age 49.

Sato is the only other multi-time winner in the field (2017 and 2020). Scott Dixon (2008), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2014), Alexander Rossi (2016), Will Power (2018), Marcus Ericsson (2022) and Josef Newgarden (2023) are all in search of their second victories.

Qualifying this year was, to state the obvious, fast at the speedway. With a 33-car field average speed of 231.943 mph, it's the second-fastest field in history. Last year's was a touch faster at 232.184 mph. It's always amazing to me on qualifying weekend that speeds of 230 mph, or anything in the 220s, is considered "slow." That's racing. 

Updated grid stats
Starting up front is obviously important and where drivers want to be in order to give them the best shot at avoiding trouble at the start and potentially winning the race. Indy 500 champions have started in the first two rows in 61% of the 107 races (65 winners), with 42% of winners (45) coming from the front row. Across the last decade (since 2014), winners have come out of six of the first seven rows, with three from the front row, two from the second row and two from the seventh row. 

Here's the annual reminder that no Indy 500 winner has started in the last row, although Scott Goodyear came oh-so-close in 1992 before being edged at the line by Al Unser Jr. in the closest finish in race history. 

In the history of the race, only seven winners have come out of positions No. 21-33 on the starting grid. From 1937-2023, only one winner came out of those final few rows; Johnny Rutherford won from the 25th position on the inside of row 9 in 1974.

Editor's note: Some of the information in this post is from my records I keep on nerdy spreadsheets, plus my own viewing. But, racing salutes to the IndyCar, Racer and IndianapolisMotorSpeedway.com, too. 

Row 1

Scott McLaughlin - No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske car
Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 234.220 mph, the fastest four-lap average pole speed in Indy 500 history

This makes 19 Indy 500 poles for Team Penske, extending the team's record for the most poles. Penske also has the record for most wins, which is also 9. McLaughlin's best starting spot in the 500 was 14th last year, which was where he finished. If you're all about the car numbers, this is the 10th time a No. 3 car took the Indy 500 pole.

He'll look for his first top-10, top-five or victory in his fourth Indy 500.

The last Indy 500 winner to start from the pole position was Pagenaud in 2019. The winner has come from the pole 21 times in 107 races, including in 1988 when Team Penske swept the front row on the starting grid. That was when Rick Mears won in the Pennzoil yellow submarine, as it's called. Before qualifying this year, it was also announced that McLaughlin will wear Mears' replica firesuit from the 1984 Indy 500. 

McLaughlin won at the Barber road course in Alabama at the end of April this season. 

Will Power - No. 12 Verizon Business Team Penske car
Hometown: Toowoomba, Australia
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 233.917 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2018

Power is a two-time IndyCar Series champion. This will be his fifth front-row start for the Indy 500, leaving him tied with Harry Hartz and Wilbur Shaw for the most starts from the front row without winning the pole.

This will be start No. 17 for him at the Indy 500, with seven top-10 finishes including his victory in 2018.

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 2nd position since 2000 (Juan Pablo Montoya).

Josef Newgarden - No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske car
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 233.808 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2023

Newgarden is the defending race winner, and he'll try to be the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since Helio Castroneves in 2001 and 2002. Only five times in Indy 500 history has there been a back-to-back champion. Last year, Newgarden foiled Ericsson's attempt for back-to-back wins with a late pass in the race. Newgarden celebrated by jumping through the fence along the yard of bricks so he could be surrounded by the fans.

Newgarden is set to make his 13th start in this race, with four top-5 and six top-10 finishes already. 

Rossi was the last defending Indy 500 champion to start from the front row, back in 2017.

Row 2

Alexander Rossi - No. 7 Arrow McLaren car
Hometown: Nevada City, California
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 233.090 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2016

The pinnacle of his career came as a rookie when Rossi won the 100th running of the Indy 500 in 2016. He's finished in fifth place each of the past two years. He's finished in the top-10 in six of his eight Indy 500 starts. Rossi seems motivated to get past the Penske cars, after that trio seemed pretty comfortable with themselves in qualifying. 

Kyle Larson - No. 17 Hendrickcars.com Arrow McLaren car
Hometown: Elk Grove, California
Team: Arrow McLaren/Rick Hendrick
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.846 mph
Indy 500 rookie

Larson is a rookie in this race but definitely no rookie in auto racing. The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion will attempt the "double" in racing the Indy 500 before racing off to Charlotte Motor Speedway for NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600. He performed very well in Indy 500 qualifying, not only making the field, but vaulting into the Fast Six with a shot at the pole.

He made rookie qualifying history with the fastest qualifying lap in Indy 500 history at 233.453 mph on his first lap during his Top 12 attempt. Benjamin Pedersen had the rookie record of 233.297 mph set last year. 

Santino Ferrucci - No. 14 Homes For Our Troops car
Hometown: Woodbury, Connecticut
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.692 mph

Ferrucci wasn't an Arrow McLaren or a Penske car but advanced to the Fast 6 in qualifying for the second year in a row. He started fourth and finished third last year, his best results for the 500. He runs well at Indy, going 5-for-5 in top-10 finishes.

Row 3

Rinus VeeKay - No. 21 askROI car
Hometown: Hoofddorp, Netherlands
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.610 mph

VeeKay always qualifies well at Indy. Seventh is actually his worst starting spot for the 500, having started fourth, third, second and second the past four years. His highest finish in the race is eighth place.

What's amazing this time was he made it into the Fast 12, after he crashed early on Saturday during the initial qualifying attempt. His team got to work rebuilding his car, and he stunned everyone later in the day by vaulting into the top group with a chance at the pole on Sunday. 

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 7th position since 1961 (A.J. Foyt).

Pato O'Ward - No. 5 Arrow McLaren car
Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.584 mph

O'Ward was belatedly awarded a victory in this season's opening race at St. Pete, following a bit of a Team Penske scandal with the push-to-pass button. He starts this Indy 500 in the top-10 for the third year in a row.

O'Ward crashed out last year late in the race after leading 39 laps that day at Indy. He started fifth, his best of his young career so far. 

Felix Rosenqvist - No. 60 AutoNation/Sirius XM car
Hometown: Värnamo, Sweden
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.305 mph

Rosenqvist makes his sixth Indy 500 start, and the third consecutive start from within the first three rows on the grid. His best finish was fourth in 2022.

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 9th position since 1993 (Emerson Fittipaldi).

Row 4

Takuma Sato - No. 75 AMADA car
Hometown: Tokyo, Japan
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.171 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2017, 2020

A former full-time driver in IndyCar, Sato is back as the only driver in the field seeking his third Indy 500 title. He's raced at Indy since 2010, making start No. 15 this year from the 10th spot.

He won the race from the fourth (2017) and third (2020) positions.

Kyle Kirkwood - No. 27 AutoNation car 
Hometown: Jupiter, Florida
Team: Andretti Global
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 230.993 mph

The middle of row four in 11th position marks Kirkwood's best start for his third Indy 500. He went upside down last year in a crash that sent a tire over the oval's barriers. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay - No. 23 DRR-CUSICK MOTORSPORTS car
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Team: DRR-CUSICK MOTORSPORTS 
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 230.567 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2014

Hunter-Reay isn't in the series full-time anymore, but he won the race a decade ago, beating out Castroneves. Hunter-Reay started that race in 19th position. He put together a stunning qualifying run to make the Fast 12 over the weekend this year, even though he was disappointed with his second run on Sunday. 

He finished 11th in the Indy 500 last year and has six top-10s in 15 career starts. 

Row 5

Colton Herta - No. 26 Gainbridge car
Hometown: Valencia, California
Team: Andretti Global w/Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.316 mph

Herta is one of the better young drivers in the series. He just got bumped out of the Fast 12 in qualifying. He's won seven IndyCar races and would love to add the Indy 500 to his list of winning circuits.

His dad, Bryan Herta, was a rookie in this race 30 years ago in 1994. Three of Bryan's five Indy 500s ended with top-10 finishes. Colton's start this year will mark No. 6 for the 24-year-old. He's had a mix of results, with a couple of days ending with mechanical issues and two top-10 finishes.

Alex Palou - No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing car 
Hometown: Barcelona, Spain
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.306 mph

Last year's polesitter failed to make the Fast 12 and give it another shot. But the series points leader has already had a good month of May, winning the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race a couple of weeks ago. 

He finished second at Indy in 2021, ninth in 2022 and fourth last year. He's never started outside of the top 10 at the Indy 500 until now.

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 14th position since 1955 (Bob Sweikert).

Callum Ilott - No. 6 Arrow McLaren car 
Hometown: Cambridge, England
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.230 mph

Starting 15th is Ilott's best grid position in his third Indy 500 start. He jumped up to finish 12th last year after starting 27th. He crashed out of the race as a rookie in 2022.

Row 6

Marcus Armstrong - No. 11 Ridgeline Lubricants Chip Ganassi Racing car 
Hometown: Christchurch, New Zealand
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 232.183 mph
Indy 500 rookie

He's a rookie at Indy but he's also the 2023 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, racing in his second season with Ganassi and mostly focused on road and street courses. The 23-year-old has two top-10 finishes and one top-5 in his IndyCar career.

Ed Carpenter - No. 20 Guy Care car 
Hometown: Indianapolis, Indiana
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 232.017 mph

The Indiana resident and team owner loves racing at his home oval. At 43 years old, he's one of a few drivers in the field in the over-40 club, for whatever that's worth. He's making his 21st start in the Indy 500 this year. He usually qualifies well at Indy, winning the pole three times with the last coming in 2018, when he had his best finish as a runner-up. 

Starting 17th marks his worst grid spot since he started 20th in 2016. He also started 17th in 2009 and finished eighth. Newgarden won the race last year starting from this position on the grid.

Kyffin Simpson - No. 4 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassic Racing car 
Hometown: Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.948 mph
Indy 500 rookie

Simpson, 19, is the youngest driver to make the start this year. Troy Ruttman became the youngest winner of the race in 1952; he was 22 years old. Simpson started racing at age 9 in Barbados, his birthplace. 

No driver has won the Indy 500 after starting in 18th position. 

Row 7

What a row 7 this is, with these names: Andretti, Castroneves, Dixon. Talk about experience. A combined 62 career Indy 500 starts start in this row, with 18, 23 and 21, respectively.

Marco Andretti - No. 98 MAPEI/Curb car 
Hometown: Nazareth, Pennsylvania
Team: Andretti Herta w/ Marco & Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.890 mph

He's still one of the sentimental favorites for me. Marco isn't a series regular for the fourth year in a row, but when your last name is Andretti and your dad owns a race team, you'll get an Indy 500 ride. His grandfather, Mario Andretti, is still around the paddock and holds the place in history as the only Andretti to win the Indy 500, winning 55 years ago back in 1969. 

The 2006 finish to the Indy 500 when Marco was a rookie and nearly won the race, with Sam Hornish Jr. beating him at the line, is still the best finish of his career. It was definitely another page in the Andretti Curse storybook at the speedway. Watching Mario in the pits as the finish neared is something. so much passion for the sport yet so much heartbreak in the big race.

Marco has always run well at Indy, with eight top-10 finishes, though he hasn't finished inside the top-10 since 2017 when he finished eighth. Nineteenth is his best starting spot since he won the pole in 2020.

Helio Castroneves - No. 06 Cliffs car 
Hometown: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Team: Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.871 mph

Controversy in 2002 or not, Castroneves is back again for a one-off attempt to try and become the only driver to win the Indy 500 five times. He'll suit up for his 24th Indy 500 this year. The first four-time winner, legendary A.J. Foyt, made a record 35 starts from 1958-92; Foyt was 57 years old on his last start.

He starts 20th for the second year in a row; he finished 15th last year. He's started 20th or lower in four of the past five Indy 500s but has moved up significantly in each of those races. In 23 starts, he has those four wins and 16 top-10 finishes.

Castroneves is 49 years old, the oldest driver on the grid and looking to be the oldest winner. Unser Sr. was 47 years old when he won his fourth Indy 500 in 1987. 

Scott Dixon - No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing car 
Hometown: Auckland, New Zealand
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.851 mph

Dixon is known as the Ice Man for the way he stays so cool under pressure during races. One of the most uncharacteristic things he ever did - and will probably regret for the rest of his life - was commit a speeding violation on pit lane during the 2022 Indy 500. He won the pole that year, was in the lead and had a great race when he was caught speeding. It still has to sting.

Scott Dixon's page in the children's book GOATs of Auto Racing.This year, starting 21st is his worst position on the grid at the Indy 500. Only one other time in the history of the race has a winner come from 21st: 100 years ago in 1924 with co-winners Lora L. Corum and Joe Boyer. 

Dixon started and finished sixth last year. In 2021 and 2022 he won the pole but finished 17th and 21st. So, maybe a little bit of reverse results for him are incoming? He's also finished as the runner-up three times in 2007, 2012 and 2020. He has 13 top-10 results in 21 Indy 500 starts.

He's a six-time IndyCar Series champion with 56 race victories, the most of any active driver. But his only Indy 500 victory was back in 2008. There are a lot of great drivers in the history of the sport who won this race only once. He's near the top of that list. Dixon holds the record for the most Indy 500 laps led at 665 laps in his career. Castroneves is the only driver in the field who comes "close" to that number, with 326 laps led. Dixon and Kanaan are tied for the most Indy 500 races led with 15 each.

Dixon has a win already this season, saving fuel masterfully to take the win at Long Beach. 

Row 8

Agustin Canapino - No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing car 
Hometown: Arrecifes, Argentina
Team: Juncos Hollinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.847 mph

Canapino started and finished in the 26th position last year as a rookie in the Indy 500. He crashed out late in the race. 

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 22nd position since 1935 (Kelly Petillo).

Sting Ray Robb - No. 41 Goodheart Vet/Pray.com car 
Hometown: Payette, Idaho
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.826 mph

Sting Ray Robb - yes, that's his real name - makes his second start for the Indy 500. He avoided the Last Row Shootout in qualifying this year after starting on the inside of row 11 last year. He also finished 31st after contact ended his day 90 laps in.

No driver has won the Indy 500 after starting in 23rd position. 

Christian Rasmussen - No. 33 Ed Carpenter Racing car 
Hometown: Copenhagen, Denmark
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.682 mph
Indy 500 rookie

Last year's Indy NXT Series champion, Rasmussen is primarily a road and street course driver for Ed Carpenter. In 2023, Rasmussen won five races and four poles.

No driver has won the Indy 500 after starting in 24th position. 

Row 9

Tom Blomqvist - No. 66 AutoNation/Arctic Wolf car 
Hometown: Cambridge, England
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.578 mph
Indy 500 rookie

Blomqvist's primary racing experience has come through sports cars with Meyer Shank Racing. 

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 25th position since 1974 (Johnny Rutherford).

Romain Grosjean - No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing car 
Hometown: Geneva, Switzerland
Team: Juncos Hollinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.514 mph

The goal for Grosjean this year should be to finish the Indy 500. He crashed in his first two attempts the past two years, running 105 laps in 2022 and 149 laps to finish 31st and 30th. Starting 26th is also his worst starting position after starting ninth and then 19th last year. 

He's a Formula 1 driver who came over to IndyCar a couple of seasons ago.

No driver has won the Indy 500 after starting in 26th position. 

Linus Lundqvist - No. 8 American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing car 
Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.506 mph
Indy 500 rookie

So many "qvists" in this field. Lundqvist won the 2022 Indy NXT championship and is in his first full-time IndyCar campaign. He has one top-10 and one top-5 finish in the series.

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 27th position since 1932 (Fred Frame).

Row 10

Christian Lundgaard - No. 45 Hy-Vee car 
Hometown: Hedensted, Denmark
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.465 mph

In his third Indy 500, 28th is his best starting spot after being in the last row the past two years. The 22-year-old rebounded to finish in the middle of the field at 18th in 2022 and 19th last year.

A driver hasn't won the Indy 500 after starting in 28th position since 1936 (Louis Meyer).

Conor Daly - No. 24 DRR-CUSICK MOTORSPORTS car 
Hometown: Noblesville, Indiana
Team: DRR-CUSICK MOTORSPORTS
Engine: Chevrolet
Average qualifying speed: 231.243 mph

Daly led the 2021 Indy 500 and received some thunderous cheers from the crowd, showing the Indiana native some love. He finished 13th that year and led a race-high 40 laps. Having raced in 10 Indy 500s, his best finishes came the past two years in sixth place in 2022 and eighth place last year. 

His dad, Derek Daly, also raced in the Indy 500 six times in the 1980s.

No driver has won the Indy 500 after starting in 29th position. 

Pietro Fittipaldi - No. 30 5-hour ENERGY car 
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 231.100 mph

Fittipaldi is one of the famous names in the field. His last Indy 500 start was in 2021, when he started 13th and finished 25th. His grandfather, Emerson Fittipaldi, is a two-time Indy 500 champion in 1989 and 1993. 

No driver has won the Indy 500 after starting in 30th position. 

Row 11

Me with Katherine Legge in 2006. The ChampCar days.Katherine Legge - No. 51 e.l.f. Cosmetics car 
Hometown: Guildford, England
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 230.092 mph

Legge is once again the lone woman in the field. She makes back-to-back Indy 500 starts, returning last year for the first time since 2013. This will be her fourth Indianapolis 500, but she's a veteran race car driver across various series, including sports cars. Her best finish at Indy was 22nd place in 2012.

Only nine women have ever raced in the Indy 500.

Marcus Ericsson - No. 28 Delaware Life car 
Hometown: Kumla, Sweden
Team: Andretti Global
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 230.027 mph
Indy 500 winner: 2022

Ericsson crashed his primary car in practice this year, meaning he had to qualify in his backup car which just didn't quite have the speed. He won the race two years ago and nearly went back-to-back, finishing as the runner-up last year. 

In his sixth Indy 500, his worst starting position before now was 13th in 2019. He'll have his work cut out for him on race day. 

Graham Rahal - No. 15 United Rentals car 
Hometown: New Albany, Ohio
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 
Engine: Honda
Average qualifying speed: 229.974 mph

For the second year in a row, Rahal's team struggled to find the speed for qualifying. He had to compete for a spot in the show in the Last Row Shootout, just like last year. Except this time, he avoided getting bumped when Nolan Siegel crashed in his final attempt of the day. Rahal was anything but celebratory, however, instead choosing humbleness. 

He'll start in the 33rd position in back-to-back years; he drove last year for Stefan Wilson, who qualified for the 2023 race but went out with an injury from a practice crash. Rahal finished 22nd last year.

This will be Indy 500 No. 17 for Graham, and he has four top-10 finishes and three top-5s in 16 starts. His best finish was third in 2011 and 2020.

His father, and team owner, Bobby Rahal, won the Indy 500 in 1986. 

It's just about time for the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500. 

Pay attention to the drivers in the first two rows. Indy 500 winners have started in spots 1-6 61% of the time. The winner has come out of the front row 45 times, including 2018-20. Twenty times the win started from row two, including defending champion Marcus Ericsson. In five of the past six Indy 500s, the winner has started from the first two rows.

Alex Palou is the polesitter and looks to be the 22nd winner from pole. The last driver to win from the pole was Simon Pagenaud in 2019.

It's very, very difficult to win from the back of the field, which is from the captain obvious department. No driver has ever won from the last row. Winning from rows 8-10? That hasn't happened since the 1930s. Johnny Rutherford is a bit of a standout, finding victory from row 9 back in 1974. 

No driver has ever won the Indy 500 starting from positions 18, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. So, best of luck to Ryan Hunter-Reay, David Malukas, Marco Andretti, Agustin Canapino, Katherine Legge, Christian Lundgaard, Sting Ray Robb, Jack Harvey and Graham Rahal as they try to make history. Marco and Lundgaard started in these non-winning positions last year, too. 

Me with Katherine Legge in 2006.Nine past Indy 500 champions are in the field, with all three drivers in row three (Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan) being past champions. Kanaan and Helio Castroneves, who's looking to be the only driver to win five Indy 500s, could be the oldest Indy 500 champion should either win this year. Al Unser Sr. was 47 years and 360 days old when he won his fourth Indy 500 in 1987.

Last year's race marked the second time in three years without a female driver. But Katherine Legge is back for the first time in a decade (though she's still been racing in other series), holding the torch for the women.

Through five races so far this IndyCar season, there have been no repeat winners. Should Marcus Ericsson, Josef Newgarden, Kyle Kirkwood, Scott McLaughlin or Alex Palou win this Sunday, he would be the first multi-winner of the 2023 season. 

Row 1 

Alex Palou - No. 10 The American Legion car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 234.217mph 

The Spaniard started second last year but finished ninth after a runner-up finish in the 2021 Indy 500 following a late pass from Helio Castroneves. Palou is the series points leader this season, having won the Indy Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course earlier this month. He'll attempt to sweep the month with the pole/wins at both Indy races.

Rinus VeeKay - No. 21 Bitnile.com car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 234.211 mph 

VeeKay starts in a familiar spot, the middle of the front row where he took the green flag last year. It's a regular occurrence for him, with three consecutive front-row starts at the Indy 500. He's started fourth, third, second and now second again in this race but hasn't finished higher than eighth place (2021).

He'll most likely do better this year after coming in last place with contact 38 laps in. 

Felix Rosenqvist - No. 6 Arrow McLaren car
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 234.114 mph

He went to the top of the leaderboard on the first day of qualifying to lead the Fast 12 group. Rosenqvist will look to make it back-to-back Indy 500 wins for Swedish-born drivers should he make it to victory lane. 

Row 2

Santino Ferrucci - No. 14 Homes For Our Troops car
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 233.661 mph 

This is Ferrucci's best starting spot in his fifth Indy 500 race; before this year he started no better than 15th. Despite that, he's turned in four top-10 finishes for the big race. Ferrucci finished 10th last year, sixth in 2021, fourth in 2020 and seventh for Rookie of the Year honors in 2019. 

Pato O'Ward  - No. 5 Arrow McLaren car
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 233.158 mph 

He finished second to Ericsson last year at Indy, though second place at Indy isn't much to celebrate for drivers. There's no podium; it's all about the Indy 500 champion. Pato doesn't have a win or pole to his name yet this season, but he's second in points, only six behind Palou, with a consistent run so far. 

The 2020 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year finished sixth, followed by his fourth and second-place finishes. Qualifying in row two, O'Ward has put himself in a great position once again to race for the win. 

Scott Dixon - No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 233.151 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2008

The six-time IndyCar Series champion won his fifth Indy 500 pole last year and ran a great race. It looked like he was going to finally win that elusive second Indy 500. But he was caught for a speed violation coming into pit lane which shuffled him back in the field and effectively ended his chances at victory. 

He's led 665 laps in his 20 Indy 500 starts, the most of any driver in the race's history. 

Row 3

Alexander Rossi - No. 7 Arrow McLaren car
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 233.110 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2016

It's a fresh start for Rossi this season with his new team, Arrow McLaren, which has been one of the fastest teams this month. Rossi would love to turn that page with his second Indy 500 victory. He famously won the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016. 

Takuma Sato - No. 11 Deloitte car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 233.098 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2017, 2020

Of the nine past Indy 500 champions in this field, Sato is one of two who has won the race multiple times. He's turned in fast practice times, and qualifying times, the past couple of weeks. If you believe in number patterns, perhaps this is his year to win again, three years in between wins. He's only racing the ovals this season and is no longer a full-time driver in the series.

Tony Kanaan - No. 66 Arrow McLaren car
Team: Arrow McLaren
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 233.076 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2012

One of the biggest fan favorites in the field, this year especially. The 48-year-old will strap in for his final Indy 500 and his final auto race this Sunday. He's started 21 Indy 500 races, with plenty of heartbreak before finally getting his emotional win in 2012. He's qualified well enough to be in the mix for his swan song.

Row 4

Marcus Ericsson - No. 8 Huski Ice Spritz car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 232.889 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2022

Ericsson put himself down in racing history last year when he became an Indy 500 champion, representing his home country of Sweden. He started fifth last year, so he'll have to work his way up a bit more than last year. He already has a win under his belt this season, taking the season-opener in St. Pete.

He'll look to be the sixth driver, and first since Castroneves in 2001-02, to win back-to-back Indy 500s. 

Benjamin Pedersen - No. 55 AJ FOYT RACING/SEXTON PROPERTIES car
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.671 mph 

One of four rookies in the field, Pedersen got people to notice when he qualified into the Fast 12 with a chance to vie for the pole. He's part of the legendary A.J. Foyt team and is the highest-starting rookie.

Will Power - No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.635 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2018

Power was the only Penske car to make the Fast 12 in qualifying, as some of the team's struggles for the big races over the past few years continue. 

Row 5

Ed Carpenter - No. 33 Bitnile.com car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.689 mph 

A true hometown boy, Carpenter mostly focuses on running his race team. But the Indy 500 bug still bites him to run the oval each year. He started fourth the past couple of years, and has been a polesitter in the past. He finished 19th last year. 

Scott McLaughlin - No. 3 - Pennzoil Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.677 mph 

The 2021 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year followed that up with three race victories in a solid 2022 season. But in last year's Indy 500, he crashed in turn four in the latter stages of the race for a disappointing 29th-place finish.

McLaughlin is fifth in points this season with a race win under his belt. 

Kyle Kirkwood - No. 27 AutoNation car
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 232.662 mph 

As a rookie last year, he started 28th but finished 17th racing with A.J. Foyt's team. He already won with his new team this year, taking the checkered flag first on the street course in Long Beach.

Row 6

Conor Daly - No. 20 Bitnile.com car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.433 mph 

The Noblesville, Ind. native is a local favorite in the race. He led a race-high 40 laps in 2021 when he finished 13th, to the delight of the crowd.

Josef Newgarden - No. 2 Shell Powering Progress Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.402 mph 

Newgarden has a race win this year as he looks for that elusive Indy 500 victory he's seen other Penske teammates celebrate. He's a two-time IndyCar Series champion with 26 victories to his name and 16 poles. 

Ryan Hunter-Reay - No. 23 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing car
Team: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.133 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2014

It's good to see the veteran back in IndyCar even though he doesn't have a full-time ride in the series. He starts in 18th, and when he won in 2014, he started in 19th. 

If you believe in Florida karma, his favorite hockey team is the Florida Panthers, which are on an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final. 

Row 7

Romain Grosjean - No. 28 DHL car
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.997 mph 

The F1 veteran is back and doing alright in the IndyCar Series for his second season. He crashed in turn two a little more than 100 laps into the race last year, ending his day early. He ranks fourth in series points this year with two poles already, two top-five finishes and two top-10s.

Helio Castroneves - No. 06 AutoNation SiriusXM car
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.954 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2001, 2002, 2009, 2021

The four-time winner in the field with his second shot at a "drive for five." He finished seventh last year after starting near the back of the field. He's a veteran in the field in terms or races, Indy 500 wins and age (48). No driver has won five Indy 500s. A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr. and Rick Mears have all won four of them. 

This will be Helio's 23rd start in the race.

Colton Herta - No. 26 Gainbridge car
Team: Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.951 mph 

Row 8

Simon Pagenaud - No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM car
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.878 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2019

Pagneaud is in his second season with Meyer Shank following a successful run with Team Penske. He's won 15 IndyCar races, plus a series championship, but he's yet to win with Meyer Shank. His last race win came at Iowa in 2020.

 He'll start his 12th Indy 500 hoping for a repeat of 2019's result. 

David Malukas - No. 18 HMD Trucking car
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.769 mph 

He finished 16th as the youngest driver in the field last year at 20 years old. 

Marco Andretti - No. 98 KULR/Curb  car

Team: Andretti Herta w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.682 mph 

For the third season, Marco isn't in the series full-time and comes back to run the Indy 500 as a one-off opportunity, in hopes of driving a car to victory in the race for only the second time in his storied family's history. His grandfather, Mario Andretti, won once in 1969. Marco's father and Andretti Autosport team owner, Michael, never won the race despite several close calls. Marco nearly had the victory as a rookie in 2006 before Sam Hornish Jr. beat him out at the line. 

He didn't hide his disappointment in TV interviews on qualifying day as his team just didn't have the speed. He used the word "embarrassing." 

No driver has ever won from the 24th position. 

Row 9

Devlin DeFrancesco - No. 29 Sodexo car
Team: Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.353 mph 

He started 20th and finished 24th in last year's race as a rookie. 

Agustin Canapino - No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing car
Team: Juncos Holinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.320 mph 

He's a rookie to IndyCar and the Indy 500, but he's won 15 national championships in Argentina in various series. 

Callum Ilott - No. 77 Juncos Holinger Racing car
Team: Juncos Holinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.182 mph 

A rookie last year, he was out of the race early with contact. He's also starting a couple of rows back this year. 

Row 10

RC Enerson - No. 50 Abel Motorsports car
Team: Abel Motorsports
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.129 mph 

Another rookie in the field, Enerson is one of three Floridians in the race (along with Kirkwood and Hunter-Reay). 

Katherine Legge - No. 44 Hendrickson car
Team: Rahl Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.070 mph

Legge is back in the race for the first time since 2013 and the lone female driver in the race. With her qualifying run, she's the fastest woman to ever drive at Indy Motor Speedway. Only nine women have raced in the Indy 500. 

Christian Lundgaard - No. 45 Hy-Vee car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 229.649 mph

From Denmark, he's 21 and would be one of the youngest Indy 500 winners in the history of the race. He ranks ninth in season points with one pole, one top-five finish and three top-10s this season. 

Row 11

Sting Ray Robb - No. 51 biohaven car
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 229.549 mph

The rookie who's furthest back in the field will make some lists of unique names in the history of Indy 500 drivers. The 21-year-old would be one of the youngest Indy 500 winners should he succeed.

Jack Harvey - No. 30 PeopleReady car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 229.166 mph

Harvey is still looking for his first IndyCar victory, and he'll make a lot of history if he does it here. 

Graham Rahal - No. 24 DRR Cusick CareKeepers car
Team: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.648 mph

It was heartbreak for Rahal when his teammate Jack Harvey bumped him from the field with one final qualifying run. Thirty years after his father (and now team owner), Bobby Rahal, was bumped from the race, Graham ended the day with his head in his hands thinking he wouldn't be in the race. 

But a practice crash between Legge and Stefan Wilson earlier this week left Wilson with a back injury and out of the race. Relationships between Graham and Wilson, plus the team, are tight, and Graham was selected to drive in Wilson's place. Wilson qualified the No. 24 car in row 9, but the driver change puts Graham at the back.

Helio Castroneves won his third Indianapolis 500 in 2021. 

If you read that and think there's an error in the sentence, let me explain. The 2002 Indy 500 was swirled in controversy at the end of the race. It's recorded in history as Castroneves' second Indy 500 victory, adding to his list of 2001 and eventually 2009 and 2021 to make him the fourth four-time champion of the historic race. 

With a race that's now 20 years ago - and still during the era of the head-shaking IRL/CART split - it's a safe bet that there are plenty of racing and Indy 500 fans that don't even know about this controversy. That is, when Paul Tracy maintains he passed Castroneves in the closing laps just before the yellow track lights came on signifying a caution for a crash on another part of the track. 

Watching the race footage, Tracy passes Castroneves, then we get a track-side angle of a crash on another part of the track, bringing out the caution flag. Since the crash happened on the last lap, the race would then finish under caution. Which is why you can hear Tracy ecstatic on his radio screaming "Yeah baby!" in celebration of what he thought was his first Indianapolis 500 victory. 

But no sooner had viewers seen and heard that did broadcaster Paul Page inform us all that scoring would go back to the previous lap, meaning Castroneves would take the victory. Sure enough, Castroneves and his team did the traditional fence-climb while Tracy was left mystified as to how his pass didn't stick. 

While Castroneves drank the celebratory milk, Tracy and Team Green weren't done with the outcome and looked into it further. 

By July, the Team Green appeal was denied and the Castroneves victory held up for the final time. The decision rested with Tony George, president and CEO of the IRL at the time, and the man many racing fans still are upset with all these years later because of The Split. For my Minnesota hockey friends, think of Tony George in the same vein as the name Norm Green. 

Anyway, the official decision for the 2002 race was 11 pages long and referenced the placement of the field following the incident on lap 199. It was called "a judgment call and is not protestable nor appealable under the Rule Book." 

That's about what Tracy said years later when ABC aired a sit-down interview with Tracy and pit reporter Jack Arute, that the "appeal was not appealable," Tracy said at the time. And that was after Team Green spent about $150,000 in legal fees. 

Basically, George confirmed the decision by IRL officials that it was the correct call to place Castroneves' car ahead of Tracy on that final lap after the caution period started, also indicating that there's a lot of evidence to support that. Tracy thinks otherwise, based on all the camera angles, and so do a lot of fans, no doubt. 

But under Rule 11.2 of the 2002 Indy Racing League rules, such decisions about whether a car passed another during a yellow flag involving the judgment of race officials "may not be protested or appealed and the decision of the officials is final and binding." 

So according to the official information, Castroneves was the one leading Tracy at the time that race control called for the yellow flag via radio. Team Green's side of things is that Tracy made the pass before the track lights turned yellow signaling the caution period. Team Penske, on the other hand, said Castroneves was ahead when the caution came and then immediately slowed when it came out. 

When Castroneves won his "fourth" Indy 500 in 2021, there was much fanfare and celebrating on the front stretch as dozens of drivers, crew members, opposing crew members, and living legends like Mario Andretti congratulated Castroneves on joining the four-timers club. The cameras just followed him around for a while, basically. 

But when the microphone for NBC finally made it to him, the emotional Castroneves even took the opportunity to take a good-natured shot at Tracy, who was part of the broadcast team at the time. 

"P.T., P.T.! I know you've been talking about that second win, P.T. I'm sorry man, that was my win!" 

It makes me wonder how much that 2002 finish was still talked about, or asked about, with Castroneves in the years since 2009 when he make his quest to win the race a fourth time. I'm sure it's never far from Tracy's mind every year, since he never did win the Indy 500, despite eight starts. 

Basically, the decisions came down to some race politics. Who would the IRL want to win? A driver who's full-time in the IRL with the most successful team owner of all time in Roger Penske? Or a driver, Tracy, who's from the "rival/split" CART series that comes to race the Indy 500 as a one-off race? 

Not that politics are anything new in racing. Watch the Senna documentary on the legendary and late Formula One driver to learn that tidbit. There were a few shady decisions made there by the president of the series at the time to try and screw over Senna, from Brazil, in favor of Alain Prost.

The 2002 Indy 500 and its finish will always be laced in controversy, whether anyone remembers it or not. For me, it's much like the 1981 race, which was debated for months, overturned and reversed again with Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti. Unser passed cars under the yellow flag coming out of the pits, which shouldn't be allowed. Unser ended up with three Indy 500 victories, that one included, while Andretti only found victory lane in 1969 at Indy. 

So when the biggest focus of this year's Indy 500 turns into Castroneves' Drive for Five, remember that his road to get there wasn't an easy one. And remember the pass Tracy made on lap 199 in 2002 that ultimately didn't stick.

All these years later, Castroneves has celebrated four Indy 500 victories, and Tracy maintains he was the rightful winner in 2022. 

This is May, and this post is all about the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500. 

Gone are the exciting years of "Bump Day" for qualifying, when a few unlucky teams and drivers failed to bump their way into the field of 33. This year, it sounds like it was quite the saga simply to get to that 33-car mark. Tradition is tradition with 33, so I'm grateful to whoever was involved in making sure the field is full. 

Even though weather came in and ruined a chunk of the Saturday qualifying, the Fast 12 and Fast 6 format on Sunday to determine the first few rows and pole position was enough excitement for the weekend. Scott Dixon won the pole for the second consecutive year with a four-lap qualifying average speed of 234.046 mph. It's the fastest in Indy 500 history, topping 233.718 mph set in 1996 by the late Scott Brayton. Arie Luyendyk has the all-time four-lap qualifying record with 236.986 mph in 1996, but that was on the second day of qualifications and not eligible for a pole run. 

This year's entire field is also the fastest in Indy 500 history, with an average speed of 231.023 mph, beating out last year's record average speed of 230.294 mph. 

By the numbers
The 2022 field consists of eight prior Indy 500 winners, including a trio of multi-time winners. If you don't know Helio Castroneves' name, you will. He's the defending champion and will attempt to make his "Drive for Five" to become the only five-time winner of the event. He won previously in 2001, 2002, 2009 and 2021, though I make the case that 2002 should have an asterisk attached. 

Juan Pablo Montoya and Takuma Sato are back again in search of their third victories. Dixon, Tony Kanaan, Alexander Rossi, Will Power and Simon Pagenaud will look to join the two-time-winner club. 

The record for former winners in a field is 10 drivers, back in 1992. Seven rookies are in the field - the most rookies since 2014 when there were also seven rookies. But a couple of these drivers aren't rookies in auto racing. Jimmie Johnson decided to join the Indy 500 fun this year after racing part-time in the IndyCar Series last year following his successful, seven-time-championship NASCAR career. Formula One racer Romain Grosjean makes his first Indy start, along with drivers Devlin DeFrancesco, Callum Ilott, Kyle Kirkwood, Christian Lundgaard and David Malukas. 

Ten rookies have won the Indy 500, and three are in this year's field: Montoya (2000), Castroneves (2001) and Rossi (2016). 

For the first time since 2008, when Dixon won this race, Chip Ganassi Racing has cars starting 1-2 on the grid. It was Dixon and the late Dan Wheldon starting at the front that year. 

This year, there are no female drivers in the field for the second time in three years. Last year, Simona De Silvestro started from the 33rd and final position, making history driving for an all-female-owned team. She finished 31st. The 2020 race marked the first time since 1999 that there wasn't at least one female driver in the field. There were four in the race only a few years ago, and now we're back to no women taking the green flag. Take that for what it's worth. This is a tough event and tough spot to break into when it comes to sponsorship and money. 

Starting grid stats
As I have in the past, I'll remind readers that the best chance to win the Indy 500 comes when you give your car a good starting position within the first two rows. Of course, that's not always the case, like last year when Castroneves started in the third row in the eighth position. But for the three previous years, the winner started in the front row; it's happened 45 times in 105 races. 

This is also the annual reminder that no driver has ever won the race starting from the last three positions, row 11. Actually, there are six other starting positions where no driver has ever won the Indy 500: The 18th spot on the outside of row six; 23rd and 24th in row 8; 26th in the middle of row 9; and 29th and 30th in row 10. So if Conor Daly, Marco Andretti, DeFrancesco, Scott McLaughlin, Dalton Kellett, Montoya, Lundgaard, Jack Harvey or Stefan Wilson win this Sunday, they'll make history in that regard. 

A lot of people will keep their eye on Castroneves trying to win his fifth Indy 500. But the last driver to win from 27th was Fred Frame in 1932. 

Go back to 1936 and the inaugural winner in 1911 to find a winner in row 10, 1974 was the last winner out of row 9 and, as mentioned, row 8 hasn't been great either (winners in 1927 and 1935 starting from the 22nd position). The polesitter has won the race 21 times, the latest being Pagenaud in 2019. The winner has also come out of row one 45 times in 105 races. Add in the second row (19 victories), and the winner has come out of those first two rows 61% of the time. 

So it's not entirely surprising that a driver is better served starting near the front. 

This year's row 2 is the most experienced row with 41 combined career Indy 500 starts. Ed Carpenter with 18 of them, Marcus Ericsson with three and Kanaan with 20. 

Row 1

Scott Dixon - No. 9 PNC Bank chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 234.046 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2008

Scott Dixon is a six-time IndyCar champion. He'll start from the pole for the fifth time at Indy (2008, 2015, 2017, 2021, 2022), but he still has only the 2008 Indy 500 victory to his name. The poles are great, but I think he might trade a couple if he could get a second Indy 500 win. He finished 17th last year and led only seven laps. 

Still, Dixon has led 570 laps in his Indy 500 career, the most of any driver in the field.

In his career, Dixon has 51 IndyCar victories, ranking third all-time. 

Alex Palou - No. 10 NTT Data Chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 233.499 mph 

He's the reigning IndyCar Series champion, the first Spaniard to win an IndyCar Series title, and finished as the runner-up in the 2021 Indy 500 when Castroneves passed him headed into turn one on lap 198 (two to go). He ranks second in series points this season with 156.

Rinus VeeKay - No. 21 Bitcoin Racing Team with BitNile car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 233.385 mph  

He's in his second full season with Ed Carpenter racing and started last year's race at 20 years old and the youngest front-row starter for the race. He won the road-course, Indy Grand Prix in 2021 for his first career victory. VeeKay has also qualified well each time for the Indy 500, starting fourth or better in his three Indy 500 starts (fourth as a rookie in 2020 and third in 2021).

Last year, he became the youngest driver to start from the front row in Indy 500 history, starting third and finishing eighth. 

Row 2

Ed Carpenter - No. 33 Alzamend Neuro car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 233.080 mph 

Indianapolis native Ed Carpenter is 41 years old and the only owner/driver in the field. He spends the majority of his time as an IndyCar team owner but races Indy where he's always qualified well. He has three Indy 500 poles to his name, though still looking for a victory. He's won three times in his IndyCar career, all on ovals. 

He's starting fourth for a second consecutive Indy 500. He finished fifth last year. 

Marcus Ericsson - No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 232.764 mph

Ericsson improves on his ninth-place start from last year when he finished 11th. The Swedish driver competed in Formula One before joining IndyCar in 2019. He has two career IndyCar victories, both last season, and nine top-5 finishes. 

Tony Kanaan - No. 1 The American Legion Chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 232.372 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2013

Tony Kanaan ended his string of bad luck at Indy when he won the 500 in 2013. He's no longer a full-time racer in the series, but Kanaan is back to try for a second Indy 500 victory. He's still a fan favorite and comes into the race with a total of 346 laps led at the speedway. His last win in an IndyCar, of his 17 total, came back in 2014. 

He's the oldest driver in the field at 47 years, 149 days old as of race day. He's starting from the second row for a second year in a row, starting fifth and finishing 10th last year. 

Row 3

Pato O'Ward - No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP car
Team: Arrow McLaren SP
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.705 mph

O'Ward was the 2020 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year with a sixth-place finish. Last year, he started 12th and finished fourth. He won this year's race at Barber for his third career win. 

Felix Rosenqvist - No. 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP car
Team: Arrow McLaren SP
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 232.182 mph 

The 2019 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, his lone IndyCar win came back in the 2020 season, which is also the last time he's finished in the top-5 in a race. This year's Indy 500 will be his 51st career IndyCar race. 

Romain Grosjean - No. 28 DHL car 
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.999 mph  

He's an experienced rookie in the field in his second full season of IndyCar racing. He previously made 180 starts in Formula One before 2021. He recorded three podium finishes in IndyCar last season but is still looking for his first win in the series. He's been the focus of some controversy lately, bumping into drivers' cars on track, most recently bumping Graham Rahal twice around the same stretch at Barber. 

Row 4

Takuma Sato - No. 51 Nurtec ODT car
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.670 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2017, 2020

Sato won the 500 in 2020 under caution when the race was moved to August because of the pandemic. He also came close in 2012 when he and Dario Franchitti touched on the final lap, sending Sato into the wall and Franchitti to his third Indy 500 win. Sato has six IndyCar wins, the last being that 2020 Indy 500. 

Last year, he started 15th and finished 14th for the big race. 

Will Power - No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske 
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.534 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2018

Power was the only Team Penske driver to make the Fast 12 in qualifying, which is much improved from his disastrous last-row start last year. He's also this season's points leader in the IndyCar standings with 170 points after he's finished in the top-5 of all five races so far this season. He's won at least one IndyCar race from 2007-21 and looking to make it 16-straight seasons with perhaps a win at Indy for the second time. 

Jimmie Johnson - No. 48 Carvana Chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.264 mph

The buzz about Johnson is that this is his rookie start in the Indy 500 at 46 years old. He's in his second season as a full-time IndyCar driver, but he only raced on the road and street circuits in 2021. Of course, he's most famous for being a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and regarded as one of the best drivers in the history of that sport. The only drivers to win both the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 in their careers are A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. Johnson will look to join that short list. 

Row 5

David Malukas - No. 18 HMD car
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.607 mph 

Malukas is the youngest driver in the field at 20 years old, his birthday came a couple of weeks after 9/11. He's come up through the Indy Lights ranks, winning seven races in the support series in 2021. He's led three laps so far this year in his rookie season. 

Josef Newgarden - No. 2 Shell Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.580 mph 

There's no doubt that Josef Newgarden has established a successful IndyCar career. He won the series championships in 2017 and 2019, after all. He's won a lot of races. But unlike most of his Penske teammates from past to present, Newgarden hasn't won the Indy 500 yet. Running a Penske machine always seems to give drivers a leg up in the Indy 500, so that helps. Newgarden started in row 7 last year but finished 12th. 

Newgarden won back-to-back races this year, on the Texas oval and the Long Beach road course. His best finish in the Indy 500 was third in 2016 with Ed Carpenter's team. 

Santino Ferrucci - No. 23 Palermo's Screamin Sicilian DRR car
Team: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.508 mph 

He started back in 23rd last year but rebounded well and finished sixth. He's dabbled in the Formula One support series for a few seasons before landing back in IndyCar for the 500. His seventh-place finish at Indy in 2019 earned him Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year honors. 

Row 6

Simon Pagenaud - No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM car
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.275 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2019

Pagenaud is with a new team this season after racing for a while with powerhouse Team Penske, and winning the Indy 500 in 2019 when he and Rossi made it an entertaining finish with multiple passes in the closing laps. He won the IndyCar Series in 2016 and is a 15-time race winner. But he didn't find victory lane in 2021. He started his career in the Champ Car days in 2007. 

JR Hildebrand - No. Homes For Our Troops/AJ FOYT RACING car
Team: AJ Goyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 231.112 mph 

Until Hilebrand does anything else worth noting, he will always be known as the driver who crashed in turn four of the final lap in 2011, paving the path for Dan Wheldon to win the race. It's just the way it is. Hildebrand was still the rookie of the year in 2011, and I imagine that race still haunts him. He's not a full-time driver in the series anymore and instead has made the Indy 500 starts the past few years. 

Conor Daly - No. 20 BitNile car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 230.999 mph

One of the most exciting moments in the 2021 Indy 500, especially for Hoosier State natives, was when Indiana-native Conor Daly led the race. He finished 13th and led a race-high 40 laps. His best finish was 10th in 2019. The son of former racer Derek Daly, he's still looking for his first win in IndyCar. 

Row 7

Callum Ilott - No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing car
Team: Juncos Hollinger Racing
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 230.961 mph 

He has one top-10 finish this IndyCar season, after racing in three events in 2021. 

Alexander Rossi - No. NAPA AUTO PARTS / AutoNation car
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.812 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2016

Rossi's brightest moment was a fuel strategy that paid off and sent him to victory in the 100th running of the Indy 500 in 2016 - as a rookie. He has seven victories but the last coming in 2019 when he won at Road America and finished third in championship points that season. He wasn't too pleased with how Indy 500 qualifying shook out this year, a combination of weather/track conditions and the "luck of the draw" of the qualifying order. 

Graham Rahal - No. 15 United Rentals car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.766 mph

Rahal didn't finish last year's race due to a crash. He's turning into a series veteran now, racing for his dad's (1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal) team since the 2007 Champ Car days. He's a six-time race winner but last won in 2017 when he swept the doubleheader at Detroit. He's a driver that's always in the mix but never seems to find himself at the top of the podium. 

Row 8

Sage Karam - No. 24 AES Indiana DRR car
Team: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 230.464 mph 

Karam is probably just happy to be starting somewhere other than the last row this year. From 2019-21, Karam started 31st on the grid. He had his best finish last year, in seventh place. There was a great piece recently about Karam's struggles and journey through racing in the years following the tragic incident that led to driver Justin Wilson's death at Pocono in 2015. It was a piece of Karam's car that struck Wilson on the track. 

Marco Andretti - No. 98 KULR Technology / Curb car
Team: Andretti Herta Autosport w/ Marco & Curb
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.345 mph 

This marks the second year that Marco Andretti isn't racing in IndyCar full time. He stepped away to pursue some other racing interests, but of course, he still wants to enter the biggest race of the year. With his dad, Michael Andretti, still a team owner, it's a logical step. This will always be a sentimental pick to win, as long as Marco enters the Indy 500 field. He famously lost the 2006 race in his rookie season by the slimest of margins to Sam Hornish Jr. He also won the pole position in 2020. 

Marco is always chasing family history behind his grandfather, Mario Andretti, who is the only Andretti to win the race in 1969. Marco's dad Michael is the greatest driver to never win the race (he got close in 1992, for example), though he's won as a team owner multiple times. Marco usually runs well at Indianapolis, even if drinking the milk always ends up out of reach. 

Devlin DeFrancesco - No. 29 PowerTap car
Team: Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.326 mph 

He's a rookie who competed in the Indy Pro 2000 on the way to IndyCar. 

Row 9

Colton Herta - No. 26 Gainbridge car
Team: Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.235 mph 

If you believe in momentum, Herta has already won one race at Indianapolis this month, the grand prix on the speedway's road course. He's still on the young side of IndyCar - and became the youngest IndyCar winner ever - but he's been successful already in his fifth season in the series with seven victories. His dad and former driver Bryan Herta is part team owner for his car.

Colton will start his fourth Indy 500 this year; he finished eighth in 2020. 

Scott McLaughlin - No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske car 
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 230.154 mph

McLaughlin, the 2021 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, won the first race of this season and ranks third in this year's series points. Before IndyCar, the New Zealander was still with Team Penske but as a successful driver in Australian Supercars. 

Helio Castroneves - No. 06 AutoNation/Sirius XM car
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 229.630 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2001, 2002, 2009, 2021

Castroneves joined legends A.J. Foyt, the late Al Unser Sr. (died Dec. 9, 2021) and Rick Mears on the list of four-time Indy 500 winners when he won the race last year driving for Meyer Shank Racing rather than Roger Penske, the team owner he drove for in most of his successful career. At 47, Castroneves is one of the oldest drivers in the field; he would be the third-oldest winner of the race should he win this year behind Al Unser and Bobby Unser. Al Unser was 47 and 360 days old when he won his fourth in 1987; Castroneves turned 47 on May 10. 

He's the most experienced driver in the field with 21 previous Indy 500 starts. Thirty-five starts is the record, set by A.J. Foyt from 1958-92. 

The Indy 500 has seen five back-to-back winners, with the last being Castroneves when he won in 2001 and 2002. Before that, it was Al Unser in 1970 and 1971. As an extra incentive, BorgWarner (of the famous Borg-Warner trophy) put up a $400,000 bonus for Castroneves if he can achieve victory once again. 

Castroneves has won the race starting in rows 3, 4 and 5, never from the pole or the first two rows. 

Row 10

Kyle Kirkwood - No. 14 ROKiT / AJ FOYT RACING car
Team: AJ Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 229.406 mph 

He's the only driver to win championships in all three divisions on the Road to Indy support series in Cooper Tires USF2000, Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights series before making the jump to IndyCar as a rookie this season. 

Dalton Kellett - No. 4 K-LINE / AJ FOYT RACING car
Team: AJ Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: 228.916 mph 

It's his third year as an IndyCar regular. He struggles to find speed during races. I wouldn't be surprised to see him get lapped early. He crashed out of Indy in 2020 to finish 31st but improved to finish 23rd last year. And as I worked on this piece, Kellett crashed into the wall in practice the Monday following qualifying. He came out of it unscathed. 

Juan Pablo Montoya - No. 6 Arrow McLaren SP car
Team: Arrow McLaren SP 
Engine: Chevrolet 
Qualifying speed: 228.622 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2000, 2015

Another one of the most veteran race drivers in the field at 46 years old. He won the storied race as a rookie in 2000. Montoya dabbled in CART, NASCAR, sports cars and Formula One in his diverse racing portfolio. He's the only driver to win the CART championship (1999), Indy 500 (2000) and Rolex 24 at Daytona (2007) in his first attempts. He has 15 career wins in CART and IndyCar. 

Row 11

Christian Lundgaard - No. 30 PeopleReady car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 227.053 mph 

He's in his first full season in IndyCar this year, with one top-10 in five races so far. 

Jack Harvey - No. 45 Hy-Vee car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 226.851 mph

He finished 18th in last year's Indy 500. He's one of five drivers who have won on both the oval and the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the Indy Lights series. He's still looking for his first victory in the top IndyCar series. 

Stefan Wilson - No. 25 DragonSpeed / Cusick Motorsports car 
Team: DragonSpeed / Cusick Motorsports
Engine: Chevrolet
Qualifying speed: No speed; did not run due to engine change/weather

Wilson carries on the racing history in the footsteps of his late brother Justin Wilson. Stefan's best finish was 15th in 2018; he was the leader on lap 195 but had to pit for fuel on lap 196 and surrender the lead. He crashed out in last year's racing, registering a 33rd/last-place finish. He'll make his fourth Indy 500 start this year. 

Gordon Johncock's 1982 Indy 500 winner.It's 2022 and time for the 106th running of the Indianapolis 500. This means it's been 30 years and 40 years since a couple of the closest finishes in the history of the greatest spectacle in racing. In 1982, Rick Mears and Gordon Johncock dueled in the final laps to the checkered flag. Mears tried to make a pass on the final straightaway but came up just short. At a 0.16 margin of victory, it was the closest finish in Indy 500 history until that point. 

Then a decade later, the 1992 race essentially said: "hold my beer" and became the closest finish in the history books, a 0.043 margin of victory for Al Unser Jr. over Scott Goodyear that still holds up today.

When thinking back on the history of the Indy 500, there are a couple of races and finishes that will always stand out. And the thing is, as exciting as those finishes were, plenty of memorable things happened earlier in the race as well. In 1992, the polesitter spun before the drop of the green flag. And 1982 is also known for a completely chaotic start with a front-straight crash involving multiple vehicles when Kevin Cogan's car suddenly veered sideways and turned into another car. 

So, let's dig into the 1992 Indy 500, the 76th running of the race. First, we need to set the mood by watching the intro video from the ABC broadcast, narrated by the legendary broadcaster Paul Page and set to music from the Delta Force theme. If these intro videos don't pump you up for watching the Indy 500, I don't know what to tell you. 

"The largest single gathering of people for a sporting event," Page tells us. Yes, it's true. The speedway is massive and full of fans, especially during this era of the early 90s. "There comes a time in a race where money doesn't matter, living doesn't matter, winning is the only thing that matters," says Al Unser Jr. 

Pre-race festivities, setting the scene
Jump to some of the pre-race festivities, and we hear Gomer Pyle, aka Jim Nabors, singing Back Home Again in Indiana. It's about the traditions and people. That song title seems to be used more and more in recent years for Indy 500 marketing and merchandise. Maybe not being from Indiana contributes here, but I don't think it's *that* great of a line that we need to go that hard on the marketing. 

Anyway, next we get the "lady and gentleman, start your engines" call from Mary Fendrich Hulman, the chairman of the board emeritus Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Lyn St. James made her rookie start in the field, necessitating the need for the call change. Then we get a few close-ups of cars getting fired up, the driver faces in their helmets as Page narrates. 

Page mentioned the "crisp, cold day here... the coldest we can remember." My dad attended this race as his first Indy 500 in-person, and he is still disappointed that it was "like a football game" as far as the weather is concerned. It was overcast and a chilly 51 degrees for the race, which seems more like a typical Memorial Day weekend in Minnesota than in Indiana. 

Pit reporter Gary Gerold walks with team owner Chip Ganassi from the grid back to the pits. And then, we have our first of many, many glitches of the race. John Paul Jr.'s No. 93 machine failed to start on the grid, so they hand-start it to get going. 

Cue the on-screen graphics for the Valvoline-sponsored Race Analysis for the 500-mile, 200-lap race. The average speed record was 185.981 mph set in 1990, and the field averaged a qualifying speed of 223.479 mph. Things are a bit faster 30 years later. 

ABC's Jack Arute is in the pits with some new rules for pit lane, one of which is that the pit lane speed limit is 100 mph during cautions. Now, I believe the pit speed is even slower and drivers have the capability to put on their speed limiter to avoid going too fast. Some still get penalties because they must get on that button just a little too late. 

Issues before the green flag drops
Legendary Bobby Unser, a 3-time Indy 500 winner and then-broadcaster (may he rest in peace), is driving the pace car and reports a bit from the vehicle. Page is very concerned about how the cold day is going to affect the cars. As if on cue, this is when polesitter Roberto Guerrero spins out on the backstretch, hitting the inside wall on the second parade lap. Win the pole, and you don't even make it to the green flag after not getting up to race speed. 

They're not done with that incident yet, and then there's a stopped Philippe Gache, a rookie, who spun in the fourth turn of the track. "We're not even to the pace lap of this race," Page says. Three cars have had issues already. Time for a quick commercial break from the early carnage. 

Finally, it's time for the green flag to finally drop, with only the two-car front row of Eddie Cheever and Mario Andretti. Green! Green! Green! Cheever takes the lead, but he is quickly sandwiched/passed by the father/son duo of Mario and Michael Andretti. Commentator Sam Posey later says that he thinks Cheever missed a gear. It's son Michael who quickly jumps to a commanding lead, leaving the rest of the field in his dust. No one is even close to him. 

Arie Luyendyk from Team Chip Ganassi passes Mario for second place. And for as much minor carnage as there was before the race started, the entire field should be commended for making it through the first turn and first lap without any incident. But don't worry, we're less than 10 laps in when rookie Eric Bachelart, the Indy Lights (support series) champion slows and pulls off to the inside of the track, bringing out the first of (spoiler) many cautions we'll see on this day. 

Signs of the 90s times 
Before going to break again, the broadcast catches a shot of Sandy Andretti, Michael's wife, sitting along the pit wall in what must have been a very-stylish-at-the-time puffy white jacket and hat with stars and gold trim. It's always been a theme for the camera crews to catch up with wives and girlfriends in the pits during the race and then usually as the winner crosses the finish line. 

I should mention, too, that 1992 has on-screen graphics to let viewers know the leaderboard. That's been in place for many years, but the graphics only pop up at certain times, usually right before commercial breaks. So keeping track of the leaders is a bit tougher than it is today with the constant on-screen crawl of names. 

Back to the caution period, Mario Andretti comes into the pits in his Havoline/Kmart machine. There's something electrical his crew is working on. We also get a brief interview with Kenny Bernstein, Guerrero's car owner, who can't really shed too much light on the situation about the polesitter's spin. 

St. James, who's 45 years old at the time, is in 22nd place, and we'll keep an eye on her throughout the race. Bobby Unser has also made his way from the pace car to the broadcast booth. 

Back to green, for a moment
We're back to green-flag racing, and Michael Andretti again runs away from the rest. They run a lap or less before 1983 Indy 500 winner Tom Sneva slams into the wall to bring out another caution. He's crashed in five of his last seven starts and hasn't finished the race since he won it, Posey tells us. But hey, he'll still always be an Indy 500 champion. In this case, Senva lost it coming into turn four and slammed into the outside wall. Parts go flying. Sneva is taken off on a stretcher into the ambulance but waves to the crowd as he goes.

Time to check in with polesitter Guerrero. "I keep hoping this is a dream or a nightmare," he says, adding that he was trying to warm up his rear tires in light of the cold weather. He seems in complete disbelief, for sure. 

Another commercial as the caution continues, and then we come back to a pre-done feature from Arute showing us the 1911 winning car, then shows the IndyCar decades later, with the computer screen for drivers behind the steering wheel along with all the other knobs and buttons. Things look much different today, of course, with all the advancements in technology. 

Mario Andretti had a short in the ignition wire, so he's back running. But we're not done checking in with him. At this point, Al Unser Jr. is back in 20th place before the restart after 19 laps. Tuck that away for later. Apparently, the drivers have also radioed their crews that they're pretty cold while turning laps. No, really? It's cold.

Checking in with the field
Scott Brayton is in second place, and then Luyendyk passes his teammate Cheever for third place. Michael Andretti is still dominating out front. He has speed (220 mph) that no one else can seem to match yet. 

Checking in on other parts of the field, Bobby Rahal moves around John Andretti, the nephew of Mario. This race field has four drivers named Andretti, with Mario, Michael, John and Mario's other son, Jeff Andretti. 

We get a little on-board camera action with 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal, driving the Miller Genuine Draft-sponsored car before making another pass. Scott Goodyear also jumps into the pits, starting the race from the back row. Then we go back to the track and get a leaderboard update to find out the race is on lap 37. 

Cut to a pre-taped interview with Michael Andretti answering a question about the Indy 500 and how he's not intimidated by it. A lot of it has to do with the family history, he says, adding that if he wins this race it will be a bonus because he's done so many other things in his career. Thinking about it 30 years later, that's a good way for Michael to look at it. 

The 1989 Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi passes Jimmy Vasser, whose name we hear for the first time as the fastest rookie in the race. Vasser went on to a successful career in the car before becoming a team owner. 

Also, much of the field isn't on the lead lap anymore. Michael Andretti just put his dad a lap down, for one thing. Rick Mears is also down a lap and comes into the pits for a routine stop, which are in the 15-16-second neighborhood in 1992. Posey comments that Mears doesn't have the speed today. 

After 51 laps, Michael still leads, with Cheever in second, followed by Brayton, Luyendyk and Fittipaldi. Then we see driver Scott Pruett, in a Budweiser-sponsored car, glides into the pits with a cloud of smoke coming behind him.

Racing history in the booth
Page informs us that Michael led 97 laps in the 1991 race, the most of any driver that year. But it was Mears who came away with his fourth (and final) Indy 500 victory that year. Posey adds that Michael is running away with this race. Will the Andretti curse show up once again this year? The Valvoline Race Summary graphic shows us that after 50 laps, Michael led 39 of them with an average race speed of 158.631 mph and five lead changes (pit stops shuffle things). Thirty cars of the 33 are still running at this point. 

Johncock makes his way onto the inside apron of the track with smoke coming out of his rear, a blown engine. Johncock, you'll remember, is famously the winner of the 1982 race, beating out Mears. Johncock heads into the pits here, but the caution flag comes out anyway after 62 laps. Nothing with Johncock here, but we see a John Andretti crew member getting stretchered the pits after an injury from that last pit stop. Sounds like he came into the pits too hot.

More cautions and updates
Green flag once again with only three cars on the lead lap - three! Michael, Cheever and Fittipaldi. And as restarts breed more cautions, there's another crash. It will end Gache's day this time, a day he'll probably want to forget. His car was hit, sitting in the middle of the track with various debris scattered around while the safety team attends to him. Stan Fox was the other car involved, and he apparently hit Gache in the incident. 

On the replay, we see Gache lose it in a corner, hit the outside wall and then the car drifted down the track as traffic comes by. Fox really didn't have anywhere to go. While Fox walked away, Gache is wheeled to the ambulance on a stretcher, appearing to be moving around and relatively alright though. 

We get a couple more pit-row updates during the caution, talking to Pruett after his engine blew, learning more about a supposed radio problem for Michael Andretti and an update on Luyendyk. Unser Jr. is up to 6th during this caution, and we get another update on St. James, "taking her time" during a pit stop. Cue the pre-taped interview with St. James and her discussing how she got interested in racing. She talks about being friends with some guys as a teenager, and they were all interested in cars. "It was just a lot of fun," she says, of racing. 

She also adds: "I was the girl. But it was ok." She was comfortable in that world, too. So, before Danica Patrick, before Sarah Fisher, there was Lyn St. James. 

Under caution, Arute has another Indy 500 Track Facts feature, about a new safety feature near the entrance of the pits, where there have been some bad crashes in the past. Then we check in with Fox outside the medical center, he's fine. 

This one is shaping up to be a weird one
On the restart, Michael Andretti continues to leave the rest of the field in his wake. I guess they really didn't wave off the restarts because the field wasn't bunched up enough like they do now. Posey comments that this is effectively a one-man race right now. 

And just as quickly as we had a restart, the caution flag comes out again as Fittipaldi, one of the cars who had been running up front, crashes into the wall. It's here that Page remarks what an unusual race this has become, from the polesitter spinning before the race started to all of these crashes during the race. 

On the replay, it looks like it's Mears and Jim Crawford who connect for a crash, too, and then Fittipaldi comes into frame hitting the wall on his own before coming across the first crash or any debris. Mears and Fittipaldi are both Team Penske cars, so Roger Penske is not too pleased at this point, I'm sure. Mears is stretchered off, waving to the crowd. Fittipaldi gets onto his stretcher under his own power but looks to be in some pain. 

When two Penske cars - two Indy 500 champions - go out within seconds of each other in the race, you know it's a bad day at the speedway.

'More like a war zone'
Let's check in with Gache outside the track medical center. He's alright as well. He also indicated that he had an engine problem before the start of the race. And hey, it's a good thing Arute and ABC made a few of these canned feature stories because here's another one during this caution. It goes over the evolution and changes of the cars at Indianapolis since 1911, complete with old footage from past races. 

Let's have some carnage in the pits, too. Dominic Dobson had an issue when he tried to drive away without a left rear tire attached. We also have a crew member for Mario Andretti's team getting his right foot attended to, complete with a close-up of the man's ankle. 

We have another leaderboard update after 70 laps, with Michael leading, Cheever in second and an update needed as it still lists Fittipaldi in third even though he's out of the race. Luyendyk, Rahal, Unser Jr., Brayton, Goodyear and Paul Tracy follow. At this time, 26 cars are still listed as running, with Mario in the last spot. 

Just as I note that, the green flag drops, we see Michael navigate through some lapped cars on the front stretch, and just as quickly we see yet another crash coming out of turn four. It's Mario Andretti, and his car comes to rest on the inside of the track near the pit entrance. His onboard camera shows him throwing his steering wheel aside.

Bobby Unser offers up this line: "Well it's been more like a war zone today than it has been a race." 

Well said. 

On the replay riding with Mario, it looks like the back end just got loose and sent him into the wall. Posey said Mario has failed to finish in 20 of 27 Indy 500 races to this point. Andretti Curse, anyone? Add another piece of evidence to the file. 

Posey, upon seeing this crash replay again, says this race has turned into a demo derby. Also, he mentions the technology of the IndyCars keeping the drivers safe. We get plenty of replays of Mario's onboard camera, seeing his head whip around in the car. 

This marks the sixth caution period of the day. Take a ride around the track with Rahal's onboard camera while another graphic-box with his pretaped interview shows Bobby talking about his love for the sport of IndyCar racing. That's why he keeps racing, because he loves it. 

Pit stops, check-in for more medical updates
Michael and Cheever enter the pits for routine stops under the yellow. The speed limit in the pits under yellow is 100 mph, and Posey notices how slow that looks. He's right. It's amazing how slow the cars look, even when they go around the track under caution speeds. Cheever beats Michael out of the pits amid the lapped traffic. 

The booth fellas talk a little bit more about the cold day and how that affects the tires. Now let's see if this next restart is a clean one for a few laps. Michael has some lapped traffic to jump around here. The speed he's carrying is really fun to watch. 

In another interview outside the medical center, we hear from Rick Mears' dad, Bill Mears, which is different. He assures us all that Rick is OK, including his feet, which is concerning from a past crash Mears had years ago where his feet were badly injured. 

As Rahal and Brayton compete for third place, Brayton's engine lets go with the now-familiar sight of a cloud coming out of the car's rear. Another Buick engine fails a driver on this day, according to Bobby Unser. This is right before the halfway mark of the race, about 93 laps in, as Brayton makes his way down pit line and out of harm's way. 

More and more cars are out of the race
The Goodyear blimp gives viewers a shot of Michael Andretti on the restart from high above. But hold on, because Tracy slows and pulls off into the grass while rookie Vasser slams into the wall and settles into the infield grass while the safety teams attend to him. Bobby Unser has had enough and casually slams the rookies for not knowing about the cold tires etc. It's been a day in the booth, folks. 

Brayton is out of the race, by the way, and also mentions the cold temperatures affecting things in his on-camera interview. I wonder what Michael Andretti is thinking at this point. He obviously has an extremely fast car and is turning laps like nobody else. But the near-constant caution periods have to be annoying, too. 

With all the carnage, we get a word from Dr. Henry Bock, the medical director at the speedway, to update the media on Sneva (good condition, negative X-rays), Crawford, Mears (right knee injuries), Fittipaldi (left knee puncture wound) and Mario Andretti (feet injuries) are going to Methodist Hospital. 

Some more pit interviews here, including Rick Galles, the car owner for Al Unser Jr. He mentions being back on the lead lap and says "you never know." 

Only 19 cars are still running. We get a list of those out of the race: Guerrero, Bachelart, Sneva, Pruett, Johncock, Gache, Fox, Mears, Crawford, Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Brayton, Tracy, Vasser. So yeah, fun times out there on track. Most of those were from crashes, too, rather than mechanical issues. 

Another restart, another crash
We're finally ready for another restart, and we get only a couple of seconds of green-flag racing before rookie Brian Bonner crashes hard into the outside wall in turn four before he reached the green flag. He gets out of the car wearing a white driver suit with an apparent Applebee's sponsorship on the back. 

At about halfway through the race, 51 laps were run under green and 51 laps under yellow. So not only are all the bundled-up spectators having to sit outside in these cool temps, they're not being treated to a ton of green-flag racing. And the staff making up the safety teams and the track medical center certainly earned their money on this race day. Speaking of, let's throw it to another pretaped feature about the track medical center, getting an inside look at the facility and procedures. 

127.982 mph is the average speed of the race up until this point, with eight caution periods. 

It's not just the drivers who've had issues during the race either. Come back from the commercial and we see a member of Luyendyk's crew getting some attention after a mishap where he was refueling, lost his balance and slipped across the back of the car as Luyendyk pulled away. Page comments "thank goodness" that the refuelers in the pit crews are required to wear helmets. What's jarring to watch this 30 years later, however, is that he's the only one wearing a helmet. Now, all pit crew members wear firesuits and helmets for safety. 

Time for a restart once again, if we dare. Seven cars are on the lead lap. Due to some shuffling, Al Unser Jr. had the lead, but it didn't take long for Michael Andretti to charge back to the lead. A few more laps tick off, Rahal makes a pit stop for a flat tire and we get a brief shot of Michael's No. 1 Texaco car along the back straight. 

Then, another crash. Posey simply utters "Jeff Andretti" as we see his car hit the wall and come to a stop in the middle of the track. Gary Bettenhausen is also caught up in the aftermath in his bright Glidden car; he's now failed to finish 15 of his 20 Indy 500 races. Man, that is some bad luck right there. 

On the replay, it looked like Jeff's car lost a right-rear wheel before the corner and his car went flying into the outside wall. "That's a head-on crash. That's a bad angle there for Jeff," Bobby Unser says as we see the gruesome replay of the car indeed slamming into the wall and destroying the front end. 

Halway point
Just past halfway, and Page calls this "a race riddled with accidents" as he throws it to break. Crews are working hard to get Jeff  Andretti out of the car. The way the driver's feet are so close to the front wing of the car, it's pretty obvious there would be some bad potential injuries to his feet. Posey reminds us that two Andrettis are on their way to the hospital, the other being Jeff's dad, Mario. 

With another caution, let's roll an in-depth feature about driver Nelson Piquet, a former Formula One champion who suffered a brutal crash practicing for the 1992 Indy 500. He hit the wall outside of turn four, injuring his feet and legs pretty badly. Seeing the replay, it looks like a similar crash to Jeff Andretti's, who by this time is getting loaded into the ambulance. 

Meanwhile, his brother Michael is still driving around the track, knowing that his family members (and yes, fellow racers) are both headed to the hospital. We're up to 119 laps of the race, with 16 cars still running, 17 out of the race. 

We're so desperate for some content here - before calling it "content" was even a thing - that ABC now throws the segment to pretaped interviews with Formula One drivers, asking them what they think of the Indy 500 and if they're interested in the race. Nigel Mansell, Riccardo Patrese and the legendary Ayrton Senna weigh in. 

As we get back to some shots of crew chiefs and driver wives sitting in the pits, I have to say, it's weird to see everyone sitting out in the open. I'm talking about canopies and timing stands that today are commonplace in the pits. Every team has their own booth area, also with their technology toys like laptops etc. How times have changed. 

Remember Luyendyk's crew member who nearly got run over? Well, we learn that a member of Crawford's crew stepped in to help out with Luyendyk's pit stops in his absence. That certainly doesn't happen much. 

Green, green, green again. Let's see how long it can last. 

"We're at lap 124, and I think we've got a race on our hands," Posey says. 

Focusing in on the leaders
Cheever is assessed a penalty for passing on under the yellow (that's a no-no), so he's fallen back in the field now. But they talk to car owner Chip Ganassi, and he's irate because he has no idea where that penalty came from. He apparently passed Raul Boesel. 

Al Unser Sr. is up to fourth place, and Page floats the idea of Big Al being the first five-time winner. Meanwhile, Michael is flying at 228.6 mph around the track. Unser Jr. went by on a 222.178 mph lap. I don't want to jinx it, but we're also getting a bunch of green-flag laps. Michael has about a nine-second lead, ahead of Luyendyk and Unser Jr. Sixteen cars are still running after 130 laps. 

And... we're back. Second-place Luyendyk connects with the wall to end his day and bring out yet another caution period. That pushes Unser Jr., Unser Sr. and Scott Goodyear into the positions behind Michael. 

The Unsers are now leading under caution as I imagine Michael must have come into the pits. Let's cut to a pre-taped clip of Unser Jr. talking about how emotional he gets during races. Keep that one in the back pocket. 

A day to remember for the Andrettis
Posey says that it's certainly going to be a day for Michael to remember, not only for his domination of the race but because his dad and brother both ended up in the hospital following crashes. He's also working his way up the list of all-time leaders in terms of laps led at Indianapolis. 

As Michael weaves his way through lapped traffic, he comes across Unser Sr., and the elder driver passes Michael right back before Michael gets him again on the inside. He just seems to have speed that isn't matched by any other driver on this day. 

Buddy Lazier slows on the backstretch on lap 149. He's a young driver at this point, but I recall him as a driver that perhaps overstayed his welcome and raced for a long time in the Indy 500. 

With another caution period, let's go back to the doc outside the track medical center for more updates. Dr. Bock tells us that Brian Bonner has gone to Methodist Hospital with a bruised left foot and right shin injury. Vasser has an apparent fractured right thigh bone. Jeff Andretti has a concussion and severe injuries to his feet and ankles. Luyendyk will be released shortly with a bruised right foot. 

Unser Jr. is the leader of the 14 running cars on the 12th caution period, two fewer than the record number of caution. The booth also confirms that Michael came in to fill his fuel tank, which took him out of the lead. Ted Prappas' car is pushed down pit lane, leaving St. James as the lone rookie still running, in 11th place. Thirteen cars remain in the race with 150 of 200 laps complete. 

Lap 154, and it's back to the green flag. Unser Jr. still holds the lead, and under-the-radar Goodyear is in second place. He started in last place. No driver has ever won from last place. But after 165 laps, Michael has regained the lead, turning laps at 229 mph. This is definitely his race. 

Now, the chatter in the booth has started to really turn toward discussing Michael's dominance of the race and the potential that he'll go all the way and win it. It would be the second win for the successful Andretti family at Indianapolis. Posey brings up this point in the race in 1987 when Mario was in about the same position as Michael is now, and Mario's engine decided to let go at that point. Interesting. 

Michael is into the pits now, giving up the lead if only for now. A clean stop for Michael, getting him new tires and fuel. Goodyear comes in for his final stop, too. This puts Big Al and Little Al into the top spots, but they still need to stop here, and they do. It's 628 Indy 500 laps led for Big Al before he heads into the pits. One of the best to ever run at the speedway. 

Lap 178 and Michael is back in the lead after that round of pit stops. Stops here are 14-17 seconds or so, and yes, they're much faster today. Under 10 seconds. With so many cars out, here's a reminder that four-time winner Foyt and 1986 winner Rahal are still running, too. They come in for routine pit stops. 

We're at 18 laps to go now, and how can Michael not win this race, right? 

Closing in on the finish, and it's dramatic
Posey comments on the battle for second place "should anything go wrong with Michael" being one of the best they've seen in a long time, between Unser Jr. and Goodyear. Posey is so good in the booth, by the way. I enjoy going back to old races and hearing his voice alongside Page. 

Lap 188 is complete, and Little Al passes Goodyear for second place. 

Eleven laps to go, Page says, followed up by this with a shot of Michael's car: "And Michael is slowing. Michael is slowing. The rest of the field is coming past. Michael Andretti is slowing down. Al Unser Jr. will take the lead as Michael Andretti slows down at Indianapolis. An unbelievable turn of events. The man who has dominated this race, on the 189th lap, suddenly the car slows and Michael appears to be done."

Then we get Bobby Unser: "Paul, that is another Andretti thing. It's sad for Michael. I have never seen a race driver in my life that deserves this race more than Michael Andretti. And he isn't even going to make it back to the pits." 

"We've got a whale of a race on the racetrack," Page says, as the focus now turns to the tight battle between leader Unser Jr. and Goodyear. The yellow flag does come out here, because of Michael's car on the track. Arute tells us about Michael's radio communication to the team: "I can't believe it, the engine quit," Michael reportedly told his team. 

There are 10 laps to go. What a heartbreaking day for Michael and the Andretti family. Michael led 163 laps. Total domination. And his engine failed him. 

We go back to green with less than 10 to go as Goodyear tries to chase down Unser Jr. Forget all the caution periods, the cold day, all the cars that are out of the race. There are seven laps to go, and these two are going to give the fans a shootout of a finish. Goodyear is definitely within striking distance to try and make a pass. For now, just enjoy watching these two race around the oval. 

Goodyear is closing the gap, there's no doubt. Three to go, and he's right there. Right behind him. Two laps to go, and Page reminds us that this was the time in 1989 when Fittipaldi and Unser Jr. touched wheels, sending Unser Jr. into the wall and Fittipaldi on to victory. 

The white flag is out, Page reminds us of the close finish a decade ago in 1982 between Johncock and Mears. The final corner, the final stretch before the yard of bricks. Goodyear closes in and tries to come around Little Al on the inside. And I've gotta say, that's some not-so-great camera direction from ABC going on as the cars cross the finish line. Right at that happens, we get a shot of the flag stand waving the checkered and one holding up a sign completely blocking the shot. Is that really necessary? Kind of ruined the moment a bit. 

Al Unser Jr.'s 1992 Indy 500 winner.
But anyway... Little Al holds him off and wins his first Indianapolis 500! 

Posey is right there with this: "I believe that's the closest finish in Indy history. Closer than the race 10 years ago when Gordon Johncock beat Rick Mears!" Bobby Unser, Little Al's uncle, says it's the most fabulous finish he's ever seen. 

We see the Unser Jr. pit crew celebrating, then get an interview with car owner Rick Galles who says "this feels good." 

The broadcast does show us a slow-motion view of the finish, with Goodyear's pass attempt and Little Al winning by less than a car length. The margin of victory: 0.043. It still holds up prior to the 2022 race as the closest finish in Indy 500 history. So for all that, one of the most unusual, crash-filled, injury-riddled days at the Speedway, fans were treated to the closest finish ever. 

An emotional celebration for Unser Jr.
Page then tells a story about Unser Jr. telling him on a plane recently that he was worried he may never win this race. 

Now it's time to see Unser Jr. in his car with the Borg-Warner trophy behind him. Arute is there for the comments and celebration. Unser Jr. says he almost took it too easy off turn four, then gets a hug from his car owner as the traditional jug of milk is handed to him. 

Arute asks Unser Jr. about his dream of winning the Indy 500. Unser Jr. said he didn't think he had a chance to win this race, mentioning Michael Andretti. Arute jumps in with an "it sounds like there's some tears in your voice right now." 

Then Little Al offers this line that is one of the most memorable from Indy 500 celebrations: 

"You just don't know what Indy means."

Go listen to the clip to hear the emotion in his voice as he gets more hugs. 

Page has this fact for us, too. Bobby Unser won on May 24, 1981. Al Unser Sr. won on May 24, 1987. Al Unser Jr. wins the Indy 500 on May 24, 1992. By the way, Big Al took third place in this one, not that anything really matters other than first place here. 

So, we've reached the end of the minute-by-minute, lap-by-lap journey through the 1992 Indianapolis 500. A race that is most notable for the polesitter's spin before the green flag, the high volume of car carnage and the closest finish of all time. Thanks for coming along on the ride with me. 

The world is healing. That's a phrase I've heard and used many times recently, especially when it comes to the sports world. Things are much different than they were a year ago, when everything was pretty much shut down because of a worldwide pandemic. While the COVID-19 virus is still around, vaccines have been shot into arms and restrictions have eased. 

Now, it's time for the 105th running of the Indianapolis 500 this weekend. 

Last year, the Indy 500 was delayed and run in August without fans in attendance. While the series was fortunate to run the event, not having hundreds of thousands of fans there to witness it just wasn't quite the same. This time around, the brickyard will welcome back about 40% - or about 135,000 fans - to the storied oval. 

This year's field of 33 IndyCar drivers represents the fastest field in the history of the race, averaging 230.294 mph. It eclipses the 2014 grid at 229.382 mph. The cars will be led by Scott Dixon after he won his fourth career pole at Indianapolis, tied with Rex Mays, A.J. Foyt and Helio Castroneves for second-most all-time; Rick Mears has six Indy 500 poles. 

Part of the story in IndyCar the past couple of seasons has focused on age and a bit of the changing of the guard. This year's Indy 500 field contains nine drivers who are at least 40 years old. One of those is polesitter Dixon. Four-time winners A.J. Foyt and Al Unser were both 47 years old when they won their final Indy 500. Unser won his last 500 in 1987. 
According to Indy Star, Troy Ruttman was only 22 years and 80 days old when he won the Indy 500 in 1952. This year, Rinus VeeKay (20), Colton Herta (21) and Pato O'Ward (22) will try to beat that mark and become the youngest winner of the race. 
Castroneves is still trying to become a member of the elite four-time-winner club. He turned 46 years old earlier this month. But he's not quite the oldest driver in the field. Tony Kanaan hit 46 last December. Two-time winners Juan Pablo Montoya (45) and Takuma Sato (44) will try for win No. 3. Champ Car champion Sebastian Bourdais is 42. Dixon, Ed Carpenter, Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay are all 40 years old; Carpenter is the only one of those four to be without an Indy 500 win, though he's won pole multiple times. 
On the flip side, the other two drivers on the front row are 21 and 20 years old. The field also has a pair of 22-year-olds in Pato O'Ward and Santino Ferrucci and a pair of 24-year-olds in Alex Palou and rookie Pietro Fittipaldi. 
This year's race field also features a record nine former Indy 500 Rookies of the Year. Eight ROY winners started the race back in 1990. 

Starting grid
Traditionally, it's usually best to start in the first two rows if you want to win the race. That makes sense, of course. But 104 races is quite the sample size, too. The winner has come from the first three starting spots (row 1) 45 times, including each of the past three years. Sixty-four of 104 race winners have started in the first two rows.

Here's a look at the field of 33, the details and some other tidbits about the drivers.

Row 1

Scott Dixon - No. 9 PNC Bank Grow Up Great car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.685 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2008 

Dixon is fresh off his sixth IndyCar championship in 2020. He won his fourth IndyCar pole position, and also his first overall IndyCar pole position since 2017. He started from the Indy 500 pole in 2015 and 2017. When he won his only Indy 500 race in 2008, he also started from the pole. The polesitter has won the Indy 500 21 times, most recently in 2019 with Simon Pagenaud's first 500 victory. 

Dixon has a race win under his belt this season in Texas. Last year at Indy he started and finished second. For all of his overall success in IndyCar, Dixon still only has one Indy 500 victory to his name. Should he finish his career without another trip to victory lane for the storied race, he'll be tied on my list with Mario Andretti as the best drivers to not reach two-time winner status. 

Though Dixon only has one race win, he's led 563 laps in the Indy 500, more than any other driver in the field. 

Colton Herta - No. 26 Gainbridge car
Team: Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.655 mph

Herta has already shown in his young career that he might be better than his dad, team owner Bryan Herta. He's already matched dad's four-win total in his fourth season. Colton is the first IndyCar driver born in the 2000s and also became the youngest race winner in IndyCar history with his 2019 win at Circuit of The Americas in Texas. He was 18. 

This year, Herta was on the provisional pole for Indy before Dixon knocked him off at the end. Herta won at St. Petersburg this season. This is his third Indy 500; he finished eighth last year. 

Rinus VeeKay - No. 21 Bitcoin car

Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying speed: 231.511 mph

At 20 years old, Rinus has the honor of being the youngest front-row starter ever for the Indy 500. He started fourth and finished 20th last year. This is his first full season competing in IndyCar. Rinus already has a win at Indy this season, on the IMS road course earlier this month. 

Row 2

Ed Carpenter - No. 20 SONAX car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying speed: 231.504 

Ed is a hometown favorite who's won the pole at Indy three times but is still looking for a win at the speedway. He splits his time between being a team owner and driving the ovals. He has three career victories, the last coming in 2014. 

Tony Kanaan - No. 48 The American Legion car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 231.032 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2013

He's led a total of 346 laps at Indy and had his share of bad luck before finally reaching for the milk bottle in 2013. The 2004 series champ is always a fan favorite though he no longer races full-time in the series. His last career win came back in 2014; he has 17 victories overall. 

Alex Palou - No. 10 NTT DATA Chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.616 mph

Palou finds himself in a good starting spot in his second Indy 500 and second IndyCar season. He earned his first IndyCar victory on the Barber Motorsports Park road course in April, fending off the likes of Will Power and Scott Dixon. 

Two winners in the past 10 years have come out of row two: Dan Wheldon (2011) and Takuma Sato (2017)

Row 3

Ryan Hunter-Reay - No. 28 DHL car
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.499 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2014

Hunter-Reay is a 2012 series champ and 2014 Indy 500 winner along with being the 2008 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. He's run into some overall bad luck, especially so far this season, but will look to join the two-timer club at Indy. 

Helio Castroneves - No. 6 AutoNation/SiriusXM car
Team: Meyer Shank Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.355 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2001, 2002, 2009 

The big story for Castroneves, as it has been since 2010, is his quest to win four 500s. He came close in a shootout with Ryan Hunter-Reay in 2014. Should Castroneves win this year, it would mark a 20-year gap from his first Indy 500 victory to his last. That would set some additional history; Al Unser Sr. went 17 years between his first and fourth Indy 500 victories (1970-1987). 

Marcus Ericsson - No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing car
Team: Chip Ganassi Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying speed: 230.318 mph

The Swede is in his second season with his current team and third in IndyCar in search of his first win. His first two Indy 500s have been forgettable, finishing 23rd and 32nd. He spun coming into pit lane and hit the wall in 2019, and he crashed only 25 laps in last year. 

Kenny Brack was the last row-3 Indy 500 winner, back in 1999 during the dreadful IRL/CART split years. Eight winners have come from these three starting spots. 

Row 4

Alexander Rossi - No. 27 NAPA AUTO PARTS/AutoNation car
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 231.046 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2016

Rossi made a name for himself as a rookie who won the Indy 500 with a great strategy in the race's 100th running in 2016. He came close to victory No. 2 in 2019 in a shootout with eventual winner Pagenaud the last few laps. Rossi had the lead but Pagenaud passed him headed into turn 3 on lap 198. 

The last winner out of row 4? Rossi in 2016. Four winners in the past 20 years have come out of row 4. 

Ed Jones - No. 18 SealMaster car
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 231.044 mph 

After not having a full-time ride in 2020 due to the pandemic, Ed Jones is back in 2021 for his fourth Indy 500 start. Ed also started from the 11th spot at Indy in 2017, when he finished third as a rookie. Ed also earned IndyCar Rookie of the Year honors for his 2017 season. He is searching for his first IndyCar victory and has three top-five finishes to his credit. 

Pato O'Ward - No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP car
Team: Arrow McLaren SP
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 230.864 mph

Pato is last year's Indy 500 Rookie of the Year. He's one of the three youngsters that has a chance to break Ruttman's 69-year-old record as the youngest winner of the Indy 500. Racing in his second 500, O'Ward finished sixth last year after starting 15th. This season, he earned his first victory in the second Texas race and also started from the pole at Barber. 

Row 5

Pietro Fittipaldi - No. 51 Military Salutes NURTEC ODT car
Team: Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 230.846 mph 

Pietro may be one of two rookies in this year's Indy 500 field, but he's another driver who has a family history in the sport. His grandpa Emerson Fittipaldi is a former Formula 1 champion and two-time winner of the Indy 500, most famously getting his first win in 1989 when Emo's car touched wheels with Al Unser Jr. near the end of the race, sending Little Al into the wall and Emo to victory lane. Emo ranks sixth on the all-time laps led list with 505 in his 11 Indy 500 starts. 

Pietro has some solid racing experience for being only 24 years old. He raced in IndyCar in 2018 and was supposed to make his Indy 500 debut that year. But he broke his legs in a qualifying crash in the WEC.  

Felix Rosenqvist - No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP car
Team: Arrow McLaren SP 
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 230.744 mph

The Swede won his first IndyCar race last season at the four-mile road course, Road America, driving for Chip Ganassi. He's a 2015 FIA Formula 3 European champion. He finished 12th in last year's Indy 500. 

Takuma Sato - No. 30 Panasonic/PeopleRady car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 230.708 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2017, 2020

Sato, a two-time Indy 500 champion, will attempt to be the fifth driver to win the race in back-to-back years. It's a feat that's been accomplished only five times in race history, the last being Helio Castroneves in 2001-02. A win Sunday would also make him the first driver to win three Indy 500s in his 40s. He's also noted as the first Japanese driver to win an IndyCar race.

Nine Indy 500 winners started in row 5, the last being Juan Pablo Montoya in 2015. 

Row 6

James Hinchcliffe - No. 29 Genesys car
Team: Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 230.563 mph 

Hinchcliffe has quite the past at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He nearly died from injuries he sustained during a practice crash at Indy in 2015. He was back a year later and won the pole position; he finished seventh. He started in the middle of the pack in 2017 and finished 22nd. Then in 2018, he was bumped from the Indy 500 starting grid. He made the last row in 2019 before starting sixth and finishing seventh for the 2020 race. 

He has six career IndyCar wins, the last coming during the 2018 season. 

Scott McLaughlin - No. 3 Pennzoil Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 230.557 mph 

McLaughlin may be a rookie when it comes to IndyCar, but he's no stranger to racing. He's also the highest-qualifying Penske car in the field, as the team struggled to find speed during qualifying. 

Ten rookies have won the Indy 500, including Juan Pablo Montoya in 2000, Helio Castroneves in 2001 and Alexander Rossi in 2016. McLaughlin will look to be No. 11. 

Graham Rahal - No. 15 United Rentals car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 230.521 mph 

Graham has become quite a veteran of the sport over the years, racing for his dad, 1986 Indy 500 champion Bobby Rahal. Graham is seeking to become another father-son combo to win the race. Graham has six career victories since he started in Champ Car in 2007, the last coming in 2017.

Only four drivers found themselves drinking the milk after starting in row 6. Dario Franchitti won his third Indy 500 from there in 2012, and Dan Wheldon won his first in 2005. 

Row 7

Conor Daly - No. 47 U.S. Air Force car
Team: Ed Carpenter Racing
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 230.427 mph 

He'll be the driver sporting a mullet if you spot him outside of his race suit and helmet. Conor makes his eighth Indy 500 start looking to improve on his best finish of 10th place in 2019. He's another second-generation driver. His dad Derek Daly drove in Formula 1 and IndyCar. 

Jack Harvey - No. 60 AutoNation/SiriusXM car
Team: Meyer Shank Racing 
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 230.191 mph 

Harvey has already had success at Indianapolis. He won the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race in 2015 and won the Grand Prix of Indianapolis. He's one of five drivers to have won on both the oval and road courses at Indy. 

Josef Newgarden - No. 2 Shell Fuel Rewards Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 230.071 mph 

Josef, a two-time IndyCar champion in 2017 and 2019, has plenty of race wins to his name. He's still looking to put his name on the Borg Warner trophy, however. He's won 18 races in his career, including four each in 2018 and 2019. Racing for Team Penske always puts drivers in a good spot to have success at Indy, but Newgarden has watched his teammates like Castroneves, Pagenaud and Will Power celebrate Indy 500 victories the past few years. 

He'll have his work cut out for him. Ryan Hunter-Reay is the most recent winner to start out of row 7, back in 2014. 

Row 8

JR Hildebrand - No. 1 ABC Supply Foyt Stewart Racing car
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 229.980 mph 

Hildebrand's famous moment at the Indy 500 is one he'd probably like to forget. Until he wins the race, he'll always be known as the driver who hit the wall coming out of turn four in 2011 on the race's 100th anniversary. He perhaps got a little greedy trying to go around a lapped car and ended up hitting the outside wall. Dan Wheldon went on to victory lane, his last victory before he was killed in a crash at the end of the season. Hildebrand did earn Rookie of the Year honors for that 2011 race though. 

Santino Ferrucci - No. 45 Hy-Vee car
Team: Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 229.949 mph 

The youngster finished fourth last year in his second Indy 500. He'll rebound Sunday after a practice crash at Indy. Santino finished seventh as a rookie in 2019 when he also started from the 23rd spot. 

Juan Pablo Montoya - No. 86 Arrow McLaren SP car
Team: Arrow McLaren SP
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 229.891 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2000, 2015

Montoya is a veteran driver returning to Indy with hopes of joining the three-timers club. He's done it all, racing in CART, sports cars, NASCAR and Formula 1. He won the Indy 500 as a rookie in 2000 and then again in 2015 in his third running of the race. He returned to open-wheel racing in 2014 after six years in F1 and NASCAR. Sunday marks his sixth start in the Indy 500. He crashed out in 2016 to finish last, but other than that he's never finished lower than sixth place.

Getting further back into the field makes it harder for drivers to get up front and win the race. A car starting in row 8 hasn't won the 500 since 1935. Only two drivers have won out of this row.

Row 9

Marco Andretti - No. 98 Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana/Curb car
Team: Andretti Herta-Haupert w/Marco & Curb-Agajanian
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 229.872 mph 

For the first time in his career, Marco isn't a full-time IndyCar driver. The 2006 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year stepped away this season to try his hand at some other forms of racing. But, of course, he's back at Indy on a course where he usually runs very well, despite the family history that's largely disappointed. 

His famous Indy 500 moment came down to one of the closest finishes in the race's history. He looked like he was going to erase the Andretti Curse in 2006 and win the race, until Sam Hornish Jr. passed him on the front stretch to take the checkereds. That second-place finish is still Marco's best, though he's always raced among the leaders. He won the pole position last year but finished 13th. 

Marco has often lived in the shadow of the successful careers of his grandfather Mario (1969 Indy 500 winner) and father, now-team owner Michael, who's considered the greatest driver to never win the Indy 500. Thirty years ago, Michael dominated the race before Rick Mears ended up crossing the line first for his fourth Indy 500 win. 

A driver named Andretti has raced in the Indy 500 every year since 1965.

Simon Pagenaud - No. 22 Menards Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 229.744 mph 
Indy 500 wins: 2019

Pagenaud battled it out with Alexander Rossi in the 2019 Indy 500. Pagenaud made a pass going into turn three to seal his first victory at the yard of bricks. He's a 2016 series champion with 15 career IndyCar victories. He's also won the Indianapolis road course three times since the inaugural run in 2014. In 2019, Pagenaud swept the month of May with a win on the Indy road course, winning pole for the Indy 500 and then winning the race.

Sebastien Bourdais - No. 14 ROKiT/AJ Foyt Racing car
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevy 
Qualifying time: 229.744 mph 

Bourdais' greatest success came in the 2000s when he dominated Champ Car during the last years of the IRL split, winning four straight championships from 2004-07. He might already have an Indy 500 victory or two under his belt if not for that ridiculous split. He's made 213 career starts in Champ Cap and IndyCar, winning 37 races.

While there's a lot of experience coming out of this year's row 9, it will take strategy and some luck to get a win. The last winner coming out of row 9 was Johnny Rutherford in 1974. A win this year would be No. 3 for a row-9 starter. 

Row 10

Stefan Wilson - No. 25 LOHLA SPORT/Cusick Motorsports car
Team: Andretti Autosport
Engine: Honda
Qualifying time: 229.714 mph 

He's the younger brother of the late Justin Wilson. Stefan doesn't have a full-time ride in IndyCar, but he'll make his third Indy 500 start this year. His best finish is 15th in 2018.

Max Chilton - No. 59 Carlin car
Team: Carlin
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 229.417 mph

Max has raced in IndyCar since 2016 with only one top-five and eight top-10 finishes in his career. This is his fifth start in the Indy 500 (he failed to make the field in 2019). His only top-10 finish was fourth in 2017.  

Dalton Kellett - No. 4 K-Line Insulators/AJ Foyt Racing car
Team: A.J. Foyt Enterprises
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 228.323 mph

In Dalton's second year in the series, if he leads a lap at Indy, it will be his first in an IndyCar. He crashed out of last year's race, good for 31st place.

Only two winners have come out of row 10 in more than 100 years. The first was Ray Harroun, the inaugural winner in 1911. The last was in 1936. 

Row 11

Sage Karam - No. 24 DRR-AES INDIANA car
Team: Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 229.156 mph 

Sage Karam is another driver who doesn't have a full-time ride in IndyCar anymore. But he's found himself starting in the 31st position for the third year in a row. 

Will Power - No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske car
Team: Team Penske
Engine: Chevy
Qualifying time: 228.876 mph
Indy 500 wins: 2018

Power, lucky to make the field which is new territory for Team Penske, will start from the back row as the second-ever Team Penske car to do so. Mario Andretti started 33rd in 1978 because of a driver switch after qualifying; Mario raced the Belgian Grand Prix in Formula One during Indy 500 qualifying. 

Power is an IndyCar champion and won the 500 in 2018. He struggled to find speed all qualifying weekend and managed to qualify at the top of the last-row shootout. 

Simona De Silvestro - No. 16 Rocket Pro TPO/Paretta Autosport car
Team: Paretta Autosport
Engine: Chevy 
Qualifying time: 228.353 mph 

Simona is making history with her team, an all-female-owned squad with women on the pit crew as well. She raced in open-wheel previously. Her last start at this race came in 2015. She'll suit up for her 69th career IndyCar start this Sunday. 

Last year's race was the first time the field of 33 did not include at least one female driver since 1999. This year, de Silvestro is back with a history-making race team. 

Once again, here's my annual reminder to readers that no driver has ever won the Indy 500 starting from the last row. For these drivers, it's usually a victory in itself simply to make The Show. That's especially true this year for Team Penske-affiliated entries Will Power and Simona de Silvestro. 

And now, drivers, start your engines! 

The last fans saw of the National Women’s Hockey League in 2020, the Minnesota Whitecaps defeated the Metropolitan Riveters in a 1-0, overtime game in St. Paul in the Isobel Cup semifinal. Picking up where the league rivals left off, they skated for nearly 60 minutes of scoreless hockey Tuesday night at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid. 

In a game filled with chances and outstanding goaltending at either end, the Whitecaps found themselves with a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage near the end of regulation. Time ticked down on the final 20 seconds. Meghan Lorence accepted a pass at the point and sent the puck toward her teammate Haley Mack near the goal line. 

Mack wasted little time on the doorstep, firing the puck past Riveters goaltender Sonjia Shelly with 10.5 ticks on the clock. Whitecaps win, 1-0. Shelly made 36 saves, while Amanda Leveille stopped all 38 shots she faced for Minnesota.  

“I had full faith in my teammates that we were going to score on that 5-on-3,” said Leveille, before referencing Mack in a postgame Zoom call. “Superstar over here just netted another goal for us.” 

Haley Mack (@HaleyMack9) for ROY pic.twitter.com/vjrkk6ny1D

— Minnesota Whitecaps (@WhitecapsHockey) January 27, 2021

A “superstar” to her teammate, Mack is also an NWHL rookie who’s left quite the first impression. Only three games into her NWHL career, she’s responsible for the game-winners in two games, adding a shootout goal against the Toronto Six on Sunday. 

“It’s a huge win for our team,” Mack said Tuesday. “Just go out there, outwork them on the 5-on-3. We had an opportunity, and we were able to execute that. So that was good.” 

Mack, who was drafted 23rd overall in the fourth round of the 2020 NWHL Draft, spend the past four seasons playing for Bemidji State University. She’s coming off a season in which she scored 15 goals and 28 points in 37 games. 

Chatter about the Whitecaps roster for the 2021 shortened season often focuses on it being a veteran squad, obviously with a lot of Minnesota natives on it as well. Names like Jonna Curtis, Emma Stauber, Allie Thunstrom, Audra Richards and Meaghan Pezon have all been on the Whitecaps previously, along with a bunch of their teammates. 

But three games in, it’s the rookie Mack who’s been one of the biggest factors in the 3-0 Whitecaps record.

In this 2021 NWHL Bubble Season, each team is scheduled for fives games (one against each NWHL team) before the playoffs, and then Isobel Cup semifinals and championship. The Whitecaps started out with the matchup no one got to see at the end of last season, when they were set to face the Boston Pride in the Isobel Cup Final before COVID-19 precautions shut everything down in March. 

This past Saturday, the Whitecaps used a comeback victory and more stellar goaltending to earn a 2-1 victory over Boston, a team that was nearly unbeatable a season ago. Down 1-0 in the first period, Curtis tied the game about a minute later. The game-winner came in the second period from captain and original Whitecaps defenseman, 42-year-old Winny Brodt Brown.

It was Brodt Brown’s first goal in the NWHL. 

But the true star of the game was Leveille. No stranger to big games and backstopping her team to victory, Leveille made 36 saves. 

The next day was a bit of a different story, with Leveille surrendering three first-period goals to the Toronto Six, in their inaugural season. Allie Morse came into the game in relief before Leveille finished off a perfect third period. 

The Whitecaps were on their heels early, getting down 3-0 before Sydney Baldwin scored late in the first period on the power play to shrink the deficit. Toronto took a 5-1 lead with 1:32 left in the second period before a flurry of activity. Thirty-one seconds later, Haylea Schmid got one back for the Whitecaps. Then with 12 seconds left in the period, Mack officially got on the scoresheet with her first NWHL goal to make it a 5-3 game headed into the second intermission. 

In the third, Richards scored a shorthanded goal with 7 minutes to play. Only 1 minute, 23 seconds later, Pezon fired the puck into the goal on the power play to tie the game, 5-5, completing the Whitecaps’ comeback with four unanswered goals. Special teams were a factor in this one, with 17 total penalties and plenty of 4-on-4 hockey.

It took five rounds of the shootout to get the Whitecaps win. While Leveille made four of the five saves, Curtis scored for the Whitecaps before Mack added her shootout winner. 

Then came the back-and-forth, odd-man-rush type of game against the Riveters.

Some NWHL history made tonight.

With tonight's sensational 38-save performance, @MandyLeveille29 is now the NWHL's all-time leader in shutouts (6). Tonight's win was the 46th of her NWHL career and 30th with @WhitecapsHockey.

— Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) January 27, 2021

“Whenever we play the Riveters, it’s always a close game,” Lorence said. “It’s always a battle to the finish. Being able to draw that penalty and capitalize on it was huge.” 

The Whitecaps face the Connecticut Whale at 7:30 p.m. CST Thursday before seeing the Buffalo Beauts Saturday afternoon. All games at broadcast on twitch.tv/nwhl, with the Isobel Cup semifinal and final games getting the nod on television via NBCSN. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the shutdown of sports in March, I wanted to get some positive vibes out on Twitter. I shared a photo from Target Field with the hashtag #SportsSmiles, and I asked others to share their favorite photos and/or memories from times that sports made them smile. 

I got a lot of great responses that I retweeted at the time, but I thought it would be fun to group them all together and share them here as well. 

It's never too late to submit a #SportsSmiles photo! 

Let's get some positive vibes going here by sharing some favorite photos and/or memories where sports have made you smile.

I'll start: 2019 #MNTwins season. #SportsSmiles pic.twitter.com/KysZKAHfxU

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 13, 2020

Joe smiling when he got to catch in his final game made me smile (and cry, there was a lot of crying too).https://t.co/xGU0mxK86H

— Laurel Krahn (@wintwins) March 13, 2020

I was actually looking for a tweet with a different photo of Joe smiling that day. Finally found it, fourth photo in this tweet:https://t.co/MTjlMOVzwW

— Laurel Krahn (@wintwins) March 13, 2020

Every trail mix run with you. pic.twitter.com/1Wzp1qnVZn

— Joe Ceplecha (Mr. 2000) (@JoeCepps) March 14, 2020

pic.twitter.com/8C7R2dCI0a

— Justin Ekstrom (@thesportscrib21) March 14, 2020

Meeting Iowa alum and WNBA player Megan Gustafson, MN girls state hockey tournament, taking the pooch to the TC marathon, and watching those two GOAT centers square off. Favorites that I just happened to be working (for 3 of the 4) pic.twitter.com/6jmgBtPsbj

— Sloane Martin (@SloaneMartin) March 13, 2020

Best day! pic.twitter.com/CTkrgV0egw

— Tracy Hannan (@tracyahannan) March 13, 2020

Taking this little guy to his first baseball game on Father's Day. pic.twitter.com/kNOx5FFkCq

— Tyler Mason (@tylermason21) March 13, 2020

when the gophers beat penn state and everyone rushed the field pic.twitter.com/BnprX2jBua

— sam (@samanthauren_) March 13, 2020

Great idea! pic.twitter.com/AzoKgmi4ec

— YHH (@YouthHockeyHub) March 13, 2020

Took literal planes, trains, and automobiles to get to Landon Donovan's farewell match in Connecticut in 2014. Meant the world to me to be able to be there to clap him off for the last time in a US shirt. pic.twitter.com/XV3pbhhMsL

— Dana Wessel (@DanaWessel) March 14, 2020

2010: @ThePeterJNelson rented out the Dome & we played baseball. pic.twitter.com/7PYSA5lTYH

— Tracy Perlman (@Partray) March 15, 2020

Meeting Tom Kelly at the 2019 #mntwins opener. pic.twitter.com/bHQKfpDoY6

— Nathan Misses Twins Baseball (@Plouffe24Fan) March 15, 2020

Donte Lawson Feb 2019 GWG against Hermantown at Amsoil. https://t.co/ipDiJbG74T

— FabFiveHockeyfansMN (@FabFiveHockeyf1) March 16, 2020

Gopher Justin Holl Frozen Four Semi GWG against NoDak 2014 https://t.co/ISGV7smBNm

— FabFiveHockeyfansMN (@FabFiveHockeyf1) March 16, 2020

And Just To Be Balanced , the Most Exciting Walkoff Lady Gopher Playoff Goal Ever ! Sarah Potomak 2016 https://t.co/PJVG10nTpn

— FabFiveHockeyfansMN (@FabFiveHockeyf1) March 16, 2020

One More . Got to Save a Few for Later . Lee Stecklein OT GWG 2019 Whitecap Championship https://t.co/U6pjxgHkiP https://t.co/syrbmF9DH1

— FabFiveHockeyfansMN (@FabFiveHockeyf1) March 16, 2020

One More . Got to Save a Few for Later . Lee Stecklein OT GWG 2019 Whitecap Championship https://t.co/U6pjxgHkiP https://t.co/syrbmF9DH1

— FabFiveHockeyfansMN (@FabFiveHockeyf1) March 16, 2020

Same! #SportsSmiles https://t.co/0u5gbWWTKS

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 13, 2020

2019/20 youth hockey season! U10s an mites. #mnhockey #SportsSmiles pic.twitter.com/zHceISUxsU

— Jason H (@jhehir00) March 13, 2020

5-3-11 pic.twitter.com/oSAkkx0I0C

— TCAnelle (@TCAnelle) March 13, 2020

Just before the Gophers beat Auburn pic.twitter.com/FEjUF0DdgW

— Gopherated〽️ (@Gopherated) March 13, 2020

pic.twitter.com/aRXEYxYMj5

— Jeremy Fraker (@FrakerJeremy) March 14, 2020

Love it! #SportsSmiles https://t.co/zZPk1fQ3Um

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 15, 2020

Playing this amazing sport with these amazing humans. #derbytwitter pic.twitter.com/FWWCvA74vF

— Kate Tremaine - Kitty Skittles #181 (@widdershins_cat) April 5, 2020

Keeping #SportsSmiles going tonight with a photo of the overtime aftermath as @WhitecapsHockey beat @Riveters 1-0 in the Isobel Cup semifinal.

Any more favorite sports moments that made you smile? Share them! #SportsSmiles https://t.co/vDJZ96Yuh8 pic.twitter.com/9nTzWNndGf

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 15, 2020

From Indy last year. #SportsSmiles https://t.co/vDJZ96Yuh8 pic.twitter.com/pvPMEASXfw

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 15, 2020

In today's edition of #SportsSmiles... https://t.co/vDJZ96Yuh8 pic.twitter.com/VZDvs9AdOk

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 16, 2020

More Whitecaps...#SportsSmiles https://t.co/8vYPlMgyUv

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 15, 2020

This qualifies for #SportsSmiles. https://t.co/Dom1fxIvqH

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 15, 2020

Another throwback for #SportsSmiles.

Trying to keep the positivity going! pic.twitter.com/0AgyMroKbn

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 18, 2020

This was a week ago. Kinda feels like a month ago. #MNTwinsST #SportsSmiles pic.twitter.com/agbfN2faFM

— Heather Rule (@hlrule) March 18, 2020

Haven't run out of #SportsSmiles pics yet.

Hindsight is quite a funny thing. 

I ended a lengthy post on New Year's Eve 2019 with this line: "Cheers to 2020 and the next decade of work, friends!"

Looking at that now, a year later, saying cheers to 2020 seems absolutely ridiculous. Who would want to toast to the year that gave us a pandemic? As my dad has said for months, 2020 will go down as the year where nothing happened. 

I guess it's true that the world didn't completely shut down, but what a whirlwind of differences. I think many of us can agree that time played tricks on us this past year, or some would say that time means nothing in 2020. Working from home, what day is it? A 60-game baseball season ended this fall but made me think it was June. I felt like I got my weekends back, without work/sports, while many friends felt the opposite and more overwhelmed. 

Baseball returned... eventually
Reflecting at year's end is quite common, and I'm proud of what I wrote last year encompassing my work over the decade. As for this year, I'd also direct readers to my post from July titled Pandemic Projects where I detailed many of the things that occupied my time, work-wise and otherwise, throughout the spring and early summer before baseball started. 

The only real sense of normalcy since the pandemic started came with that 60-game baseball season from the end of July through September. Covering games again was so nice, even if it was all from the comforts of home instead of only the road games from home. It was odd watching games played at Target Field on TV, and even in the final week of the season I always had to remind myself when a new homestand or road trip started so my pregame work routine wouldn't get messed up. 

The Minnesota Twins finished with back-to-back American League Central Division Championships, getting another stellar year from designated hitter Nelson Cruz, phenomenal pitching from Kenta Maeda (including a near no-hitter) and a few Bombas thrown in, too. Max Kepler started the season with a home run on the first pitch he saw, after all. We don't need to get into the postseason, except to mention that the playoff format changed a bit and teams played in bubbles in California and Texas. 

A busy, pre-pandemic winter
When it comes to my writing this year, let me back up to pre-pandemic times. One of the first things I covered in 2020 was a Minnesota Wild outdoor practice in St. Louis Park. It came right after the announcement that the Wild were *finally* going to host a Winter Classic, scheduled for Jan. 1, 2021 at Target Field. Oh man, I haven't thought about that in a while. My baseball and hockey worlds were going to collide, and I was so ready for it. Of course, the pandemic canceled that fun. 

Also in January, I filled in covering a few Gopher men's basketball games, including an upset of No. 19 Michigan. I continued my work with Minnesota Hockey Magazine as a Wild beat writer and a contributor to NBC SportsEngine covering high school hockey games. 

Since Hockey Day Minnesota stayed local in Minneapolis this year, I covered my first HDM. Fun fact: It's more than one day. Despite the very cold, snowy and windy weather at the outdoor rink, I covered two high school games Thursday night, featuring local schools Holy Angels and Blake girls' hockey teams each hosting an opponent. On Friday, I watched the women's all-star game with Minnesota Whitecaps, NWHL and former Gophers players. Saturday, the Gopher women hosted a game. Each of those brought features for the spring 2020 issues of Minnesota Hockey Magazine. 

The main events on the sunny, but chilly, Saturday were great match-ups between boys' high school hockey powerhouses. I covered Blaine versus Blake. Conditions weren't ideal, but I had a great time running around the rink, talking to players and watching outdoor hockey. 

Hockey, hockey, hockey 
Among the bigger stories on the Wild beat last winter, top forward Jason Zucker got traded to Pittsburgh and coach Bruce Boudreau was fired on Valentine's Day. That's still an interesting move to ponder. I also wrote a story on the 40th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, jumping on a conference call with other media and Al Michaels, who had the famous call. 

As the prep hockey season wound down, I covered section finals for the Star Tribune, then put on my Minnesota Hockey Magazine cap to cover the boys' and girls' state tournaments. Breck won yet another Class 1A championship, while Andover knocked off three-time champs Edina in Class 2A on the girls' side. The Andover boys' team finally made the tourney, only to be upset as the top seed in the quarterfinals by St. Thomas Academy; Hill-Murray won it all in Class 2A, and Mahtomedi finally broke through for a championship.

I followed the Minnesota Whitecaps for their second season in the NWHL, covering their 1-0, overtime, semifinal victory in March. They were supposed to play the title game a week later. A title game that never happened. 

I kept somewhat busy during the pandemic with feature stories for USAHockey.com and SportsEngine. Then there were winter preview stories for Breakdown Sports. Throughout the year, and especially this fall, I put together a couple dozen feature stories for the Otter Tail Lakes Country Magazine, focusing on communities throughout Otter Tail County. 

A few of the most fun projects for me this year came out of some pandemic creativity as I strived to determine how to keep busy, keep writing and keep focused on sports. I had so much fun writing the 14-part series for three sports movies: A League of Their Own, The Rookie and Angels in the Outfield. I turned them into a combination of summary, sarcasm and asking questions about why certain things were done in the movies. 

Finding the good in 2020
So, those were some highlights of my year. Was it fantastic? No. Was it terrible? Also no. I'm blessed to continue writing. I've seen a lot of takes on social media lately as the year 2020 wraps up. Some people want to make it clear that just because the calendar flips to 2021 doesn't mean everything goes back to whatever normal will be. Others don't want to hear about good things that happened to people, because the year was so bad for many; others have the opposite view and want positive vibes.

For me, I wanted to share some of the good things. Part of it is a way to look back and realize what I've accomplished, especially when work is slower and motivation can be light. I'll also admit that I've felt the pandemic fatigue lately. It can be tough missing traditions we used to have, missing sports seasons that are normally in full swing, missing friends, missing simple things like getting together in-person, wondering when things will return to whatever definition of normal. 

But there's always hope. For whatever is going on in your life, clinging to hope and faith is huge. And if there's one thing a new year can bring, it's hope for good things. 

Thanks, as always, for reading. Let's connect on Twitter and Instagram; I'm @hlrule.