Contributing to this year’s projected 95 percent is the more than 500 rooms filled by overflow from Indianapolis, which is inundated by a sellout crowd of race fans. “I can neither confirm nor deny that I used to sing along whilst sitting in my vehicle”. As such, five of us are here at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, taking in the greatest spectacle in racing.
Advertisement
The only other individual who received almost the same amount of attention was Roger Penske, whose teams have won 16 times – including past year with Juan Pablo Montoya.
Power has never won the Indy 500, but finished second a year ago. As always it will be held on the last Sunday in May and starts just after noon. He’s had so many ups and downs at Indy, none lower than 1995 when he failed to get both Al Unser and Fittipaldi into the race. “Anybody who counted us out will be sorry”.
The Australian has said the sight of Team Penske teammate Juan Pablo Montoya crossing the Indianapolis 500 finish line 0.1 second ahead of him past year has stuck with him ever since. “I’m asked that often and I just don’t do it”.
There was plenty of passing during Friday’s practice session, which took place under sunny skies and with temperatures soaring into the mid-80s – similar to what is in the forecast for race day. Their cars have been better when the weather has been warm, the track is slick and the cars are harder to handle. Pagenaud (242 points) has jumped out to a commanding lead in the Verizon IndyCar Series points standings.
Over the course of multiple practice sessions, drivers Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden and Ed Carpenter flipped their race cars while James Hinchcliffe suffered a gruesome injury as a piece of steel pushed through his thigh, pinning the driver to his auto.
That is much of why he can so matter-of-factly say of his trip to the Brickyard this year: “It was like any other month of May”.
There was plenty of traffic as teams took advantage of their first chance to practice in five days, and their final opportunity to tweak anything before the historic race. “When I was racing before I had her, sometimes the challenges, the tribulation, all of the effort, the sacrifice-sometimes it makes you grumpy and it can be unbearable”. “To come here and do this the way that we did, I think, really puts a firm stamp on it and closes that chapter, and now we can look forward”. There were protests and appeals hearings, and many still believe Tracy deserved to win the race, even though Castroneves had the victory officially upheld that July.
“The support I’ve felt from back home from Day 1 of my IndyCar career has just been incredible”, said Hinchcliffe, who hails from the outlying Toronto suburb of Oakville. “You may not think it would sound good in today’s day with sports drinks, but they know how to present it”. If we’re running second, even third, I feel like we’ve got a good shot at winning. “However, as I said before, we are losing some of that impact to Indy because they are going there for the race”.
This weekend is one of the biggest, most exciting weekends for racing. He qualified 14th but was just 21st in final practice.
Advertisement
“When my daddy had open-heart surgery, I remember the doctors saying if he got hit in the chest it could be real bad, ” he said. “He made mistakes at times and at times, the auto let him down”, said Hornish, who noted Andretti also could have won in 1991 until he “just got out-dueled by one of the best guys to ever race there”. We got our work cut out for us this weekend, but I’m telling you, it’s the 100 and Jesus, oh god, it would be so … who remembers who won the 99?
