It's the month of May! The Indycars are at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this month and will take to the IMS road course for the 4th running of the GP of Indianapolis!
Indycars will turn 85 laps around the 14 turn 2.44 mile course that's tucked inside the famed Indianapolis oval and uses the ovals front straightaway.
Simon Pagenaud secured his second win on the road course last year and Will Power, the 2015 winner, is on the pole.
At the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 a sellout crowd of 350,000 people watched phenomenal passing and lead changes all afternoon. Crazy pit road action took out two of the early frontrunners, Ryan Hunter Reay and Townsend Bell, who happened to be teammates. The fans were treated to an insane finish where Alexander Rossi coasted around Turn 4 and slowed coming to the yard of bricks. Hard charging Carlos Munoz and Josef Newgarden barreled around Turn four and had to wonder how Rossi had managed to save enough fuel to beat them to the finish.
TOP 10
1. Alexander Rossi: First rookie to win the 500 since Helio in 200. First American rookie since Louis Meyer in 1928.
2. Carlos Munoz: His second runner-up finish at Indy.
3. Josef Newgarden: His best finish at Indianapolis in 5 attempts.
4. Tony Kanaan: Said his car was better this year than it was when he won it in 2013.
5. Charlie Kimball: Consistency at IMS is key. Finished 3rd last year.
6. J.R Hildebrand: Has that knack for Indy, he seems to have a shot at winning each year he drives the 500.
7. James Hinchcliffe: Pole sitter had a disappointing finish after leading 27 laps.
8. Scott Dixon: Not much of a factor all month. Hopes to get his second 500 at the 101st Running.
9. Sebastien Bourdais: His second Top-Ten in six tries at the 500.
10. Will Power: His 5th Top Ten in 9 attempts at the Brickyard. He led 8 Laps/
Different Teams: 6 (Andretti, Penske, RLL, ECR, Schmidt, Ganassi)
Different Countries: 7 (USA, Colombia, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, France, Australia) 7 Chevys, 3 Hondas (but the top 2 were Hondas)
OTHER 46 Laps were run under yellow. The race lasted 3 hours and 2 seconds Average Speed was 166.634 mph There were 54 lead changes among 13 drivers. The fastest lap of the race was 225.288, by Alexander Rossi
OUR THOUGHTS
It was great seeing rookie, Stefan Wilson in the field, and super seeing all the fans wearing Justin Wilson t-shirts over the weekend.
Great run by Ryan Hunter Reay and Townsend Bell before their pit road incident.
Fantastic job of charging through the field by Sage Karam before his crash while running in fourth.
Juan Montoya became the first defending winner to finish last the following year since Johnny Rutherford in 1977.
Nice run for Pippa Mann. An 18th place finish was her highest in five attempts at the 500.
Alex Tagliani moved up the most positions in the race, sixteen. He also led 11 laps and had the fastest lead lap of the race at 222.729.
If you can't get enough of Indianapolis and want a daily driver's perspective on the happenings at the brickyard, or if you're like our five-year-old sister Alex, and can't see enough of Josef Newgarden, you can watch his daily video blogs from the speedway or check out some of the other Indianapolis videos of what's going on at the track.
Here is Newgarden's video blog from Monday, May 13th
Indianapolis opening weekend is over and practice continues all week leading up to Pole Day this Saturday, May 18th....Yeah!!!
Tires waiting to be used at Indy
*It used to be that the weekend two weeks before the 500 was pole qualifying weekend, but this year it was opening weekend and drivers got their first laps on the track.
*Carlos Munoz had the fastest speed at 223.023 (last year's pole speed was 226.484)
*Josef Newgarden was the first driver on the track after it opened Saturday. When told that no 'first driver out' has ever won the 500 he said, "That changes this year!"
*3 time winner Helio Castroneves celebrated his 38th birthday Friday.
*103 Year old woman was at the speedway for the car show and drove her 1930's Packard around the track.
*On Friday there was an Indy Family Foundation Festival on Main Street in Speedway, where Sarah Fisher, Josef Newgarden, and others got dunked in the dunk tank.
