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Good morning from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway! As the sun is making a beautiful ascent into the sky, fans are starting to make their way into the legendary Brickyard for this afternoon’s running of the 94th Indianapolis 500 (1 p.m. ET, ABC).
Today’s race holds plenty of possibilities. Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves is on the pole and will look to become just the fourth driver to win four Indy 500s, while Penske’s main rivals at Target Chip Ganassi Racing — former ‘500’ winners Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon — will look to stop that bit of history and make another: a victory by either Franchitti or Dixon will make team owner Chip Ganassi the first to have his teams win the Daytona 500 and the Greatest Spectacle in Racing during the same year. You also can’t forget the two other pilots at Penske — front row starter and current IZOD IndyCar Series points leader Will Power and the other ‘Thunder from Down Under,’ Ryan Briscoe. It wouldn’t be surprising to see these two squads determine the outcome today.
Then you have the underdogs, led by the FAZZT Race Team pair of Alex Tagliani and Bruno Junqueira. Both men have shown to have solid pace and if they can spread that out for 500 miles, they’ll have a chance to pull one over on the “Big Two.” Other strong dark horses include Graham Rahal, who’s racing for his father and hopes a victory today will earn him the full-time sponsor he wants; Ed Carpenter, the Indianapolis native looking to score a major upset for the beleaguered Vision Racing operation (which is getting help from Panther Racing); Dan Wheldon, a former Indy champ that always seems to be a force on race day; and Tony Kanaan, the man who will have to charge from the 33rd starting position in order to have a shot of drinking the milk at race’s end.
And then there’s Danica Patrick (can’t forget her, of course!). The former ‘Queen of Indy’ has lost her crown after a few ill-advised words earned her the wrath of the faithful. She’ll be starting in 23rd position, a bit farther than what she’s been used to at IMS. After dealing with a problematic car on Pole Day, will she have a better machine for this afternoon? If so, she could work her way into contention — and also, back into the fans’ good graces.
Will Castroneves rewrite the Brickyard record books again? Can Team Target derail his quest for history? Is one of the underdogs destined to topple the titans? And how will Danica try to bounce back? All those questions will be answered this afternoon at the ‘500.’
P.S. I’ve also been churning out copy for FoxSports.com during the week, so be sure to check those out for more Indy news. We’ve also got plenty of stories from the writers of SPEEDTV.com; feel free to take a look at those as well!
