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[thefro]

Time until scheduled green flag

It's that time of year again where a non-niche audience actually cares about open-wheel racing in America for a day.

The big theme this year are the new aero kits, which are body work created by manufacturers Honda & Chevy that replace pieces of the original Dallara DW-12 chassis. If you look closely you can tell the difference between cars now (sadly the difference isn't quite as dramatic as the road course kits)

As these aero kits are largely untested and the Indy 500 is the first oval race of the season, this has led to a series of spectacular crashes involving Helio Castroneves, Josef Newgarden, and Ed Carpenter.

Thus far Chevy seems to have a clear advantage in speed, but anything can happen in a 500 mile race. Expect less passing and more crashing than the previous couple years.


Starting grid

Row 1

1. Scott Dixon
2. Will Power
3. Simon Pagenaud

Row 2

4. Tony Kanaan
5. Helio Castroneves
6. Justin Wilson

Row 3

7. Sebastien Bourdais
8. Marco Andretti
9. Josef Newgarden

Row 4

10. JR Hildebrand
11. Carlos Munoz
12. Ed Carpenter

Row 5

13. Oriol Servia
14. Charlie Kimball
15. Juan Pablo Montoya

Row 6

16. Ryan Hunter-Reay
17. Graham Rahal
18. Carlos Huertas

Row 7

19. Simona de Silvestro
20. James Jakes
21. Alex Tagliani

Row 8

22. Sage Karam
23. Conor Daly
24. Townsend Bell

Row 9

25. Takuma Sato
26. Pippa Mann
27. Gabby Chaves

Row 10

28. Sebastian Saavedra
29. Jack Hawksworth
30. Stefano Coletti

Row 11

31. Bryan Clauson
32. Ryan Briscoe
33. James Davison

 

[Silver Arrows]

Since Hinchcliffe is out for probably the rest of the season, I'll cheer for Sato then

 

[v1lla21]

Great job! This will be my third Indy 500 and I can't wait.

 

[Lender]

ANyone has a decent stream?

 

[Juicy Bob]

Indy 500 woooooooooo

 

[Jarrod38]

It's Marco Andretti year just don't run out of gas.

 

[Risgroo]

First time watching, excited!
This buildup is so American it hurts, hahahah.

 

[Jarrod38]

Oh god not an a cappella group.

 

[redmetal86]

A crash already.

 

[v1lla21]

Damn. Lol.

 

[Juicy Bob]

Lol Sage Karem

 

[Talamius]

Sato gonna Sato?

 

[Delusibeta]

Talk about getting the door slammed on your face.

 

[thefro]

Sato gonna Sato?

Yeah I don't know what he was doing so close to the wall.

 

[Velcro Fly]

I've been rooting for an Andretti to win this race for 25 years. At this point it feels like a Cubs world series in that it's never going to happen.

Rooting for Marco

 

[Chris R]

Thinking of going to the race next year for the 100th running.

 

[JJDinomite]

Are they gonna start racing soon?

 

[Vicious]

Maybe the entire race will be run under caution.

 

[Slo]

Total racing newb here. How come no car manufactures other than Honda and Chevy are participating?

 

[chuckddd]

Total racing newb here. How come no car manufactures other than Honda and Chevy are participating?

Short answer: $

Long answer is politics and cash. There was a year when Penske put Mercedes engines in their cars just for the Indy 500. Those bad boys supposedly pushed out 1000 hp. This led to a rift between CART and IndyCar and ever since American open wheel racing has been shit.

 

[Slo]

So watching people get run over at 60 miles an hour is entertaining.

 

[DMczaf]

So watching people get run over at 60 miles an hour is entertaining.

Is it more entertaining than watching people get run over at 15 miles an hour?

 

[Slo]

Is it more entertaining than watching people get run over at 15 miles an hour?

Oddly, no.

Spoiler

I assume we're talking about Freeman rollin' folks during 4th meal?

 

[Chris R]

Bobbled and lost it into the wall. At least he didn't flip

 

[Lender]

TK

 

[JJDinomite]

Holy shit

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Oval open wheel racing is unethical.

 

[TheDrizzlerJ11]

I couldn't imagine driving through that debris without a cockpit..

Oval open wheel racing is unethical.

Lol.

 

[DrM]

This is more crashing 500

 

[Chris R]

They need to Red Flag the race so we have some laps left after all the cleanup is done

 

[Fox Mulder]

Oval open wheel racing is unethical.

They've only been doing it like 100 years and it's safer now than ever before.

 

[Branson]

Makes me sad more people havent replied in this thread. The F1 race was fun but this race has been pretty entertaining. I wish there was more crossover. IndyCar is every bit as exciting as F1 has been and more competitive as well. Looking forward to the Coke 600 tonight as well. Good day for motorsport fans!

 

[Fox Mulder]

Makes me sad more people havent replied in this thread. The F1 race was fun but this race has been pretty entertaining. I wish there was more crossover. IndyCar is every bit as exciting as F1 has been and more competitive as well. Looking forward to the Coke 600 tonight as well. Good day for motorsport fans!

Open wheel is just ignored in the US. Maybe if it had a NASCAR driver in the grid.

 

[Slo]

Makes me sad more people havent replied in this thread. The F1 race was fun but this race has been pretty entertaining. I wish there was more crossover. IndyCar is every bit as exciting as F1 has been and more competitive as well. Looking forward to the Coke 600 tonight as well. Good day for motorsport fans!

As a complete novice, I'm sort of annoyed that at the end of the race the leaderboard got shuffled because of some pit stop timings/strategy, and the Honda's who have been getting their shit kicked in all afternoon are now right in the mix. Now it looks like the race is going to almost end under caution.

I feel a little bit like I wasted my time.

 

[Chris R]

Great win for Montoya!

 

[Vicious]

HELL YEAH, MONTOYA

 

[JJDinomite]

Cool for Juan!

 

[Roude Leiw]

holy shit. Montoya wins.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Great finish

 

[v1lla21]

Holy fuck Montoya! What a beast. Those last to overtakes were amazing.

 

[PjotrStroganov]

That was tense!

Congratz to Montoya!

 

[Dunkers92]

Montoya!

Loved that race. Great finish

 

[Business]

Happy for Juanpi, that was intense!

 

[Zaphod]

Hooray for Montoya! I love how much speed he can just will out of a car.

 

[thefro]

Holy fuck Montoya! What a beast. Those last to overtakes were amazing.

Yep, one hell of a performance to be 30th and fight all the way back to win.

 

[v1lla21]

Yep, one hell of a performance to be 30th and fight all the way back to win.

15,30,1. Amazing work.

 

[Ahasverus]

Whoa I didn't expect that from the guy, what, 15 years after his win? Good for him!

 

[buddha0991]

Dude should go try and win the Triple Crown, just gotta win Le Mans...Good luck with that!

 

[A Fish Aficionado]

Deserved win.

 

[bananafactory]

Caught the end of it, crazy finish

I miss the Indy race in my city, they left a couple years ago and nothing has filled that void