2015 Indianapolis 500 Preview

The run up to the highly anticipated Indianapolis 500 has been nothing short of controversial in 2015. With a series of frightening accidents involving Chevrolet cars in practice putting ends to fans’ hopes of a possible new pole speed record, the question of whether IndyCar needs the brand-new-for-2015 aero kits or not. Unlike the farcical 2005 United States Grand Prix held at the same venue, IndyCar has managed to ensure that the show goes on. However, the question of safety will continue to loom over everybody as the week continues and throughout the 200-lap race itself.

As expected, the big teams set the pace initially in testing, with Sage Karam being the one surprise at the top of the timesheets on the first day of practice for Chip Ganassi Racing. Team Penske set the pace on day two, with Helio Castroneves clocking in at 227mph. Simona de Silvestro’s day ended in flames with a nasty fire. As the speeds rose for day three, so did the danger. Carlos Munoz broke the 230mph barrier ahead of a surprise name in Townsend Bell, but both Castroneves and Pippa Mann suffering nasty accidents, including a spectacular flip for Castroneves.

Onto day four, and the second serious accident occurred as Josef Newgarden flipped his car coming out of turn one. Simon Pagenaud set the pace for Penske ahead of Munoz and Karam. The amount of boost allocated to teams was increased for ‘Fast Friday’ and the speeds consistently hit 230mph. Pagenaud was quickest once again ahead of Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan. The first day of qualifying was rained out, and the second day of qualifying was delayed following another nasty airborne accident – this time reigning polesitter Ed Carpenter, who flipped his car in a similar manner to his team mate Newgarden.

This resulted in some last-minute changes for qualifying:

• No increased turbocharger for qualifying, cars must start the race in ‘qualifying trim’
• Each car only gets one attempt at qualifying
• No Fast Nine Shootout
• Qualifying points were scrapped

Qualifying went without a hitch, albeit with much slower speeds than some had hoped. For the first time this season, a car which is not a Penske will sit on pole. There were some surprises amongst the grid, and 1996 winner Buddy Lazier failed to make the cut and was bumped. One thing which was not as much of a surprise however was Chevrolets taking the top five spots on the grid. A few changes occurred after qualifying, as the cars qualified by both James Hinchcliffe and Tristan Vautier were moved to the back, with Hinchcliffe’s being after a massive crash on Monday, where he suffered thigh and pelvic injuries following a suspension failure.

The 2015 Indianapolis 500 grid is as follows:

1. Scott Dixon (NZL) – Chip Ganassi Racing No. 9 Chevrolet – 226.760mph – Winner
2. Will Power (AUS) – Team Penske No. 1 Chevrolet – 226.350
3. Simon Pagenaud (FRA) – Team Penske No. 22 Chevrolet – 226.145
4. Tony Kanaan (BRA) – Chip Ganassi Racing No. 10 Chevrolet – 225.503 – Winner
5. Helio Castroneves (BRA) – Team Penske No. 3 Chevrolet – 225.502 – Winner
6. Justin Wilson (GBR) – Andretti Autosport No. 25 Honda – 225.279
7. Sebastien Bourdais (FRA) – KV Racing Technology No. 11 Chevrolet – 225.193
8. Marco Andretti (USA) – Andretti Autosport No. 27 Honda – 225.189
9. Josef Newgarden (USA) – CFH Racing No. 21 Chevrolet – 225.187
10. R. Hildebrand (USA) – CFH Racing No. 6 Chevrolet – 225.099
11. Carlos Munoz (COL) – Andretti Autosport No. 26 Honda – 225.042
12. Ed Carpenter (USA) – CFH Racing No. 20 Chevrolet – 224.883
13. Oriol Servia (SPA) – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 32 Honda – 224.777
14. Charlie Kimball (USA) – Chip Ganassi Racing No. 83 Chevrolet – 224.743
15. Juan Pablo Montoya (USA) – Team Penske No. 2 Chevrolet – 224.657 – Winner
16. Ryan Hunter-Reay (USA) – Andretti Autosport No. 28 Honda – 224.573 – Winner
17. Graham Rahal (USA) – Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing No. 15 Honda – 224.290
18. Carlos Huertas (COL) – Dale Coyne Racing No. 18 Honda – 224.233
19. Simona de Silvestro (SUI) – Andretti Autosport No. 29 Honda – 223.838
20. James Jakes (GBR) – Schmidt Peterson Motorsports No. 7 Honda – 223.790
21. Alex Tagliani (CAN) – A. J. Foyt Enterprises No. 48 Honda – 223.722
22. Sage Karam (USA) – Chip Ganassi Racing No. 8 Chevrolet – 223.595
23. Conor Daly (USA) – Dale Coyne Racing No. 43 Honda – 223.482
24. Townsend Bell (USA) – Dreyer and Reinbold Kingdom Racing No. 24 Chevrolet – 223.447
25. Takuma Sato (JPN) – A. J. Foyt Enterprises No. 14 Honda – 223.226
26. Pippa Mann (GBR) – Dale Coyne Racing No. 63 Honda – 223.104
27. Gabby Chaves (COL) – Bryan Herta Autosport No. 98 Honda – 222.916 – Rookie
28. Sebastian Saavedra (COL) – Chip Ganassi Racing No. 17 Chevrolet – 222.898
29. Jack Hawksworth (GBR) – A.J. Foyt Enterprises No. 41 Honda – 222.787
30. Stefano Coletti (MON) – KV Racing Technology No. 4 Chevrolet – 221.912 – Rookie
31. Bryan Clauson (USA) – Jonathan Byrd’s Racing No. 88 Chevrolet – 220.523
32. James Davison (AUS) – Dale Coyne Racing No. 19 Honda – 223.747¹
33. Ryan Briscoe (AUS) – Schmidt Peterson Motorsports No. 5 Honda – 223.519²

¹ As Tristan Vautier qualified the No. 19 car which will be driven by James Davison in the race itself, Davison will start the race from the back as per regulations.
² James Hinchcliffe qualified the No. 5 car but suffered a serious accident in practice on the day after qualification. The car was moved to the back as per regulations.

Now, the race itself is set to be as unpredictable as always. With no clear frontrunner so far in the championship with five winners from the first five races, and no race run yet this season on an oval, predicting the outcome of the event looks to be rather tricky. This 230-mile per hour game of chess has seen records broken over the last couple of years, most notably with changes for the lead. It could be said that any one of the top twelve has a realistic shot of winning this thing, and there are a few big names out of position even further down the grid. Will the Chevrolets be able to survive the race distance without flipping over? Will the Hondas put one over on Chevrolet in ‘normal’ conditions? Will we see the incredible amount of lead changes which we saw back in 2013? Can Helio Castroneves join the list of four-time Indianapolis 500 winners? We will find this all out on Sunday. Let’s all just hope that it is a safe race for the crews, fans and drivers involved.

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