Rookies Open Indy 500 Practice

An exciting crop of Indy 500 newcomers, led by former F1, NASCAR and ARCA driver Scott Speed,  took part in the mandatory Rookie Orientation Program (ROP) yesterday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a session which was closed to the general public. Others participating included last year's Firestone Indy Lights pole sitter for Indy's Freedom 100, Pippa Mann for Conquest Racing, JR Hildebrand for Panther Racing, James Hinchcliffe for Newman Haas, Englishman James Jakes for Dale Coyne Racing, the first-ever driver of Chinese descent Ho-Pin Tung, and Graham Rahal's teammate at the second Ganassi Racing team Charlie Kimball. Jay Howard returns this year to make another attempt at the 500 after turning laps as Sarah Fisher's teammate in 2010 but being unable to get up to speed. Speaking of "Speed", Scott's ride with Jay Penske's Dragon Racing team came together only recently and Speed has talked openly about competing for the $5 million bonus in the season ending race at Las Vegas this October.

With 40 confirmed car-driver combinations, only one week of practice and just two days to qualify, pressure will be intense on every team to get their drivers in the show. No doubt there will be some who can't handle it and find the fence, others will never quite get a handle on their equipment, and still others who will simply run out of talent by the time the 6:00 gun fires on Bump Day May 22nd when the Field of 33 is finally set. And yet as the Indy 500 continues its celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the very first 500 won by Ray Harroun, 2011 will pass without anyone named "Smith" ever having raced at Indy. Believe it or not, there has been an Alley who raced at Indianapolis - Tom, not Gasoline. You can look it up.

I'll be running around like a mad photographer this weekend trying to make sure I get photos of every driver entered (and some just walking around with their helmet bags hoping for a ride). As the week goes on, I will also grab photos of every car that hits the track so I can do my annual slideshow pairing drivers with their machines once the field has been set. Indy scenes, people and other unique aspects of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing will also be captured through my lenses to bring my viewpoint on "The Most Important Race in History" to the internet through this blog, Twitter and the new American Motor Journal.

Dario Franchitti Takes IZOD Indycar Season Title

Congratulations to Dario Franchitti and Target Chip Ganassi Racing for taking the IZOD Indycar Series championship this past Saturday! It was a championship day for the Franchitti family as well, since Dario's brother Marino helped Patron Highcroft Racing win the Petit LeMans race at Road Atlanta and take the American LeMans Series LMP2 crown for the team's second consecutive LMP2 series title. Dario's title winning run at Homestead-Miami was a textbook case of how to win a season championship: he had to earn all the bonus points available and win the race in case his only contender, Penske Racing's Will Power, had a strong run. He had to take pole position - he did - then lead the most laps - he did - to be in position to win the race and he would win the Indycar title no matter what Power did. Just past the halfway point of the 200 lap race, Dario had hit the first two benchmarks with Power running fourth. Before the race hit three-quarters distance, Power had to really push hard to get to the front as he knew at that point that he had to finish ahead of Dario to win the series title. Alas, Power scrubbed the wall and damaged his Dallara's suspension in lapped traffic to put himself out of the race. Once that happened, Dario backed off knowing he only had to finish 10th to win the title and write the last chapter in that season winning championship textbook.

Power's inexperience on oval tracks got the best of him and ultimately he could not muster the speed or race savvy over the last four races of the season (all ovals) to get the job done. Arguably the move of Dario's season occurred at Chicagoland, where he started his assault on Power's points lead, when the team opted for a fuel-only pit stop late in the race which vaulted him to the race win. With Power struggling on ovals, Will couldn't close the deal but completed a spectacular comeback season just 5 points behind Dario in second place. No doubt Power's 2010 experience will benefit him next year and I expect he will challenge for the title again in 2011. With a team like Penske behind him, and the Verizon sponsorship rumored to be leaving NASCAR to fully support, Power, he most likely will be a force to reckon with next season.

And what can you say about Chip Ganassi's 2010 season? Dario wins the Indy 500 and the Indycar title for the Chipster. Ganassi backed cars win the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400. His Telmex Rolex team wins the Grand Am title in dominant fashion despite rules changes mid-season which were meant to even the playing field; it didn't happen! While Ganassi's drivers did not win as many individual Indycar races in 2010 as arch rival Roger Penske's drivers did, Chip came up big in all the high dollar events and you can bet there was a heckuva party in South Beach this weekend after Dario gift wrapped another Indycar title for Chip for the third year in a row. Dario's teammate Scott Dixon took the series during 2008 when Dario was trying his hand at NASCAR. In effect, Dario has now won the Indycar title three straight seasons (2007, 2009 and 2010) with a year off for the taxicab circuit. No doubt Dario's last two titles were more challenging than the first since these came following unification with ChampCar and the driver talent and car counts have increased dramatically since 2007.

So what's next for Indycars? The off season has already started with a bang, given the recent announcement of Graham Rahal securing sponsorship from Service Central. Could he end up at Ganassi also? It's quite possible, but Newman Haas is more likely. Graham's sponsorship may be at the expense of Sarah Fisher who had that funding this year for her second car and who has already talked about moving into an owner-only role to keep her small team afloat heading into the final season with the current equipment package. And what is going to happen with Andretti Autosport? It has been reported that long time sponsor 7-Eleven will not be back next year for Tony Kanaan and that Michael Andretti has given Tony "free agent" status to pursue another ride for 2011. With the struggles Andretti had in 2010 fielding four cars and keeping Ryan Hunter-Reay on track, they could shrink to a two-car team with only Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick at the wheel next year. That would really be a shame as Marco has not fulfilled the promise of the Andretti name and Danica's Indycar tenure is questionable with all the NASCAR interest in her future. To top it off, Danica and Kanaan put on the best racing of the night at Homestead, running wheel to wheel for the last 20 laps as she grabbed second place in by far her best race of the year. Kanaan passed on an opportunity to join Ganassi when Dan Wheldon left a few years ago so could that opportunity arise again in 2011? Chip would have his own three-car juggernaut to challenge Penske's stable then. And will Helio Castroneves finally win that elusive first Indycar title? I can hardly wait to find out.

On the lighter side, I thought it was funny that Dario referred to the new trophy for Indycar season title as "the naked guy on the unicycle" in his interview Sunday night with Dave Despain on Speed's "Wind Tunnel" program. And my favorite line of the whole season was Bryan Herta referring to his team at Indy as "Two Men & A Truck Racing" when his rookie driver Sebastion Saavedra was finally in the Indy 500 despite crashing their car on bump day after all the last minute moves by other teams put them in then out then back in the race several times.

With the 2011 season opener 5 months away, silly season is just getting underway and the teams will be running the current Dallara package for the last time during 2011. Indycar's czar for the new equipment rules, Tony Cotman, is scheduled to be on "Wind Tunnel" with Robin Miller this Sunday so it will be very interesting to find out where preparations for 2012 stand. Lotus has announced it will expand its role with KV Racing and build ancillary parts for the next gen Dallara tub, but everyone wants to know what's going on with the engine rules so that design work can begin in earnest for the next turbo era in Indycars in 2012. Randy Bernard's first year as Indycar executive has gone better than I ever would have expected and the return to Milwaukee next year is a major coup for the series in returning to its roots. As the teams head off to assess their prospects for 2011, so do I as well, as I hope to shoot at least half the 2011 races (preferably all) and get away from the couch racing I have had to do this year. Only time will tell, but as they say, more will be revealed. See you at the track!

Indycar & ARCA Championships Wind Down

The race driver with the superhero name, Will Power, leads the IZOD Indycar brigade into Japan this weekend with a loose grip on the series' championship points lead and hopes to capitalize on his recent improvement in oval track performance with only the Homestead oval to follow. Already the road course season champion, Power can expand his slim season points lead with a top finish. Unfortunately, Motegi has been the scene of trouble for Penske drivers in recent years and all it will take is a DNF or a bad pit stop for Power, ala Kentucky, to give his Ganassi opponents Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon the room they need to squeeze into the top spot in points. Power's teammate Helio Castroneves still has a shot at a top season finish, but must win to leapfrog the Ganassi boys and take points from them in the process. Motegi has been the scene of Penske's undoing in the past as Helio lost a sure win on a fuel gamble to Danica in her only Indycar win a couple of years ago and Ryan Briscoe threw away the win last year when he hit the pit wall on his last pit stop while leading. Best case scenario for Power and Helio is for them to finish 1-2 and for Dario and Dixon to have troubles that leave them more than 54 points behind heading to the finale at Homestead. However, I would really love to see Power keep his points lead and have the series title be a three man shootout at Homestead with Power coming out on top, as he is a very likable guy and is the comeback story of the year in Indycar racing following his serious accident and back injury at Sonoma a year ago.

The Indycar Rookie of the Year title will also likely go down to the wire as Simona De Silvestro leads Bertrand Baguette by a slim margin. These two have been surprising in their first seasons and Simona has been a breath of fresh air with strong performances from her small team. Baguette has been the more surprising of the two, coming to the series as a relative unknown with no oval track experience while Simona hit the scene with Atlantics wins on her resume as more of a known quantity. Her poor finishes have most often not been of her doing, getting crashed out by others or simply finding herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Baguette is coming off his best oval track qualifying performance of the year and needs another strong weekend for his team to put him in position to take the rookie title. With both drivers battling for season honors and recent F1 interest expressed in Simona, lets hope the fireworks are left for after the races and they can both finish the year with impressive finishes. I'm sure their teams will be keeping an eye on each other this weekend to set up a final showdown at Homestead. A season title could be the springboard either of these teams towards new sponsorships and the promise of even greater success for 2011.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world, we will be at Salem Speedway in southern Indiana for the ARCA stock car race watching another series championship battle wind down. By the time we get back from Salem late Saturday night, the Indycar race will be underway on Versus and the ARCA series will be down to its final two races with several drivers in position to take the season title. Steve Arpin (pictured) won at Salem this past April and will be a contender to win again this weekend driving for the Venturini team. If he had not missed two races for NASCAR events, he would also be a contender for the season title - he could still find his way to near the top of the points battle with some racing luck and if the current leaders have problems this weekend. And lord knows, Salem has a way of creating problems for drivers with its rugged surface, high banking and heavy traffic often making life difficult for even the best of the bunch. Current points leader Patrick Sheltra has won at Salem before so he is going to be a factor and needs a solid finish to stay ahead of Craig Goess and Tom Hessert with only a 15 point differential among the top three. Legendary ARCA champion Frank Kimmel is fourth, only 140 points out of first place, and has won at "home track" Salem more often than any of the current driving crop. Justin Marks is in fifth 185 points behind Sheltra so anything can happen this weekend and give these, and other drivers in the top ten, hope heading to the last two ARCA events at Kansas and Rockingham. Last year's season title essentially went down to the last lap at the Rock and I see no reason why it won't happen again.

By now you may be wondering what these series and Motegi and Salem have in common. Aside from having season points battles that are likely not going to be decided until the last laps are run and both are racing on oval tracks, there's another element that many may not have considered. Years ago while working for the State of Indiana, I had the pleasure of working with many Japanese auto companies to help find locations for manufacturing and/or distribution facilities in Indiana. They uniformly seemed to love southern Indiana, and many eventually decided to locate in communities such as Seymour and Columbus, both of which we drive through to get to Salem. Of course Honda's new plant is in Greensburg, also in southern Indiana, and the state has become a hub for suppliers of all the major Japanese auto companies. I was often told that parts of southern Indiana reminded the Japanese of their home country - rolling hills lush with greenery, full of opportunities for business. Having never been to Japan, I had to take their word for that and much has changed in the world - and in auto racing for that matter - in the 20+ years since I held that job. Who would have imagined back in the '80's that Honda would play a vital role in Indycars and in the economy of the Hoosier state? Who would have thought that Toyotas would be fighting for wins on the high banks of the Salem half-mile where ARCA has run 87 times before? Not me, and probably not many others either.

Wherever you are in the world this weekend, enjoy the races. I'll see you at the track, Canon vest on and hat turned backwards for good luck, bringing home pictures for American Motor Journal.

2011 Indycar Schedule Confirmed; John Paul Jr. Battles Major Disease

The IZOD Indycar Series made the formal announcement of the 2011 schedule from the Milwaukee Mile September 10th and there are no real surprises, except for the fact that there are no oval track races prior to the opening of practice for the 2011 Indy 500. I guessed wrong on some of the dates in my last blog post so the following is the corrected schedule as announced by Indycar CEO Randy Bernard Friday. It was a shame that Indycar.com had technical glitches with the audio of the press conference, since Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Johnny Rutherford all participated in the press conference. Nonetheless I listened and watched to get calendar items for 2011.

March 27 - St Pete

April 10 - Barber

April 17 - Long Beach

May 1 - Brazil

May 29 - Indy 500

June 11 - Texas Twin 275's (night)

June 19 - Milwaukee

June 25 - Iowa (night)

July 10 - Toronto

July 24 - Edmonton

August 7 - Mid Ohio (with ALMS)

August 14 - New Hampshire

August 28 - Infineon

Sept 4 - Labor Day - Baltimore

Sept 18 - Motegi

Oct 2- Kentucky

Oct 16 - Vegas/Fontana.

Unrelated to the 2011 schedule is a story contained in an email I got from a photog friend on a tragic note: former Indycar driver and Michigan 500 winner John Paul Jr. is suffering from Huntington's Disease and was recently featured in a UCLA Health Center video which focused on their research into treatment for the disease. As others have noted, seeing John Paul Jr. struggle to walk and talk is heartbreaking as he was a superb talent who never quite got the breaks he needed in Indycars, and whose father had serious legal troubles that cast a shadow over JP's marketability as an Indycar driver. to see the video and learn more about John Paul's battle with the disease, follow this link to the YouTube video. God bless you JP, and godspeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vKXE6EnTtg

Castroneves Takes Kentucky Indycar Win On Fumes

Is it any wonder that Helio Castroneves finds a way to victory lane so often? He did it again and climbed the fences at Kentucky Speedway tonight after savvy fuel strategy left him out at the end when virtually all of the other front runners had to make a last stop for a splash of fuel. He called team boss Tim Cindric a "genius" in the winner's circle and left pole winner Ed Carpenter lamenting a fine second place in front of Dan Wheldon who led a significant number of laps for his Panther team. I'm not sure I've ever seen Helio so excited in Victory Lane and the Penske team sure has the answers when it comes to race strategy.

The most entertaining racing of the evening came from Tony Kanaan as he stormed from the back to run in the top five until the last ten laps when he too had to make a stop for ethanol. Teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay also ran well to get to the front but a problem with the left rear knocked him out of the running very late. Kentucky has been a showcase for close, side-by-side racing with exciting finishes and tonight's race was no exception. While there was no photo finish tonight, the leaders all pit around lap 140-142 and I didn't think there was any way anyone could go the distance from there. But Helio, Cindric and the Team Penske guys found a way, just as they so often do. It's no wonder they are often considered the team to beat whenever they show up at the track. More pix will follow with time when I get back to Indy. Next year this race will run in early October since the Labor Day weekend slot has been given over to a new street race in Baltimore. I hope to be back here again next year for more of the best and fastest racing on earth. You should be here to.

Indycars 200th Race: Carpenter Steals Pole at Kentucky Speedway

With the IZOD Indycar series season winding down, part-timer Ed Carpenter snatched the pole from Will Power at Kentucky Speedway yesterday for tonight's 300 mile event. This race marks the 200th since the formation of the Indy Racing League and Indycar series and if last weekend's wild affair at Chicagoland is a prelude to tonight's action, fans here at the track and watching on Versus will be treated to quite a show. It is fitting that Carpenter is on pole here as he nearly won his first Indycar race ever last year at this track after a 20 lap side-by-side battle with Ryan Briscoe, losing in a photo finish. Ed's teammate for this race is Dan Wheldon who will start third. The most fun tonight may be watching Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay push through the field from the last row after Tony's car setup was woeful in qualifying and RHR hit the fence yesterday. I am set up in the Kentucky Speedway media center now and will bring photos and more race coverage later this evening as the Firestone Indy Lights race rolls off in a little over an hour from now and the Indycars follow under the lights. It should be spectacular and I am so glad to be here for the 200th Indycar event under the IRL sanctioning. It's time now to go look for drivers and people in both series, then the engines will fire and the ethanol exhaust will be wafting through the cool Kentucky night air. I can hardly wait.

Briscoe Sweeps Texas Pole & Race Win: Final Thoughts on May In Indy

What a difference a week makes for Penske Racing's Ryan Briscoe. As you can guess from this picture during practice at Indianapolis, things weren't going well, then he crashed out of the 500 and probably couldn't wait for the month of May to be over. Now six days later, he takes pole position at Texas Motor Speedway and leads the most laps to get a win and perhaps turn his season around. His Penske teammates didn't fare so well at Texas, as Helio got taken out by Mario Moraes and Will Power had a variety of problems. Briscoe got past a suddenly competitive Danica Patrick late in the race to capture the win. Danica is another driver who couldn't wait to get out of Indy, along with the rest of her Andretti Autosport teammates. Marco Andretti followed up his string Indy finish with another good run at Texas and Tony Kanaan was his usual self on the high banks as he prepares for his first crack at Eldora this week in Tony Stewart's "Prelude To A Dream" late model dirt event. Ryan Hunter-Reay's Indy tangle with Mike Conway has been repeated a million times on television and become a YouTube staple this week but pit problems at Texas spoiled his day in what could be his last race for the season. A year ago this weekend, I was in Texas with my brother and his son shooting the race but unfortunately could not make it this year. The Texas oval has been renowned for close racing and photo finishes but last year was the race where that all disappeared for the IRL and they realized that aero changes were needed for the oval tracks. Since then, the IZOD Indycar Series oval races have been nail biters with edge of your seat passing and dueling. When they go to Iowa in two weeks, I would expect more of the same, although I will be at Mid Ohio shooting the Rolex Grand Am series event. Congratulations to Briscoe and kudos to Andretti Autosport for getting its act together.

With May in the rear view mirror, the heat of summer racing season is now fully in swing. Even with the abbreviated schedule at IMS, there was plenty to do and my vantage point for race day in Turn 3 turned out to be incredible with lots of side by side racing and Mike Conway's amazing accident on the last lap. I was very fortunate to get pictures of the incident as it was behind me and I first heard the contact and then turned and started shooting. This is one reason why I never listen to a scanner or a radio during a race: I need to hear the cars and sounds of the event, since anything unusual means something bad is typically happening and I have to be ready. Whenever I tell people about the Indy 500, I tell them it is a total sensory experience, and the feeling of the race and sounds of the competition are just as important as the visual element for this photographer. Here is part of my sequence from Conway's crash: 11 frames with my Canon 7D means this took just less than 1.5 seconds. A blink of the eye with very little margin for error. Conway and Hunter-Reay are both extremely lucky to be alive and I am grateful that these images are spectacular without involving any driver being seriously injured.

The other part of my Indy 500 weekend that I have not written about yet was the annual "Night Before The 500" event at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont a few short miles west of the Speedway. The USAC National Midget Series ran a 50 lap feature and the show had the F2000 and Star Mazda series as support races. The midget feature was won by Tanner Swanson over Bryan Clauson in a heated battle that was punctuated by an early red flag for a scary three car incident where Daniel Bedford got launched out of the park on the backstretch. Luckily he was not injured but the event settled down from there and Swanson was a surprise winner. The F2000 event began the racing for the evening but the real star of the night turned out to be Conor Daly, son of former F1 and Indy 500 driver and current television racing analyst Derek Daly. Conor led every lap of the 125 Star Mazda event which was stopped a couple of laps early to get the midget race underway. When Conor got to Victory Lane, it seemed like he brought half the City of Noblesville out of the stands with him to celebrate. Conor looks like the real deal and was never seriously challenged in the Star Mazda event. It's clear he is going places in racing and has won three Star Mazda races already this on the "Road to Indy". This slide show is a mix of F2000, Star Mazda and USAC Midget action from that night.

You never know where you're going to find me with my cameras, and you know I'll have something to say. By the way - my Indy 500 Rookie of the Year pick Simona de Silvestro was extremely lucky at Texas last night. What took the safety crews so long to get fire retardant on her car? The IRL better look at that and make sure they are ready to go for Iowa. While I can't make the trek to Rusty Wallace's nice little oval, I'll have sports car action from beautiful Mid Ohio to bring you before you know it.

Dario Franchitti Runs Away With 2nd Indy 500 Win

On what was reported to be the hottest race day ever for an Indianapolis 500, Dario Franchitti thoroughly dominated his IZOD Indycar Series competition today to win his second 500 in his last three tries. In the process he helped team owner Chip Ganassi become the first car owner ever to win Indy and the Daytona 500 in the same year. The race began and ended with crashes and Dario took the lead on the first lap and overcome the fuel mileage concerns of most of the field to win under caution following Mike Conway's frightening Turn 3 crash with Ryan Hunter-Reay on the last lap. Conway suffered a broken leg and it is a miracle that no one in the stands was hurt by the debris cloud thrown off when Conway got airborne and hit the fence above the SAFER barrier going backwards at 200 mph. My photos of the crash are included in the slideshow with this blog post and initial concerns were that he had actually gone under the grandstands after tearing through thick steel cables which split the car in two. Thankfully, the outcome was nowhere near as bad for Conway as it could have been.

The race was marked by several accidents likely due to the hot and slippery conditions, but Dario was unaffected by any of it. He clearly had the fastest car all race long and as others had to peel off for late fuel stops, he moved back into his dominating position at the point. The Dreyer & Reinbold team had been having a very good day prior to Conway's crash, as he led several laps along with Thomas Scheckter and Justin Wilson at various times. Oddly enough it was the veterans making the mistakes today and not rookies as one might have expected. Team Penske had the worst of it. Ryan Briscoe found the wall. Will Power left his pit with the fueling rig still attached. Race favorite Helio Castroneves stalled leaving the pits. Davey Hamilton, Bruno Junqeira, John Andretti and Raffa Matos all hit the wall. Dario's teammate Scott Dixon had a problem in the pits and was never a serious challenger for the race win. The only rookie who got into trouble was Sebastion Saavedra who spun in Turn 1 into the barrier (again) and put Bryan Herta's "Two Men and a Truck" race team out for good. Except for Sarah Fisher, who could never get a grip on the race track and dropped out early, the ladies fared well today. Simona de Silvestro ran strong all day (my rookie of the year favorite) and Ana Beatriz stayed out of trouble until becoming an innocent victim of Conway's wreck. Danica was racy while fighting in mid pack after being booed in driver introductions for her Pole Day comment that her poor qualifying run "Was not my fault." Indy 500 crowds don't forget.

Danica's teammates were the stars of the show for Andretti Autosport. Tony Kanaan picked up seven spots (flying around the outside line) in the first lap and charged all the way to second at one point to the delight of the sweltering crowd. Marco Andretti was a frontrunner all day and took third while Hunter-Reay had some good moments too before Conway used him for a launching ramp at the end. Indy-only teammates at Panther also had good days as my darkhorse candidate Dan Wheldon finished second for the second straight year and Ed Carpenter maintained a Top 10 spot most of the afternoon. Perhaps the happiest people other than Dario's bunch were Alex Lloyd and Sam Schmidt, as Alex was very aggressive on restarts and parlayed that into an excellent 4th place finish.

It was quite a day at the old Brickyard today, and my vantage point in Turn 3 offered loads of side by side action as cars slipped up into the gray on several occasions to be passed by others who were able to hug the white line. And my predicted winner, Dario Franchitti, made everyone else eat his ethanol exhaust virtually the entire race, leading more laps in one win than any other 500 winner in history. Now the big track in little Speedway, Indiana, goes quiet until NASCAR comes to town at the end of July and we have to wait another year to see what surprises she will unveil in 2011 which will be 100 years since the first 500 was run. Jack Nicholson waving the green flag and kissing the bricks, Mark Walberg in the two-seater with Michael Andretti at the wheel, more women racers than ever before, and a dominant race by Scotsman Dario Franchitti will be hard to top next year. And Helio will have to wait until then to try and collect his 4th Indy 500 win, while Dario will return as defending 500 Champ for the first time, having left for stock cars after his 2007 win in the rain. The IZOD Indycars now move to Texas for a night race this Saturday and I wish I could go again this year. Pretty soon, you'll hear the same old question from me: is it May yet? I can hardly wait.

Indy 500: The Night Before

With less than 24 hours before the 94th running of the Indianapolis 500, nearly all the pagentry is over with the 500 Festival Parade this afternoon and the Snake Pit Ball this evening. Teams have completed their final preparations and final strategies are being fine tuned. By tomorrow evening, the driver's face will be know which will be added to this year's spot on the Borg Warner trophy. I have watched thousands of laps this month and been close enough to the drivers to overhear conversations with crew chiefs, read their facial expressions and body language, and have a sense for their level of confidence as individuals and teams. Tomorrow they race!

My picks for this year's race are:

Winner: Dario Franchitti. While Helio is the odds-on favorite, Dario looks ready to win another one, and this one at full distance unlike 2007 which was rain-shortened.

Darkhorse: Dan Wheldon. He was my pick last year and finsihed second on strategy and the Panther team has rebounded from a practice crash and he has looked relaxed and confident.

Sentimental Pick: Ryan Hunter-Reay. He is the face of IZOD and may need to win to keep racing this season beyond Texas next weekend. How could IZOD not keep him running if he wins?

Rookie of the Year: Simona de Silvestro. I saw her moake moves in Carb Day yesterday that veterans would be proud of and I think she will outshine the other rookies in the Class of 2010.

Driver to Watch: Tony Kanaan from 33rd. It goes wthout saying that the Brazilian's internal fire will be buring hot and he will pass lots of cars early. He probably can't win from last place, but who knows? Scott Goodyear almost did it in 1992.

Yesterday's Carb Day crowd was very encouraging and the campers were already well ensconced along Crawfordsville Road and in the Coke Fields. Today the drivers will try to quiet the butterfiles and get some rest to take on the elements, the race track and their fellow drivers tomorrow. This will probably be my last blog post before the race as I am going to O'Reilly Raceway Park tonight for the Star Mazda dn USAC midget races. What's a few more hundred laps this weekend anyway. Then Sunday, it's back to my spot in Turn 3 at the Speedway, watching, waiting, watching and shooting. Stop on by! Go Dario!

Target Rules Indy Carb Day - Cunningham Wins Lights Race

On a hot and beautiful spring day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Target Ganassi teammates Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon ruled the roost in final Carburetion Day practice, both able to run laps in excess of 225 in race trim. Penske duo Will Power followed in third with Helio in fifth sandwiching the most impressive run of the day by Bruno Junquiera in fourth. All 33 teams got on track and Tony Kanaan was back in his original car and will start shotgun on the field Sunday. From my vantage point in Turn 3, it was a clean final hour of practice under the midday sun and bodes well for a fast race Sunday as numerous drivers were able to run over 220 in race trim. I will have a full field rundown before Sunday with my annual predication for the winner.

Wade Cunningham won the highly entertaining Firestone Indy Lights Freedom 100 race, taking his third win at Indianapolis in the process. Surprise pole winner Pippa Mann was taken out by a spinning Jeff Simmons on Lap 2 in the first turn which opened the door for some great wheel to wheel battles among the top 5 Lights drivers. The remainder of the race was clean and green but Cunningham had to hold off several stout challenges to take the win.

The wrapup for the day was provided by that little band from Texas, ZZ Top. A huge crowd gathered in the infield road course section for the show by these rock legends amid sweltering conditions at the 3:30 concert time. I will be back with much more as the weekend progresses and hope that everyone got home safely from the Speedway today. The heat took its toll on many of the partiers that we saw throughout the day and Sunday promises more of the same conditions for the 500. It sure looked like everyone had a good time: I know we did and the best is yet to come in less that 48 hours. Back again soon!

Eyes of the Indy 500

It has been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. If that is true, then what do we see when we look into the eyes of competitors at the Indy 500? Intensity is one characteristic shared by all drivers and looking in their eyes tells a story for each one. These eyes belong to AJ Foyt, who while he has not been a driver for a number of years, no one would argue that he is any less intense as a car owner. Just ask AJ Foyt IV! He doesn't appear to be getting a lot of sleep and with the battle for sponsorships and trying to get two cars into the 500, I can imagine sleep may be hard to come by.

In the traditional stick & ball sports, they say that the legs are the first to go. With drivers, that doesn't much matter as they will get behind the wheel with broken bones in their legs, feet, back and arms if they still can grip the steering wheel. But if their eyes go, that's another deal entirely, since it all starts there. Hand-eye coordination is of paramount importance for drivers so when the brain can no longer process the signals from the eyes as quickly as in their youth, that's when drivers know the gig is about up. For Indycar drivers blasting through a blind corner at over a football field per second, quick reactions mean everything: their lives depend on them.

I have wanted to do a photo feature on driver's eyes for quite some time, and thanks to the access I have shooting for American Motor Journal, I have made a conscious effort to get eye contact with drivers this May whenever possible. That in itself can be a challenge since so often the first thing they do upon exiting their cars (after putting on a sponsor's hat) is put on the big Hollywood sunglasses. Every time I see inside a driver's helmet or make eye contact through the lens on pit road, I wonder how things must look from their vantage point. I have heard many say that everything slows down and that speed is relative once you get used to it. The "getting used to it" at 220+ mph is what amazes me! These are men and women with special skills and a fearlessness that is almost unfathomable. Why else would they strap themselves in with a broken back, like Buddy Lazier did to with the 1996 Indy 500, and then risk everything every corner of every lap just to finish first? Vitor Meira and Will Power are the latest examples of drivers who overcame serious crash injuries to race again, and you can see in their eyes that nothing else matters but going fast to get to the checkers ahead of everyone else. God bless them all this weekend and as is often heard in the prayers before a race begins - "godspeed."

Indy 500 Field is Full: Bump Day Drama To The End

If Paul Tracy has too many more days like today at Indy, he won't have any hair left at all, as he's on the outside looking in after experiencing a miserable Bump Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Setting aside a time that would have been quick enough to make the show, PT was left in the qualifying line at 6:00 p.m. with Jay Howard on the track making one last ditch attempt to get a second Sarah Fisher Racing car in the show. Howard was unsuccessful and Sarah was in tears afterwards. Such is life at 225 mph at Indy. Easily the luckiest person at IMS today was 19-year old Sebastion Saavedra who made a rookie mistake with a little over an hour to go in qualifications and smacked the SAFER barrier in Turn 1 while seeking more speed in case he got bumped off the bubble. He ended up making the 500 with a wrecked car after all the bumping was done.

The day's final events set up early as the field was filled by 1 p.m. and the track opened for an extensive green light practice period where teams that qualified Saturday on Pole Day ran in bunches to work on race day setups. On a day when the weather was more like August than May, the track temperature soared from 84 at noon to 124 just a few hours later, and the changing conditions proved to be the undoing of several drivers who could no longer find speed. Even Tracy's bravado was no match for the track today and despite kicking up the marbles and almost brushing the wall on his last qualifying run, he could not get it done. Milka Duno is also on the outside looking in, as she never did seem to find the groove in Turn 3 where I shot today, and she had a major moment of her own on the south end of the track during one of her qualifying runs. After reportedly having "words" with Grandpa AJ earlier in the day, Foyt IV never hit the track as Jacques Lazier was put in the seat to try to qualify a second Foyt car after Vitor Meira got the 14 machine in handily shortly after noon. Jacques worked hard all day and with relatively few laps, he got sideways in front of us and had to wave off one final attempt to make the race. Bruno Junqueira put a second FAZZT team car in the show with virtually no track time and Mario Romancini gave up a precarious speed to run faster late in the day and safely get in the field of 33. Alex Lloyd made a workmanlike run to get in and Takuma Sato spent most of the day in the garage before making a late run to get in and come back from his Pole Day accident.

The happiest person at the Track had to be Tony Kanaan today after crashing again in the morning practice session in almost the same place as he did Saturday. Contrast TK's emotional interview with Sarah Fisher's tearful reactions after the 6:00 gun went off and the extremes of making the Indy 500 become personal for anyone who loves all that is Indy. It never ceases to amaze me how the practice and qualifying unfolds, where at the beginning of practice everyone thinks they have loads of time to "sort out" their cars and get up to speed. This year especially, weather was a major factor, reducing track time and pushinh small teams Like Sarah's to their limits only to come up short. Now the real waiting begins, as the 500 is just seven days away and the race we wait for all year will be over before you know it. I'll be back with other photo features this week as I have more time to edit the few thousand images I've shot this week, and then we go racing in earnest for a shot at making history.

Got milk?

All Hail Helio! Wins Second Straight Indy 500 Pole Position

Penske teammates Helio Castroneves and Will Power staged a frenetic shootout for Pole Position at Indy today with Helio setting fast time as soon as the shootout started at 4:30. With two laps over 228 and a four lap average of just under that mark, Helio put up a huge number that no one else could match. Lots of attempts were made to prevent Helio from taking a second consecutive Indy pole, the first to do so since the late Scott Brayton, but no one could do it. Dario Franchitti made a late charge to sneak into the outside of Row 1 and prevent a Penske sweep of the top three positions and save face for Ganassi Racing. It was an amazing display of bravado by all the drivers who made it into the new Top 9 shoot out and incredibly no one went over the limit and found the wall while chasing Helio's unbeatable time. Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato were not so lucky as they hit the wall earlier in the day and must try to qualify Sunday on Bump Day. Mario Moraes had a spin with wall contact but came back to make the show with a solid run. So now there are only 9 positions left in the field for the 500 and Bump Day should be another great show for the fans. It will be hot and greasy so I would expect there to be more car control issues for drivers dealing with conditions they have not seen all week. Stay tuned!

Indy 500 Practice Resumes: Three Days to Pole Shootout

After a complete washout of practice Monday May 17th, the IZOD Indycar teams got back to business today with nearly a full day of practice in cold and overcast conditions. Most of the teams ran in coordinated groups doing fuel runs and practicing in the draft with teammates and others. Scott Dixon led the way today and the track was very busy until almost Happy Hour, when a few sprinkles created two brief caution periods. Mario Moraes and Marco Andretti jumped into the top 5 speed list today but the day ended ten minutes early after EJ Viso clouted the Turn One wall after spinning. I was in Turn 3 today hoping for favorable lighting conditions and am probably changing my race day game plan to shoot from there. Three is the last corner at Indy without tall fencing to shoot through and I have had good luck there in the past.

Even though the teams put lots of laps in today, it may prove to be rather meaningless come Pole Day, just three days from now. The weather forecast is typical for us Hoosiers, as the old saying goes, "if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change." And change dramatically as the weekend is predicted to be hot with temperatures in the 80's, quite a contrast to the damp and cool conditions which have prevailed since the track opened Saturday.

There have been no less than 36 drivers on the track in the limited practice so far this week and there are several others pounding the pavement hoping to get a shot at qualifying. I've seen Jacques Lazier, and today Oriol Servia was talking to Dario Franchitti and Alex Tagliani at different points during the day. The tough part about a shortened practice week is other drivers won't have time to put together late deals, unless someone gets desperate this Sunday when Bump Day rolls around. It wouldn't be the first time someone jumped in a car on the last qualifying day and stuck it in the show with hardly any laps. Greg Beck's entries have not hit the track as yet so his equipment might be available to someone with a big enough pocketbook.

Everyone seems to have no trouble getting up to 220 right away (even Milka!) so I would expect the bump speed to be around 221.7 by the time all the shouting stops this Sunday when the gun goes off at 6 p.m. It also looks like a pole speed of close to 227 might be possible, but it will need to be ideal conditions and a near-perfect four lap run to make that speed. Lots of folks are already running faster than last year's pole speed of 224+, but they are also running in packs with help from the draft. As the weather warms up by Friday and teams begin to roll out their qualifying setups, the real speeds will emerge as the pack practice will stop and drivers will be looking for open space on track to run by themselves.

The Speedway is really pumping up the "shootout" angle as they are playing an amped up electric guitar version of the theme song from the classic Clint Eastwood western, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" with regularity on the track's PA system and video boards. The good will take pole position Saturday evening, the bad will go home Sunday night, and the ugly will probably scare themselves (or worse: become acquainted with the SAFER barrier) just trying to make the field of 33. It doesn't get much better than this folks. C'mon out!

Helio Fastest For Indy's Opening Weekend

The opening weekend of practice for the 94th Indianapolis 500 is now over and the usual suspects are at the top of the speed chart, led by Helio Castroneves. Target teammates Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti are close behind after a weekend of schedule interruptions and changes caused by intermittent rainy weather. The only incident of the weekend occurred late Sunday when 2005 Indy winner Dan Wheldon smacked the Turn 4 SAFER barrier. This year's crop of rookies looked smooth and got through an abbreviated rookies only session today with no problems. The track was opened up for all comers at 2:15 and teams quickly got down to business with packs of cars drafting and looking for fast times. Nearly 1400 laps were run today even though the track closed around 5:30 when a steady mist finally got the track too wet to continue practice.

Tony Kanaan shook down five Andretti Autosport cars Saturday but focused on his 7-Eleven ride today and the results showed on the speed charts. Pole Day is shaping up as a battle royale for the Fast Nine spots among the Penske, Target and Andretti camps. With five more days of practice until then, and the prospect of more rain in the forecast every day this week, track time will be at a premium and I expect teams to take advantage of every bit of green light time they get. Indy Racing League officials adjusted today's schedule after Saturday was mostly washed out, so I would not be surprised if more schedule changes are made throughout the week to make sure teams get the time they need to prepare for qualifying. Top speeds today were set in the draft, so it will be interesting to see what Helio et all can run by themselves without benefit of a tow from another car. More of that will be seen later in the week as teams hone in on a qualifying setup.

It was like old home week for me at the Speedway this weekend as I ran into lots of photographer friends and began to feel as though drivers were recognizing me after spending so much time shooting Indycar races the last five seasons. I even ran into Soctt Dixon's dad and shook his hand, asking him if he had been to Marsh lately, after talking with him there a couple of weeks ago in the express checkout line. My brother and I stopped into the 500 Oldtimers suite during one rain delay and Johnny Rutherford walked in with a greeting of "Looks like a bunch of oldtimers in here!" I have not made it out to the corners to shoot yet but there was plenty to do this weekend as I tried to get as many driver shots as possible and spent quite a bit of time atop the F1 garages shooting cars entering Turn 1. It is a great vantage point and one of the few places at Indy where you can really see the drivers working the steering wheel. Several cars were bottoming out going into one when tire pressures were low and showers of sparks were flying as a result. There are a few rookies who still are searching for the correct entry line into One, but I was very impressed by how quickly they all got up to speed.

The prettiest car at the track is the Lotus-themed Dallara of rookie Takuma Sato, who looked quick and smooth throughout his rookie test. The following slideshow is a quick look at pix from this weekend and there will be much more to follow this week as I spend as much time as possible at the Track. I'll be the one wearing the Canon photo vest. See you there!

Countdown To Indy: 1 More Day to Track Time

Every May around Indianapolis, you can always tell when the Speedway is about to open for Indy 500 practice. "500 Festival" hotshots are tooling around in their pace cars. Checkered flags start showing up in people's yards or hung from their homes. Drivers start making publicity appearances for their sponsors. The local news media ramps up their print and video coverage of preparations for the opening of the Track.

The teams are now all ensconced in Gasoline Alley and getting down to the business of preparing their cars to hit the track in a little more than 24 hours from now. Drivers are gearing up with media appearances at places like Macy's, which has a huge push on now for sales of IZOD Indycar Series merchandise. Driver "experts" will soon be in demand for the local television stations. Earlier this week, I attended a live broadcast of the Autosportradio.com show at McGilvery's Pub on the westside and heard Ed Carpenter, Vitor Meira and AJ Foyt IV talking about their preparations. They appeared relaxed and ready to go as the best time of year in Indy is about to get underway. The pub was packed for the show and the Hoosier 100 promoter was also there, so if you are in Indy for the 500 weekend, go out to the State Fairgrounds after Carb Day activities are over and watch the USAC Silver Crown cars run 100 miles on the mile dirt. If you still can't get enough racing that weekend, then go to O'Reilly Raceway Park the next night for the "Night Before the 500" USAC Midget show on the 5/8 mile paved oval. The Star Mazda series will also be featured that night.

At the Autosportradio.com show, it was especially interesting to hear Vitor and AJ talk about being teammates this year. Vitor has made an incredible comeback from back injuries suffered in his crash with Rafael Matos during last year's 500, and he told a great story about discussions with team owner AJ Foyt about reassurances he got about the ride being available to him when he recovered. He also talked about the new Pole Day qualifying format and indicated he knew it was for the benefit of the fans. Foyt IV was very entertaining and said he would be happy to qualify 10th on Pole Day and didn't seem to want any part of the Fast Nine session that day. He was asked about his relationship with AJ and said it is much better now that he is not crashing AJ's cars. The best part of the interview was his comment that there have been times with these IRL cars when they weren't handling (like at Richmond) where he "just wanted to crash and get it over with". The crowd loved the comment and of course everyone understood that he wasn't really hoping to crash and that he was describing what it was like trying to maneuver an ill-handling race car when every corner the thing might swap ends on him.

The six rookies entered for this year's race will get the bulk of the track time this weekend after the veterans are given the first two hours Saturday and Sunday to shake things down. Takuma Sato, Simona De Silvestro, Ana Beatriz, Jay Howard, Bertrand Baguette, Mario Romancini and Sebastrian Saavedra each have good teams behind them and while they may be limited in big car, big track experience, none are newcomers. Sato has a wealth of Formula One experience (plus Honda money) and ran the USGP at Indy for Honda's F1 program on Indy's road course, although turning left exclusively will be new for him. De Silvestro was the last Formula Atlantic champion, won several races in that now-defunct series and has looked stout on the road courses so far this year in her maiden Indycar season. Ana was the first woman to win a Firestone Indy Lights race (at Nashville two years ago) and comes back to Indy this year hoping to forget her huge Turn 1 Indy Lights wreck that I photographed in the 2009 Freedom 100. Howard is teamed with Sarah Fisher and got laps at Indy last May but looked shaky in his initial foray at the Speedway so I hope he keeps his foot down and that Sarah's little team can give him a good car. Baguette is an unknown but Saavedra dominated a number of Indy Lights races in 2009 so he should do well with sufficient track time.

I'll be there tomorrow to bring it all home and I hope you'll come back for further updates as the run-up to Pole Day next Saturday continues. Go fast. Turn Left. Bring it back in one piece. That is what these rookies hope to do this weekend before the Track opens up for all entrants on Monday.

Indy 500 Countdown: 5 Days Until the Roar Begins

Having moved to Indianapolis shortly after my 11th birthday, it wasn't long before the lure of the Brickyard had me smitten. My grandfather introduced me to racing at about the age of the boy in this photo, and with my birthday near 500 race day every year, I have great memories of listening to Sid Collins call the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" on the radio while eating watermelon and birthday cake at Grandpa's house. My dad took me to see the movie "Winning" for my 12th birthday and I saw my first 500 for my next birthday. I've been every year since 1976 and the changes that have occurred at 16th & Georgetown have been well documented through the years. I was reminded last week while picking up Mini Marathon packets at the Indiana Convention Center that much of the race's allure has been lost since the 500 was only available on radio. The saddest part is that casual fans will never know what they have been missing. And where will the next generation of Indycar fans come from?

As I shot pictures of this young man walking around Danica's show car at the Convention Center, I flashed back through my years as a fan, spectator and photographer. Every year it seems photographers talk and wonder where the next generation of shooters are who will put in the time that so many of us have invested, waiting for three seconds of action day after day to get "the shot". Around here, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is simply "The Speedway", or "The Track", as in, "Are you going out to The Track today?" It was commonplace to skip class in high school on a nice May day and go watch practice for a couple of bucks. Spending all night waiting for the gates to open on race day to run in and get a spot on the infield fence was an annual event in and of itself. So many rituals like that have fallen by the wayside; many say it is because there are so many entertainment options available to people today.

One reason not often given is a simple change in philosophy at the Speedway: when the decision was made to erect grandstands where the infield crowd used to gather in the Turn 1 Snakepit, the opportunity for casual fans to be part of an "event" began to dwindle. That crowd got moved to Turns 3 & 4 and then the road course was built and the spaces by the fence dwindled even further. I will agree that the spectator mounds have been a great addition for fan comfort. But I still miss the chaos of bikers and loaded-down vans racing into the track at 5 a.m. on race day, now replaced by orderly processions into lined parking areas inside Turn 3. And while it is true that the rowdy fans of years past are fewer in number due to physical limitations, I really believe the loss of that rowdy element has had an effect on the Indy 500 fan base and pushed people to NASCAR where they could camp out for days on end and carry on with relative abandon. Racing has always had that element of wildness and its loss to a more corporate environment is hard to explain to people whose only knowledge of Indy is what they see on Sportscenter.

Ignore if you can all the infighting that followed the IRL-CART split and the bickering among fans who still want to place blame for the "demise" of open wheel racing. The fact remains that creature comforts at Indy are vastly improved and Indy is still the race that every race fan anywhere knows about. Winning the Indy 500 itself is still highly sought after by racers. The Indycar rules since the IRL was formed have arguably created the closest competition that the Speedway has ever seen. I know Indy diehards lament the loss of 100,000 people turning out on pole day, but when the action is available on TV and the Internet, who can blame today's fans for staying home? Something more must be done to get people to the track and it has to start at an earlier age. More school bus field trips to the Track, not just in May but year-round. Organized tours of the 500 Museum, the track and garages with "open house" style events for all comers, free of charge. Chances for average people to drive their cars on the track and kiss the bricks like the winners. Raffles for suite passes and bronze badges for garage area access when the Track is open for practice. Individual and group visits with drivers and team owners, not just for people associated with sponsors. More contests for tickets to other Indycar events. Chances to drive an Indy Lights car. Hot laps at other non-IRL race events to help people understand the sounds and smells of an ethanol fueled Indycar. Indianapolis racing has got to get personal again so that new fans can understand their fathers' passion for all things Indy and go to the racetrack in truckloads like we used to do.

The photos of the boy at Danica's car got me started on this post, but the clincher for me occurred a few minutes after taking the shots as I was about to leave the Convention Center. On the PA system, I heard an announcement that Firestone Indy Lights driver Martin Plowman was on hand to sign autographs. I walked over to the table where he sat preparing his hero cards to hand out. No one knew who he was and there was no one near him. There were no banners or anything denoting this was a racer on the ladder to the Indy 500. Not even a Firestone backdrop for his autograph session. So I went and talked to Martin for quite a few minutes and told him what a great show the Lights cars put on at the Speedway, where they can run three wide through Turn 1 with room to spare. We talked about the pictures I had of his crash in last year's Freedom 100 and the other race tracks the Indy Lights run as companion to the IZOD Indycar Series. He was very gracious and willing to talk, for as long as I wanted to it seemed, and while I was excited to have this one-on-one time with him, I walked away a bit angry that a good PR opportunity for Indy Lights and Indycars wasn't being maximized. The IRL had their fan trailer there near Danica's car, but Martin was sitting more than 50 yards away. With 40,000 runners coming to the Convention Center to get their Mini Marathon packets, I was surprised there wasn't more of a push to bring more focus to Martin's presence and the real reason there is a Mini Marathon in the first place: The Indy 500.

Today is Helio Castroneves 35th birthday and it only takes one conversation with him to know how passionate he is about Indy. We've got to share that fire with anyone who will listen. I know I do, at every chance I get, and just like this blog post, you get me started talking about Indycars and the 500 and I may never stop. It's still the greatest race in the world. If you don't believe me, put down the iPhone and satellite remote and go to the track next week. Experiencing Indy in person is nothing like television so pack a cooler, take grandma and the kids and find a spot on the Turn 3 mounds. Go smell the ethanol exhaust just once and you'll want to go back for more.

But that's just one Hoosier's opinion. I've got plenty more where that came from. Just ask me.

Indy 500 Countdown: 10 Days to Opening Day

With his dominating win on the 1.5 mile Kansas oval, Scott Dixon has thrown down the gauntlet for his Indycar competitiors. Not only did the Target Ganassi gang have something up their sleeve (as I suspected) for the first oval race of the 2010 IZOD Indycar Series, they blew everyone away taking the top two steps on the podium with Dario Franchitti claiming second. Dixon leading an IRL oval race is nothing new, nor is leading the vast majority of race laps (167 of 200) a new experience for him. He and Dario have consistently been pack leaders with everyone else chasing on oval tracks. With eight days of practice leading up to Pole Day at Indy May 22nd, Dixon and Dario will be tough to beat. Season points leader Will Power finished two laps down in 12th at Kansas, although his Penske teammate Helio Castroneves ran strong to finish fourth. With all eyes on Indy beginning May 15th, a spirited battle for pole position between the Ganassi and Penske teams is virtually assured. With 40 entrants going for the first 24 spots on Pole Day, competition will be fierce, especially for the top 9 spots on the Indy scoring pylon: those drivers will have two shots at the pole between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m. that day.

Kansas began a string of four straight oval races for the IRL, and it remains to be seen if Will Power can hold onto his series points lead. Dixon is nipping at his heels now in second, with Helio third and Andretti Autosports' Ryan Hunter-Reay in fourth. By the time the IRL has finished this run of oval tracks in June, the season will be nearly half over and questions remain for many of the regulars. Can Power maintain his points lead or will he change his focus to the new road/street circuit championship? And what will happen to Hunter-Reay after his IZOD money dries up following Texas? If he is still in the top five in points and outrunning his other Andretti teammates, how in the world can the team realistically park him over funding? Tony Kanaan had a solid run to third at Kansas, his best finish in quite some time, and RHR was right there in fifth behind Helio. So perhaps TK is about to turn the corner, but his luck has never been very good at Indianapolis. Justice would be served if RHR qualifies for the 500 in the top 9 and finishes strongly in the race; IZOD surely would see the light and come up with a way for their man to continue and fight for the season championship. He appears to be one of the most confident drivers out there now, and May 2010 should have a whole different feel for him than last year when he barely made the show.

And where the heck is Danica? Nowhere near the front is the answer. The darling of the IRL has been outclassed everywhere so far this season with dismal results for the Go Daddy girl. A crash at Brazil on slicks when rain tires were needed, poor starts (and finishes) on the other road courses, and a distant 11th at Kansas two laps down don't bode well for Indy. Perhaps the extra track time at the Speedway will help her find her way again, but my guess is the struggle will continue. Look for the surly girl more often than not along pit lane and in Gasoline Alley this May. I'll be watching Indy's other lady racers Simona De Silvestro and Ana Beatriz to see if they outshine their more famous colleague. The only good news for Danica is she still has fight in her, evidenced by her Kansas dice with Helio while being lapped.

As for Pole Position, don't count Helio out. He has shown the ability to be fastest when four laps are needed at Indy. He will also be going for a fourth Indy 500 win this year to join Indycar legends AJ Foyt, Al Unser, Sr. and Rick Mears in that elite group. These and other great stories remain to be told this May and there is always a surprise or two that comes from the month. As a 500 Oldtimer, I look forward to more surprises this year at 16th & Georgetown. I'll be there most every day to cover the activity on the track, on pit lane and in the garage area with daily blog posts and photo galleries, both here and on American Motor Journal's website.

The Speedway continues its Centennial Celebration this year pointing towards 2011 which will mark the 100th year since the first 500 in 1911. While Tony Hulman has been gone for quite awhile now, you wonder how he would view the current state of affairs in Indycars. With a shorter "Month of May" than in recent years, new Pole Day qualifying rules, perhaps as many as five women starting the 500, new oval and road/street course awards, and a host of other changes in the IRL for 2010, many Indy "traditions" have fallen by the wayside in an effort to recoup lost ground with fans. There is still nothing better than going into the track race day before dawn, hearing the bomb go off when the gates open, and seeing those balloons drift skyward before the racers are unleashed into Turn 1 for the first time. Praying for some "Tony Hulman" race day weather is one tradition that will continue as long as they turn left 800 times to find victory at Indianapolis. See you at the track!

Racin' This 'n That: It's Almost May & That Means Indianapolis

Lots of people are talking about Kevin Harvick winning the NASCAR lottery at Talladega last weekend, but for my money, the best show was Friday's ARCA race won by star-in-the-making Dakoda Armstrong (pictured). With a healthy assist from ARCA regular Patrick Sheltra on the last lap, this 18 year old Hoosier from New Castle pulled off an outstanding pass to snag his first win at 'Dega. His Victory Lane celebration looked like the real deal and this kid is going places. He's already got an entourage of sorts, judging from the way fans hooted for him during introductions at Salem a couple of weeks ago. With his rock star looks and a bundle of talent, he seems destined for greater things in racing. With the young guns from ARCA showing well in the other Talladega events (see Steve Arpin, Parker Kligerman, Justin Allgaier, et al for more on that), perhaps you can understand why I enjoy covering the ARCA series so much. These guys are going places and just need seat time to show their stuff. Well done gentlemen.

While the stock car series are heading for short tracks, the IZOD Indycars are about to attack the first oval race of the season at Kansas Speedway. In another sure sign of spring for IRL fans, that can only mean the Indy 500 is not far off and it is almost May. With a little more than two weeks before the Speedway opens for practice, this weekend's Kansas race will be an opportunity to see what everyone has for their oval track packages. And the news lately has been that Penske has more than everyone else and isn't sharing! What a surprise! Everything from ride height control to front suspension tweaks are rumored to have been on their cars for quite some time. I'm sure the Target Ganassi boys have a few tricks up their sleeves for Penske this weekend and I wish I could be there. Maybe next year...

The 500 entry list is looking quite healthy this year with close to 80 cars ready to roll for about 40 drivers. One idea that new IRL boss Randy Bernard has floated this week involves offering additional prizes and recognition for oval and street/road course "champions" in the future. This is not exactly a new idea as I wrote about that very concept here and on google's usenet Indycar group several years ago. I've often wondered what would have happened if Tony George had done something similar for the initial IRL Indy 500 in 1996 instead of protecting 25 spots for IRL regulars. Racers need cash and while we will never know what might have happened if TG had offered more cha-ching for Indy back then, I will bet the current teams will be quite happy for the extra financial motivation if it happens. I'm not so sure they are going to be as happy about the new Fast 9 Pole Day format at Indy, but it should be a great show for the fans and television.

Speaking of New Castle, one of the best karting facilities around is located there just off of I-70. It is owned by former IRL driver Mark Dismore and the racing there is entertaining and highly competitive. They also offer fast rental karts so if you're coming to Indy this May, it's only about 30 minutes east of town so get out there and fill that need for speed. One of the great things about living here in the Indianapolis area is proximity to grassroots tracks like New Castle and Whiteland Raceway. But the best part is seeing people in racing. Just this week, I ran into Scott Dixon's father at the Marsh grocery in Zionsville. I saw Tim Cindric at the NCAA Final Four earlier this month. Where else do you have a chance to rub elbows with open wheel racing's personalities? In the past, I've run into Vitor Meira at Target, seen Tiago Monteiro jogging on the Monon trail, talked to Mike Conway and Tomas Sheckter at a Colts game, and had the opportunity to play basketball against and talk racing with AJ Foyt IV at La Fitness.

On top of Indy boasting the greatest race course in the world, lots of other tracks are close by. Short tracks like Eldora, Winchester and Salem are within a couple hours easy drive. Chicagoland Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Mid Ohio Sports Car Course and Michigan International are all with four hours by interstate. And Indiana is peppered with great dirt tracks from Lawrenceburg and Steve Kinser's home track in Bloomington down south to the Terre Haute "Action Track" out west and Gas City in the northeast. If you can't find some racing to enjoy in the Hoosier state, whether as a fan or participant, then you really aren't trying very hard, especially in May, where Anderson Speedway lines up 33 sprinters to run 500 laps on its quarter-mile high banks and O'Reilly Raceway Park runs midgets the night before the 500. And no, I'm not shilling for the chamber of commerce. To paraphrase a local tv ad for another product: "I don't want to sell tickets; I just love to go racing..."

See you at the track soon - but not soon enough.

Hunter-Reay Upsets Penske Juggernaut at Long Beach

The Indy Racing League continues to come up with "feel good" stories in 2010 as Ryan Hunter-Reay takes advantage of Will Power's gearbox glitch to snatch the Long Beach Grand Prix victory out of the Penske team's grasp. To top it off, RHR dedicated the win to his his recently deceased mother who passed away over the winter from cancer. On the weekend in Indianapolis where the Komen Race For The Cure event was held, I found this dedication especially poignant for a man who struggled mightily at Indy last year just to make the 500 for Vision, and who entered this season as an afterthought driver for Andretti Autosports apparently just because he had IZOD money. Anyone who has followed the IRL knows how quick RHR can be in the right equipment and now he's backed up his earlier strong road course finishes this year for Andretti with a front row starting spot and an opportunistic win in the most historic street circuit in America for open wheel racing.

It was a very unusual Long Beach event with some of the longest green flag running in memory and from the outset, it looked like the other great "feel good" story of the season was going to continue unabated for Will Power. I love the fact that these two drivers are showing the way, as even though Helio has one win to his credit, Power has been the dominant Penske driver so far this season. Who could have imagined before the season began that Hunter-Reay would upstage his Andretti teammates and now be in third in the season standings at this point? His nearest Andretti teammate is Tony Kanaan in ninth and he is even ahead of the powerhouse Target duo of Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

Speaking of Target Ganassi Racing, where have these guys been so far this season? Dixon found concrete at St. Petersburg but bounced back at Barber while Dario's team made a bad tire call at Brazil and his only TV time at Long Beach was when he was getting passed for 10th place by Mike Conway so these guys have been mysteriously erratic during this first quarter of the season where road racing has been featured. Now four oval tracks follow so it will be interesting to see how Dario and Dixie respond, with Kansas, Indy, Texas and Iowa up next to get the series just about halfway through this season. An early points lead like Will Power has today could easily evaporate with a single crash or DNF on the ovals, but you can bet that the Chipster will be kicking butt and taking names over the next eight weeks if the Target boys don't get their act together.

The other "feel good" story I love is Justin Wilson. I felt bad for him after Pink Lloyd slammed the door on him while Wilson was chasing Hunter-Reay yesterday, but if he had been a little more patient, Justin could easily have passed Alex at the end of the next straightaway. Evenso, Wilson finds himself fourth in the season standings for longtime IRL entrant Dreyer & Reinbold which is finally seeing some results worthy of their dedication, thanks to Wilson's obvious talent at the controls. He will win at least a race or two before this season is over and you can bet he will learn from this Long Beach incident. He took Dale Coyne's oft-maligned team to the promised land of victory lane last year and I'm sure he can do it again with D&R. Wilson is another guy who has had to bounce around Indycars since his champ car days, going from Newman Haas Lanigan as Graham Rahal's teammate two years ago in the first year of the IRL-Champ Car unification, to where he is now: a real threat on any road course. Let's hope Larry Curry can pull a rabbit out of the hat for Justin on the ovals this year and keep him up there as a championship contender.

Speaking of Rahal, one more "feel good" story is needed for May: he needs to land a ride for the rest of the season. Watching Long Beach yesterday on Versus, I had remarked to a friend that Graham's job for Sarah Fisher Racing was to bring the car home in one piece, as he was mired with the backmarkers and didn't seem to be making any headway. Not five minutes later, Graham gets taken out in a silly incident by Mario Romancini who "missed his braking marks" going into Turn 1 and stuffed Sarah's pretty yellow car into the tire barrier. Graham was none too happy as you can imagine and it was encouraging to hear him say they thought the tub might have been cracked sometime before the race since none of the adjustments they threw at the car the whole weekend made a lick of difference. If he can land somewhere in a strong team, he will be highly motivated to show well at Indy and the rest of the season.

Now it is on to Kansas and the teams have to change over to oval track trim for the next two months - away with the big nose wings and on with the stagger! Now it's time to go fast, turn left and take no prisoners. With a new Pole Day format for the Top 9 at Indy competing for extra points and cash, it should be a sight to behold. I can't wait to get my first whiff of ethanol for the season. See you in Turn One or Gasoline Alley in a few weeks.