Round 5: The 98th Indianapolis 500, 23 - 25 May, 2014

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 5: The 98th Indianapolis 500, 23 - 25 May, 2014

With P1 for the 500 starting tomorrow, it's time to start the 500 thread.

Sunday the 25th will see the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500. The Speedway was built in 1909, however the very first motorsport event to take place there was a motorcycle race, held on August 14, 1909, on the 2.5 mile oval track, consisting of a gravel-and-tar. Since the very first 500, May 30, 1911, the event has always been held on Memorial Day.

Some interesting facts:

The most victories by any driver is 4 and this is held jointly by:
A.J. Foyt - 1961, 1964, 1967, 1977.
Al Unser - 1970, 1971, 1978, 1987.
Rick Mears - 1979, 1984, 1988, 1991.

The team with the most victories is Penske, with 15:
1972 1979 1981 1984 1985
1987 1988 1991 1993 1994
2001 2002 2003 2006 2009

The driver/owner with the most vitories is, A.J. Foyt - 1964, 1967, 1977.

Out of the current crop of drivers, the driver with the most victories is Hélio Castroneves - 2001, 2002, 2009.

Track layout:



Length: 2.5 mi / 4.0 km
Turns: 4
Lap record: May 10, 1996. Arie Luyendyk, Reynard 96i-Cosworth, 00:37.616 seconds, 239.260 mph (385.052 kmh)

Last year's winner:
Tony Kanaan,
KV Racing Technology,
Dallara/Chevrolet.

Laps: 200
Distance: 500 Miles (805 km Km)
Race Time: 2:40:03.4181
Average Speed: 187.433 mph, fastest ever race.

TV Coverage:
ABC are televising the race, with the Green flag at 12:00pm ET.

[NaBUru38]

More statistics from the Indianapolis 500:

Active drivers with most top 5s:

Helio Castroneves - 6
Tony Kanaan - 6
Buddy Lazier - 5
Scott Dixon - 5
Marco Andretti - 4
Ryan Briscoe - 2

Active drivers with most top 10s:

Helio Castroneves - 11
Scott Dixon - 8
Tony Kanaan - 7
Buddy Lazier - 6
Marco Andretti - 5
Ed Carpenter - 3
Ryan Briscoe - 3
Justin Wilson - 3
Townsend Bell - 3

Hélio Castroneves is the only active drive with multiple pole positions (4).

Active drivers with most laps led:

Scott Dixon - 347
Tony Kanaan - 255
Helio Castroneves - 232
Juan Pablo Montoya - 167
Marco Andretti - 121
Ed Carpenter - 43
Takuma Sato - 31
Ryan Briscoe - 31

[bjohnsonsmith]

Excellent stuff!

[Teretonga]

Um BJ...
Don't want to embarrass you but....


Laps: 250
Distance: 500 Miles (253.375 Km)


250 laps?

The track is 2.5 miles so its 200 laps...
and 500 miles is 800 km is it not? A mile is 1.609 km, so more not less.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

Um BJ...
Don't want to embarrass you but....


Laps: 250
Distance: 500 Miles (253.375 Km)


250 laps?

The track is 2.5 miles so its 200 laps...
and 500 miles is 800 km is it not? A mile is 1.609 km, so more not less.

Oops!

[Formulahistory]

If there would be points like in F1 for the Indy-500 we had this all-time-top-20-guys:

Al Unser 244
AJ Foyt 221
Rick Mears 181
Wilbur Shaw 147
Gordon Johncock 143
Hélio Castroneves 135
Louis Meyer 135
Bobby Unser 133
Mauri Rose 129,5
Ted Horn 126
Mario Andretti 122
Al Unser jr. 121
Rodger Ward 117
Dan Wheldon 113
Scott Dixon 101
Tony Kanaan 99
Johnny Rutherford 99
Tom Sneva 99
Bobby Rahal 97
Jim Rathmann 97

[bjohnsonsmith]

P1 practice news.

http://www.indycar.com/News/2014/05/...e-for-Indy-500

[Teretonga]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Oops!

It did occur to me that you may have been agitating for, or promoting, a name change for the Indy 500....
250 laps would be 625 miles or approximately 1000km.....

So we could have called it the Indy 1000... but would it be twice as good?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Teretonga

It did occur to me that you may have been agitating for, or promoting, a name change for the Indy 500....
250 laps would be 625 miles or approximately 1000km.....

So we could have called it the Indy 1000... but would it be twice as good?

Haha no, though the Indy 1000 Ks might make an intersting addition to the WEC.

[NaBUru38]

The Penske drivers have been lapping at 222-223 mph in tow on Sunday.

Marco Andretti has clocked just shy of 221 mph today.

[bjohnsonsmith]

RH-R tops second practice.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113929

[JHamilton]

When do they turn the boost up?

[NaBUru38]

Friday?

[bjohnsonsmith]

Pagenaud fastest though rain 'stops play' at Indy.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113961

[Burp]

Qualifying explained.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvGZ2UkHmkE

[bjohnsonsmith]

Hinch is cleared to race. That's got to be good news.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113971

[bjohnsonsmith]

Castroneves tops Thursday practice.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113973

[bjohnsonsmith]

Ed Carpenter hits 230.522 mph on Fast Friday.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113985

[Burp]

any way to watch qualifying?

[icemachine]

Originally Posted by Burp

any way to watch qualifying?

Live stream from 11am-1pm EDT on Indycar.com, 4pm Qually live on ABC

[Stefvh]

there's no livestream for me...

[FordCosworthPanoz]

No live stream, but "live coverage" aka watching dots on a timing screen.

ABC showing so little of qualifying and it looks like rain may bite into some of that. Hopefully we actually see the Fast 9.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by FordCosworthPanoz

No live stream, but "live coverage" aka watching dots on a timing screen.

ABC showing so little of qualifying and it looks like rain may bite into some of that. Hopefully we actually see the Fast 9.

ABC will televise qualifications (1-3 p.m. ET), with www.watchespn.com providing additional coverage around the TV window. The IMS Radio Network broadcast can be heard on network affiliates, XM 209 and Sirius 213, on www.indycar.com in conjunction with Timing & Scoring and the INDYCAR 13 app.

http://www.indycar.com/News/2014/05/...500-qualifying

[NaBUru38]

Saturday four-lap times:

1. Ed Carpenter - 2'36.07
2. Carlos Muñoz - 2'36.20
3. Hélio Castroneves - 2'36.22
4. James Hinchcliffe - 2'36.24
5. Will Power - 2'36.30
6. Marco Andretti - 2'36.43
7. Simon Pagenaud - 2'36.47
8. Josef Newgarden - 2'36.49
9. JR Hildebrand - 2'36.50
10. Kurt Busch - 2'36.54
11. Ryan Hunter-Reay - 2'36.59
12. Jack Hawksworth - 2'36.64
13. Juan Pablo Montoya - 2'36.66
14. Justin Wilson - 2'36.78
15. Scott Dixon - 2'37.01
16. Mikhail Aleshin - 2'37.14
17. Ryan Briscoe - 2'37.32
18. Takuma Sato - 2'37.35
19. Charlie Kimball - 2'37.40
20. Graham Rahal - 2'37.43
21. Sage Karam - 2'37.44
22. Townsend Bell - 2'37.54
23. Tony Kanaan - 2'37.59
24. Sébastien Bourdais - 2'37.62
25. Pippa Mann - 2'37.64
26. Sebastián Saavedra - 2'37.69
27. Jacques Villeneuve - 2'37.77
28. James Davison - 2'37.79
29. Oriol Serviá - 2'37.87
30. Carlos Huertas - 2'37.90
31. Alex Tagliani - 2'38.02
32. Martin Plowman - 2'38.56
33. Buddy Lazier - 2'38.91

[bjohnsonsmith]

The schedule for Pole Day:

Group 1 (Positions 10-33) .... 11 a.m.
* All May 17 speeds/times are erased and positions 10-33 will re-qualify to determine starting position.
* Order will be the reverse of May 17 rankings.
* All entries will make one attempt.
* Lineup will be determined based on fastest four-lap average during the session.

Top Nine Shootout ... 2 p.m.
* The top nine entries will run in reverse order based on May 17 rankings.
* All entries will make one attempt.
* At the end of the session, the entries are ranked 1-9 based on their four-lap average during the session.

The order:
JR Hildebrand (230.027),
Josef Newgarden (230.033),
Simon Pagenaud (230.070),
Marco Andretti (230.134),
Will Power (230.323),
James Hinchcliffe (230.407),
Helio Castroneves (230.432),
Carlos Munoz (230.460),
Ed Carpenter (230.661).

"Everybody’s got one shot at it," Carpenter said. "It just comes down to the engineers and the drivers making the right decision, believing in it and going out a laying down four good ones."

http://www.indycar.com/News/2014/05/...le-Day-at-Indy